The Oil Pipeline

Some of you may have noticed a spirited debate going back and forth between Cool Blue and myself this weekend regarding Afghanistan and the oil pipeline we'd been trying to force in there before 9-11 and then - wow! lo and behold! who'd a thunk it? - of course, 9-11 happened and we decided Afghanistan was bad and we pushed in there and started building the pipeline.

Cool Blue is a bit more generous than I in thinking that we didn't want the pipeline but we helped provide it for the "good" of the Afghan people; history certainly shows (ha!) that we're very concerned about those poor Afghans (ha ha ha).

Here's an article following that up. But I'd point you to any number of books by scholars like Ahmid Rashid that outline how friends of the Bush Administration wanted that pipeline at ALL COSTS and how darned convenient going into Afghanistan was for allowing them to get it. I somehow doubt the country of Afghanistan will profit anywhere near as much as shareholders and owners of Unocal and company, not to mention this administration which comes from energy companies and will go back to them again if we're ever able to shed them.