That's not a knife ...

 .. This is a knife[1].

For this theme, substitute 'disaster' for 'knife.'

In other words, I'm about to describe what an ultimate[2] disaster *really* looks like...

-=*=-

From a chat with a friend:

(Rhetorical) Q: ... we talked earlier of 'turning the question around.'

i.e. in this case, what was the real *intent* in invading Iraq?

A: We do know about #1: oil theft. It's simply too obvious to argue; it's like asking Q: Why do crims try to rob banks? A: because that's where the money is. But look here: Rove going from Iraq to Israel via oil, 9/11 & Al Qaida, all used in a (swinish!) attempt to *smack* at Obama (thanks Bob; g'day).

And then there's "He tried to kill my dad!"

Israel, of course; and M-W's Lobby. Actually better named: the I/J/Z-mafia.

The Pentagon wants bases everywhere, to *oppress* as widely as it can; so much for 'defense.'

For all the GWBush ineptness, for all the evil of Cheney, for all the 'shit happens' Rumsfeld and the poorly-lying 'Mushroom cloud' Rice et al., this:

Ch#1; Laying Plans: explores the five key elements that define competitive position (mission, climate, ground, leadership, and methods) and how to evaluate your competitive strengths against your competition.
Ch#2; Waging War: explains the economic nature of competition and how success requires making winning pay, which in turn, requires limiting the cost of competition and conflict.
[wiki/Sun Tzu]

Ch#1 was the 'cake-walk.' There was never gunna be much if any 'competition' from Saddam. That intel was 'easy' - and, despite all the WMD lies: *they knew that*.

BUT: Ch#2 mentions 'making winning pay.'

(Note: There is some discussion about the way the war was carried out; this contrasts with whether any war was justified. GWBush&Co used the (discredited!) WMD 'excuse,' but the sub-text propaganda used the "Muslims are terrorists" meme, even though the Iraqi regime was secular and Saddam had no terrorist connection. This serves to illustrate the magnitude of the lie that the US (& other) sheople® lapped up.
Simple inspection/reflection reveals an aggressive invasion followed by a brutal occupation, all premised on eventual oil-theft - with, also as noted, a racist/religious sub-theme; how odd of G*d to bury US' oil under Muslim/Arab sands? And not just BTW, the (corrupted, discredited) UN's Annan concluded "Illegal." Any other questions?)

But any 'failure' was not Bush&Co's bungle, it was both *systemic* and *systematic*. So, how did they get it so wrong?

OR: Is it so wrong? Oil companies, war-profiteer cronies (Halliburton et al.) all getting sickeningly, gluttonously, obesely rich - off carrion. Pentagon gets its bases, and its 'eternal war' as a career-boosting 'plus.'

But#2: It really looks like they could break the US economy.

But#3: Even if not But#2, the US' reputation is shot -
  (Wake up little Susie, Wake up...[3])

And that, my little chickadees, is THE DISASTER.

(With an even bigger one to come...
  CO2, anyone? Cough, cough. SUVs? Fat 4WDs?)

The US is morally bankrupt, as is Israel. They lie, they cheat, they steal and they murder. The US, together with the M-W (5th column!) Israel Lobby plus Israel itself makes USrael - partners in the most ghastly of crimes. (Bet you've heard all this somewhere before...) It's not about Bush (he plays a part), it's not about the Repugs or Dummos (they're sell-out puppets - when not worse), it's not about the Harvard Business School (for sharks), it's not about Hollywood nor Madison Ave. - Oh, no! It is about all of them, including the US & Israeli sheople too - because it's all about their collective immorality and criminality - that, on the scale of Nuremberg.

No component (effectively) resists - the anti-wars have no voice - can have no voice, since their 'democracy' is buggered. Both 'sides' of politics have "All options on the table!" - vis-à-vis Iran, say. No (real) choice, no (real) democracy. Presidents come and president go, still off to war they sail and fly - not to 'democratise' (what a sick (non!) joke), but to loot.
Anyone (who can think) can look, see and work it all out.

And the true, ultimate disaster is that apart from no honour, there's no way out.

-=*end*=-

PS Q: Can we put it down to arrogance/hubris?

A: Yes, but worse. A society that can set out to murder for spoil (100s of 1000s if not 1mio+ Iraqis slaughtered) is not just arrogant, not simply hubristic, it is pathological, i.e. sick, criminal and evil.

-=*=-

Addendum: This post contains serious allegations; a naïve observer stumbling upon this post may be shocked and request proof. Well, any such observer would have to have been sleeping or otherwise elsewhere for the last 60 years or so to have missed 'the story' - or perhaps had 'trusted' the (venal!) MSM for almost all of his/her info.

1. The US with roughly 5% of the world's population consumes roughly 25% of the world's resources, for air-travel they gobble roughly 50% of the world's 'revenue tonne kilometres'. This situation arose neither by accident nor from fair trade; the US is an imperial power and exercises confiscatory resource rip-offs. Proof of this is easy to see with the 'naked eye;' Australia for example 'nets' hardly more than a miserable 30% of any 'resource-boom' profit left after all (inflated!) expenses and other (tax-accountant fiddled!) deductions. Shareholders (diffuse: local or o/s?) get any left after the obscenely massive remunerations trousered by the upper-management. This system is termed 'trickle-down,' and the trickle has as good as dried up.

2. The US has a military presence with many hundreds of 'bases' spread around the world. Germany and Japan remain essentially occupied. From and via these bases the Pentagon projects its (coercive!) power.

3. As Germany and Japan, Iraq is now occupied - for the latter, with the clear intent of alienating (stealing!) - even if only 'control' of Iraq's 'patrimony,' aka its oil.

4. Along with the US' illegitimate sprog Israel similarly occupying land not theirs, the combined entity USrael (as noted above) is seen to be criminal; aggressive invasion (2003 Iraq by the US (Iran possibly next), 2006 Lebanon now Gaza by Israel) being the ultimate crime à la Nuremberg.

5. Also as noted, these facts are remarked by their absence in the (corrupt!) MSM 'news-stream;' this also is by design. If the sheople of the so-called democracies (US, UK, Aus & Israel) do not wake up and take charge, the world will go down the tubes; our once jewel-like planet will figuratively, almost literally 'crash and burn' due to the threatening CO2-induced climate changes, aka the greedastrophe®.

There are many books and online sources documenting all of this; several of which I've mentioned before. Books like Blum's "Killing Hope" and "Rogue State," Perkins' "Economic Hit Man" and a successor Hiatt's "Game as Old as Empire" then Klein's "Shock Doctrine," the story of US-inspired 'market' capitalism - and its (murdering!) rip-offs. A rough equivalent to Blum's lists can be found online here. (Whether complete or not, it really is a lot, and it all started long ago. Should that link not work (I like citing the apk site where I originally found it), try indopedia or whatreallyhappened). A new list of the vicious lies deployed by GWBush&Co is here, called False Pretenses. MotherJones also newly provides a list here called Lie by Lie: The Iraq War Timeline (thanks Craig; g'day). But basically daaarlings, the proof is all around us, one merely needs to dispense with the (lying!) MSM pushed-paradigm - to look, to see and to work it out for yourself.

Fazit: It's up to every voter to demand that their representatives actually represent us, we the sheople - to stop the lies, to right the wrongs, and to rescue our future.

-=*=-

PPS (new) Since drafting this, I came upon an old article in the SMH, courtesy of ICH:

«Oil wars Pentagon's policy since 1999
By Ritt Goldstein
May 20 2003

A top-level United States policy document has emerged that explicitly confirms the Defence Department's readiness to fight an oil war.
...
Oil conflicts over production facilities and transport routes, particularly in the Persian Gulf and Caspian regions, are specifically envisaged.
...
According to the report, national security depends on successful engagement in the global economy, so national defence no longer means protecting the nation from military threats alone, but economic challenges, too.
...
The authors warn that if the great powers return to the 19th century approach of securing resources, of conquering resource suppliers, the world economy will suffer and world politics will become more tense.»
[smh via ICH]

Basically, it supports my entire 'ultimate disaster' scenario, the supposedly apolitical Pentagon going on the offensive, aka murder for spoil.

What hope can we ever have of stopping this disgustingly criminal behemoth?

Then a final Q: Why can't the US just buy oil, like everyone else has to?

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] Typical US street scene; enter mugger with switchblade...

Sue: "Mick, give him your wallet."
Mick: "What for?"
Sue: "He's got a knife."
Mick (brandishing his own weapon): "That's not a knife. This is a knife."
[Crocodile Dundee (1986) VHS+1hr17m45s]

[2] ultimate
—adj. 1 last or last possible, final. 2 fundamental, primary, basic (ultimate truths).
—n. 1 (prec. by the) best achievable or imaginable. 2 final or fundamental fact or principle.
 ultimately adv. [Latin ultimus last] [POD]

[3] «We’ve both been sound asleep, wake up, little Susie, and weep
The movie’s over, it’s four o’clock, and we’re in trouble deep
...
The movie wasn’t so hot, it didn’t have much of a plot
We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot...»
[Everly Brothers/Wake up!]