Split the Country and Steal the Oil

With our nation, along with others, currently making efforts to cease the chaos in Libya, there is much speculation about our intentions. The blog entry that I chose, written by Mike Whitney, is based on the U.S.,particularly the Obama Administration, and how our government is masterminding a plan to control another arab country and steal their oil. To read the full blog entry click here. The author does make some good points and although some are backed up with credible sources, I believe the focus of this blog has been lost, as it sounds as though it is a conspiracy theory. He writes that the U.S. had planned to replace Gaddafi with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, restructure their government to a democratic one, allow Egypt to supply weapons to Libya's opposition,  and ultimately split up Libya's most economical eastern provence so that we may steal their oil.


First of all, of course there is a plan for a replacement leader in place following the end of Gaddafi's rule, otherwise, it would just be another chaotic and lawless country like Somalia. I feel that our government wasn't conspiring these actions, but rather thinking 3 steps ahead. Pretty smart if you ask me. The author also negatively portrays Jalil as our democracy puppet and insults him for wanting to lead Libya into a democratic nation. Why wouldn't people want this? The citizens of these countries that are revolting want liberty and not be oppressed by the tyranny of these long reigning leaders. I thoroughly criticize the author's views on this.  The statement about our government giving Egypt the "green light" on supplying the opposition with weapons is factual. I think that the Lybian rebels should be able to protect themselves. This is a Revolution, much the same as our own country went through with the British. As far as the U.S. intending to steal oil, there is no factual evidence that this will ever happen. If I had a quarter for every time someone said that our intentions for invading Iraq was for the oil, I wouldn't need a college education.


Overall, Mike Whitney has written a story with factual events and an occasional source, however, I believe his personal views have twisted the focus of the facts into conspiracy. I feel that I could take the same sources and facts and set a new tone to turn this blog entry into a completely different outlook. Whatever we can do to spread democracy will make for positive achievements.  Even at the cost of a little oil. Just kidding!




RESOURCES
The Smirking Chimp(http://www.smirkingchimp.com/) Obama's Serbia-Solution for Libya;"Split the country and steal the oil,  March 20, 2011 by Mike Whitney,   web  March 21, 2011