Saturday, August 05, 2006

life immitates art

gary hart has an interesting take on what he believes'll be dubya's attempt at the cliched "october surprise," esentially by redeploying the troops in iraq and calling it a withdrawal... not so much a surprise over here, but hart's tagline nonetheless amused:

It was all forecast years ago in the final scene of the movie Three Days of the Condor when the CIA official Higgins explains to the naive CIA research character portrayed by Robert Redford: "Of course it's about the oil. Do you think the American people care how we get it? They just want us to get it."

now i know i used three days of the condor as an analogy in a previous post, but i'll be damned if i can find it... awesome movie, by the by (cliff robertson plays the CIA official higgins, fyi)...

but there's another movie, a made-for-tv one, back in the 80s, starring rock hudson as the president, who has to go nuclear in response to a soviet invasion of alaska, which occurs because the russians are running low on oil... i remember thinking at the time what an outrage it'd be if we were invaded for reasons pertaining to oil...

oh wait, i googled it, the movie made in 1982... get this, it's called world war iii...

dunno how i'd've forgotten that...

2 comments:

Naahm Deplume said...

Disagree partially, mon frere. Bush will not withdraw troops if the Dems take the WH in 08. He will leave it for them to do so, hanging the "loss" in Iraq on them.

But, to help out the party, he may hint, or even announce, a drawdown due to the "improved" security situation. Heck, you conspiracy theorists could argue that now with the redeployment to Baghdad (which leaves the hinterlands open for the towelheads to regroup).

Only if the GOP retains control will Bush start to actively withdraw in order to spare his successor some grief.

Spared said...

Ya... I have to agree with Mr. Feather. Iraq is a disaster and his pride won't allow him to take responsibility for it. So I also see the Dems being the bad cop in the picture, forced to take the adult role in all this, instead of the schoolyard bully we have now.

About the GOP keeping control... that's a pipe dream. About them beginning to actively withdraw, that's a joke. This war has financed thousands of college educations for already wealthy kids, bought third homes, and probably added a few zeroes to the bank accounts of people who could afford to lose a few.

If the GOP stays in office, this war will go on and on, building further on the idea that they inherited more capital from their win.