The Oil Drum

26 comments on John Darnell, Bartlett's energy advisor

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bigfootvegan on October 7, 2005 - 8:02pm

you only need one leader, when that leader has a direct link to god.
from aljazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=9677

"Bush said God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan"
10/7/2005 9:00:00 PM GMT

Bush told two senior Palestinian officials that God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan

The U.S. President George W. Bush told two senior Palestinian officials that God gave him a personal message to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new BBC documentary.

Bush made the comments when he met Palestinian leader- then Foreign Minister - Mahmood Abbas and Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath at a summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in June 2003, the ministers told a BBC documentary series to be broadcast in Britain next week.

Bush also told the ministers that God ordered him to establish a Palestinian state.

Shaath, now the Palestinian Information Minister, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God.

"God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.

"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.

"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath.

Abbas, who attended the meeting too, also appears in the documentary series to recall how Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."

White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said Bush never made the claims, which he described as absurd.

The three-part TV series, "Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs", charts recent attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, from former U.S. President Bill Clinton's peace talks in 1999-2000 to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip this year.

The program interviews presidents and prime ministers, their generals and ministers, to reveal what happened behind closed doors as the peace talks collapsed and the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, grew.

The series is expected to be screened in Britain on October 10, 17 and 24

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RickD on October 7, 2005 - 8:18pm

What am I missing? What does this post have to with Peak Oil?

Thanks,
Rick

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SJMStrategy on October 8, 2005 - 2:37am

Rick

There are two things that are important here - if "God" is telling Bush what to do in the middle east, where it just so happens the majority of accessible oil reserves are, then "Houston, we have a problem".

Further, while not well known in the mainstream, a key component of the Israili/Palestinian conflict is control over water resources which is a scarce and strategic resource in the region. This gives us a glimpse of what can happen in the fight to control scarce resources: in PO scenarios, oil becomes increasingly scarce.

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bigfootvegan on October 8, 2005 - 4:48am

billyt asked "what are the highest levels of government doing about it"

This idea seems to come out time and time again, some sort of "they wouldn't allow it", or "they will sort it out" a sense of some higher group sorting or creating the problems.

so the bush article is/was a warning to all those who follow a hierarchially structured society..

we cant wait for leaders to sort it out, they wont, it is up to us to sort it