Central Asian Oil - renewing major US-Russian rivalry?
A dreamer would see harmony between Russia, the United States and China in a sensible exploitation of Central Asia's massive oil and gas and minerals. Unfortunately, the cold reality is that there is simply too much at stake for each country for this ever to happen.

We allowed and encouraged American corporations to do business with Saddam in the 1980s. That's how he got chemical and biological agents so he could use them in chemical and biological weapons. Here's the list of some of the stuff we sent him (according to a 1994 U.S. Senate report):

Washington has defended its decision to bar countries opposed to the Iraq war from bidding for prime reconstruction contracts worth $18.6bn.
More Jobs for the Boys? You can share the loot if you're our friend.

The doomsday scenario was laid out by Gen. Tommy Franks, the recently retired head of CentCom, in of all places the December edition of Cigar Aficionado magazine.
"What is the worst thing that can happen in our country?" Franks asked rhetorically. "Two steps. The first step would be a nexus between weapons of mass destruction . . . and terrorism." The second step would be "the western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."

St. Petersburg Times

"one who's committed to her faith but stands for universal values"
Additional articles by Haroon Siddiqui

Bring Halliburton home. Cancel the contracts. Ditch the deals. Rip up the rules. Those are just a few of the suggestions for slogans that could help unify the growing movement against the occupation of Iraq. So far, activist debates have focused on whether the demand should be for a complete withdrawal of troops, or for the United States to cede power to the United Nations.

....the dividing up of Iraq’s public sector businesses to wealthy American corporations,......

Americans have an enormous, often little known, connection to the ongoing and dangerous tragedy that is Israel and Palestine. As lives of the young and old are increasingly lost and devastated, due in part to short-sighted US policies, it is inevitable that these policies will endanger American lives as well. American citizens have the power to end this carnage.

The exercise cost $300m. And the number of weapons found? 0
Five months after the end of the war in Iraq, a CIA adviser has admitted that his 1,200-strong team of inspectors has discovered none of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

On September 16, Bush got his way when the US Senate voted to allow research into smaller nuclear weapons that could be used in battlefield situations. The so-called "bunker buster" mini-nukes would, in theory, be used to destroy command and control bunkers buried deep underground.

The industry regulator, which works independently of the Nuclear
Power Ministry, has also reported disquiet about the physical
safety of some nuclear facilities in Russia.

on the Senate floor, he said, "The tragedy is that our troops are paying with their lives because the administration failed to prepare a plan to win the peace."

New York Times

.......More

A former US military researcher tells Gay Alcorn of his crusade to expose the health risks of depleted-uranium weapons used in the Gulf wars.
Doug Rokke sits on the edge of his chair in a beige, could-be-anywhere hotel room in Carlton. He stares at you with an almost embarrassing intensity and is close to tears.
"It's lonely," he says slowly. "It's very lonely. I made a decision. I was given a job. I did my job. I learned something. I gave them an answer they didn't want. I became persona non grata. And the better parts of my life ended."

In the weeks leading up to the war on Iraq, TV screens across America were crowded with images of U.S. soldiers readying for upcoming battles with a crazed dictator who would stop at nothing. One clip after another showed U.S. soldiers racing to don $211 suits designed to protect them from the chemical and biological attacks they would surely suffer on the road to ousting Saddam Hussein.

Scientists debate depleted uranium weapons' possible contamination of Iraqi civilians