I usually don't comment on my cartoons apart from pointing out they are crass and infantile... Thought I must say I thought the cartoon above was one of my finest... Recycling as usual a lot of bits from here and there, buried in the sludge of old files and stuffs, I think it expresses in simple terms the stupidity of someone in the depth of departmental irrelevance devising a new style of US defence forces that would tread on the globe lightly as if they were not there. I can see it already, the US mounted army abandoning Sherman tanks that guzzle 15 gallons of whatever per mile being replaced by two men armored bicycles. Stealth bombers would be replaced by seagulls fully loaded with guano in the cloaca and USS navy ships would sail under spinnaker, following the old trade-winds routes thus avoiding any conflicts in the equatorial doldrums... In order to reduce global warming from grenades and rockets, these would be replaced by water bombs and blow pipes. Guns, cannons et all would be replaced by bows and arrows of various sizes, avoiding the Leonardo da Vinci machines that do not work... Yes, under these brave fuel saving conditions, the world would be a safer place.

From Al Jazeera

UN warning on sustainable biofuels          

The United Nations has announced guidelines aimed at tackling the rapidly growing bioenergy industry, which it says may threaten the availability of adequate food supplies.
 
UN-Energy, which was created to promote global consistency on energy matters, released its report, Sustainable Energy: a Framework for Decision Makers, on Wednesday.
   
It said the developing biofuel industries could provide clean energy services to millions of people who currently lack them, while generating income and creating jobs in poorer areas of the world.
 
However, it said production could particularly hit the poor, who spend more of their income on food.

UN-Energy said: "The rapid growth in first-generation liquid biofuels production will raise agricultural commodity prices and could have negative economic and social effects, particularly on the poor who spend a large share of income on food." 

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Gus: Biofuel — more or less carbon neutral if we exclude the planting, the harvesting processes and the production of nitrates and other fertilisers — demands a lot of land, either presently dedicated to food supply or lands still existing as "natural" environment... As well the pressures to go GM for biofuel could be strong. Thus the need for important regulation of the new industry and protection of the environment are essential. It would be a sad earth if it lost its "naturality" in favor of GM beans-for-gas... We need to be more thrifty with our energy expenditure, including by reducing world population... 

Oil for War

From the American Conservative

After invading one of the most petroleum-rich countries on earth, the U.S. military is running on empty.

by Robert Bryce

Napoleon famously said that an army marches on its stomach. That may have been true for his 19th-century force. But the modern American military runs on jet fuel—and lots of it.

Today the average American G.I. in Iraq uses about 20.5 gallons of fuel every day, more than double the daily volume consumed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2004. Thus, in order to secure the third-richest country on the planet, the U.S. military is burning enormous quantities of petroleum. And nearly every drop of that fuel is imported into Iraq. These massive fuel requirements—just over 3 million gallons per day for Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Energy Support Center—are a key reason for the soaring cost of the war effort.

Controlling Iraq’s oil has historically been a vital factor in America’s involvement in Iraq and was always a crucial element of the Bush administration’s plans for the post-Saddam era. Of course, that’s not how the war was sold to the American people. A few months before the invasion, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared that the looming war had “nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.” The war was necessary, its planners claimed, because Saddam Hussein supported terrorism and, left unchecked, he would unleash weapons of mass destruction on the West.

Nevertheless, oil was the foremost strategic focus for the U.S. military in Iraq. The first objectives of the invading forces included the capture of key Iraqi oil terminals and oilfields. On March 20, 2003, Navy SEALs engaged in the first combat of the war when they launched a surprise invasion of the Mina al-Bakr and Khor al-Amaya oil loading terminals in the Persian Gulf. A few hours later, Marine Lt. Therral Childers became the first U.S. soldier to die in combat in the invasion when he was killed fighting for control of the Rumaylah oil field in southern Iraq.

Oil was also the first objective when U.S. forces reached Baghdad on April 8. Although the National Library of Iraq, the National Archives, and the National Museum of Antiquities were all looted and in some cases burned, the oil ministry building was barely damaged. That’s because a detachment of American soldiers and a half-dozen assault vehicles were assigned to guard the ministry and its records.

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Gus: see toon at top. 

Rummy Ducky, my hero....

Donald Rumsfeld is a quiet master genius. For those who do not understand the way the game of Plunder is played, I will explain:

The Pentagon does not plan three or five years ahead. The boffins there plan at least for 50 years hence. Presidents come and go. The Pentagon plots the course. It makes sure US citizens are looked after — in protection and supplies to the proportion of 4 to 1 compared to the rest of the world. The Defense Secretary, planner of wars is the real Commander-in-Chief. The President is the medal-pinner...

Money men play on a different field than that of the Pentagon. It's day-to-day grab-what-you-can sorta stuff: daylight robbery. Nothing new.

The neo-con power-men (and women with balls) on both sides of the US spectrum play the moral fiddle in public and the Plunder game in the back room, against the rest of the world. They know you cannot have it all, but grab most of it. It's poker-face mastery. The game is not to appear doing it while doing it — unlike the wedges fudgers of the financial markets...

Back then, Rummy Ducky is given a fantastic brief by the inner sanctum of the US secret chiefs of which he is member.
Question: How to supply the US with more "cheap" oil?

See, the neo-cons know that oil is running out. They know there is going to be an "Oil Crisis" in a few years time, and this is 2001 — say even 1997 when the "whatever for the New Century" was created. But the deep roots go back way back... You know what I mean. We all know about peak oil more or less but, instead of finding alternative energy, the chiefs want to carry on with more SUVs. They need to secure oil beyond the Saudis' greed or the loonies from the south of Mexico. They've got Canada in the pocket but that's not enough. We need to think a hundred years from now and bugger that "climate change" bizzo mostly related to sun spots... We'll deal with that when there is no oil to pump anymore. Then the American geniuses would have created — and the American marketing machine would be selling to the rest of the world at a high price — some new energy device that works on pumpkin skins or nose snort. But back to the real world.

Answer: the oil in Iraq for the term of its natural pumping life is tempting. It could be the solution... It will be the clever solution...

The next important step is to develop a strategy to do it without too much ire from your friends you're going to steal from...

Meanwhile, we know that Saddam is ripening in the sun trying to make some dosh on the side by supporting the Euro rather than the dollar. The fool. Things are gelling fine for the "fuming" Neo-cons... It gives then the impetus...

Rumsfeld grand plan is hatched as he works standing up:

Item one: Paint the man blacker than black to create a immediacy of crisis. 9/11 comes marvellously at the right time to dump Saddam in the bin with Bin Laden...

Item two: one's need to appear disinterested in the "loot" otherwise the public would not give sufficient support to a "war for oil". The WMDs charade is easily invented and the media laps it up... Wonderful!!! Now, enough Americans are in favor of war.

Item three: the rest of the world is not convinced, but all you need to do is to bag the French and suddenly Bush is more popular than chocolate pudding. Powell does his PowerPoint presentation to the UN and tells the inspecting Blix brigades to get out of Iraq. Saddam delivers his WMDs destruction dossiers but the US Defense Secretary dismiss these as a cunning ploy despite the veracity of the 10,000 pages. The Media laps it up. Psychology studies would show that the media and the majority of people want blood. "Enough pussyfooting" Jesus or Barabas? Jesus!... The mission is accomplished before action begins. Ducky is like a cat with the cream...

Item four: the "invasion" needs to be set up to last at least 50 years minimum.
Thus some criteria needs to be filled: necessity of at least 50,000 troops staying permanently in Iraq, without the people complaining too much about this deliberate act of possession after the act of "liberation" which is an act of full aggression. Thus it has to appear as a necessity.
a) For example as a necessity to "stop a civil war",
B) as a necessity to "defeat terrorism" (which will never happen thus it's an open ended commitment),
C) as a necessity to "help rebuild Iraq" (a project that can last as long as you wish),
D) as a necessity to "protect Iraq from Iran" (a laugh a minute considering that 60 per cent of Iraqis are of the same religious beliefs as the Iranians and more inclined to go with Iran than the US)...
You with me?

Thus Donald has the task to create an illegal invasion and an illegal occupation while making sure the US maintains the high moral ground, for the next fifty years...

In his shoes what would you do?
Bring 250, 000 troops and beat the shit out Saddam's armies, solve the Iraqi government and internal bickering by taking the right democratic steps, not antagonising the former rulers but help promote an accord of forgiveness and co-operation between all the parties? Two years and your armies are out of there except for a few advisors? That's what you sell to the public... But you bloody well know that will bring you no loot...

or

You're economical with the troops and create a situation that requires your troops to be on the spot for another fifty years, no matter what?
Hence you need to under-strength your resources as not to fully control the situation without losing it. In a word you need to make sure there is a controllable pandemonium. For expert Chaos theorists like me, this is child play. You know that no matter what in the rough patches, there will be time at which you can surge through specific gates by manipulating the parameters to suit. Public perception thus needs to be massaged to believe you're doing your best, even if you appear to "goof". The routine is well rehearsed, well planned like a Marx Brothers repartee.

Thus you play the under-strength card, sold as a new "mobility" army, etc... Rummy calculates all the nitty gritty details, fine tunes the delicate balance of "mission accomplished but not finished" tactics.
So far after 5 years of Iraq occupation, there is still as many or more troops than during the "invasion" — this after many "promises of troop reduction. Brilliant...

And if Obama Baby tries to removes the troops? I'd bet, the situation will never improve such as to permit than less than 50,000 troops stay stationed — till the wells run dry. Most likely troops numbers might go down to 120,000, then go up again to 150,000 a few month after "pandemonium" takes over again...

Donald can sleep well at night. His job was superbly done. Despite having been removed from office too soon for a bit too much "pandemonium" in Iraq, as perceived by maddening-crowds, impatient with morality of war and mourning a few troops carking it in the process (much less personnel died in Iraq during 5 years than kids die in car accidents in the US per annum)...

The president though was deliriously happy with Rummy... But the historians will blast Ducky for not having solved the festering situation sooner...

But that was the point: Keeping the situation festering until the price of oil is gold while the Iraqi never become in charge of their oil and sign it over to US Private Enterprises in "agreement" which is more like desperation... Donald is a big man and can wear the chilly blast from mistaken historians. He knows that in his Machiavellian mind, "mission was accomplished" when he started to pen the future of Iraqi oil back then, way before the troops pummelled a restaurant in Baghdad, where he knew Saddam was not having dinner at all...

The point too is you know there won't be any "cheap" oil from then on... Ii only means the profits will surge through the roof... Grab as much oil as possible while the price is maintained as high as possible via threats to Iran. Sometimes you do it sometimes your Jewish mates do it. Result is the same... Brilliant!

My hat to you.

--------------------

Donald Rumsfeld, Back on the Podium

By Mike Nizza

As defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld distinguished himself at the podium, from the linguistic fabric he wove to his controversial musings about revolutionizing the military and his combative style with the press.

More than a year after resigning as Secretary of Defense and disappearing from the Washington limelight, he has resurfaced again, with all those tools deployed, for a speech at a conference titled “Network Centric Warfare 2008.”

According to a report in The Air Force Times, Mr. Rumsfeld began by presenting a well-known challenge for the United States in the language of a high school football coach:

Rumsfeld said the United States is “sitting on the sidelines” in a global battle of ideas. “We’re barely competing,” and for that reason we are losing, he said.

Islamic radicals are winning despite the fact that they blow up mosques, kill women and children and publicly behead their foes, Rumsfeld said.

Of course, my discourse above was motivated by an article published in the New York Times "Occupation Plans For Iraq faulted In Army History..." which talks about the Army's failure to  "secure Iraq". Blame General Franks and all is good in the goodest of the worlds...

All this Army meaculpa analysis fails to demonstrate the fact that the "faults" were carefully orchestrated by Rummy Ducky (see above) in order to prolong the misery of occupation and capture the loot of oil by desperation of the occupied...

On another subject involving new energies (see toon at top):

The texan oil baron and the winds of change

T Boone Pickens was the ultimate Texan oil tycoon. Then he saw the light: the green light. Now he's at the forefront of a revolution that has turned the Lone Star state into the US's biggest producer of wind power. And, he says, that's just the start

By Leonard Doyle [The Independent]

Everything is bigger in Texas, even the wind turbines. They stand twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades as wide as the wings on a jumbo jet. Each one can earn hundreds of dollars every year for landowners, a whole wind farm can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's hardly a surprise then that new turbines are popping at a rate of three to four a day. Texas and oil go together like hound dogs and huntin', as the saying goes, but the black stuff that made George Bush and many other oil men rich is now running out and something else is needed to keep the lights on. The state is already facing a shortfall in electrical power generation. From sneering at the country's green movement, (Mr Bush called Al Gore "Ozone Man" when he defeated him in 2000), pragmatic Texans have suddenly embraced wind power as the answer to their prayers.

Once known as America's oil patch, Texas now calls itself the nation's wind-power capital. Big Oil is turning into Big Wind.

October 12, 2008

Insider’s Projects Drained Missile-Defense Millions

By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON — They huddled in a quiet corner at the US Airways lounge at Ronald Reagan National Airport, sipping bottomless cups of coffee as they plotted to turn America’s missile defense program into a personal cash machine.

Michael Cantrell, an engineer at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., along with his deputy, Doug Ennis, had lined up millions of dollars from Congress for defense companies. Now, Mr. Cantrell decided, it was time to take a cut.

“The contractors are making a killing,” Mr. Cantrell recalled thinking at the meeting, in 2000. “The lobbyists are getting their fees, and the contractors and lobbyists are writing out campaign checks to the politicians. Everybody is making money here — except us.”

Within months, Mr. Cantrell began getting personal checks from contractors and later returned to the airport with Mr. Ennis to pick up a briefcase stuffed with $75,000. The two men eventually collected more than $1.6 million in kickbacks, through 2007, prompting them to plead guilty this year to corruption charges.

wander to the toon at top...

from Chris floyd

NATO, the "North Atlantic" treaty organization now fighting a slaughterous war in, er, Central Asia, is going green,setting up a new panel of heavy-duty worthies to pursue the strategic ramifications of global climate change. But as David Cronin reports in the Guardian, when militarists mull the ailments of Mother Earth, they aren't looking to mop the old lady's brow; they're trying to shake her down for every little bauble she's got left. The whole piece is worth reading, but here are some excerpts:

Over the past week a group appointed by the new Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen held its first meeting on how the "strategic concept" guiding the organisation's activities should be updated to take account of climate change and other key challenges.

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Read more of Chris Floyd, see toon at top and my comment about it here. and may I invite you too to read about Ducky...?

From the Guardian

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.

In particular they question the prediction in the last World Economic Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83m barrels a day to 105m barrels. External critics have frequently argued that this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and say the world has already passed its peak in oil production.

Now the "peak oil" theory is gaining support at the heart of the global energy establishment. "The IEA in 2005 was predicting oil supplies could rise as high as 120m barrels a day by 2030 although it was forced to reduce this gradually to 116m and then 105m last year," said the IEA source, who was unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals inside the industry. "The 120m figure always was nonsense but even today's number is much higher than can be justified and the IEA knows this.

"Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources," he added.

read more at the Guardian.

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see toon at top.

Iraq’s Ancient Ruins Face New Looting

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

DHAHIR, Iraq — The looting of Iraq’s ancient ruins is thriving again. This time it is not a result of the “stuff happens” chaos that followed the American invasion in 2003, but rather the bureaucratic indifference of Iraq’s newly sovereign government.

Thousands of archaeological sites — containing some of the oldest treasures of civilization — have been left unprotected, allowing what officials of Iraq’s antiquities board say is a resumption of brazenly illegal excavations, especially here in southern Iraq.

A new antiquities police force, created in 2008 to replace withdrawing American troops, was supposed to have more than 5,000 officers by now. It has 106, enough to protect their headquarters in an Ottoman-era mansion on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad and not much else.

“I am sitting behind my desk and I am protecting the sites,” the force’s commander, Brig. Gen. Najim Abdullah al-Khazali, said with exasperation. “With what? Words?”

The failure to staff and use the force — and the consequent looting — reflects a broader weakness in Iraq’s institutions of state and law as the American military steadily withdraws, leaving behind an uncertain legacy.

Many of Iraq’s ministries remain feeble, hampered by corruption, the uncertain divisions of power and resources and the political paralysis that has consumed the government before and after this year’s election.

In the case of Iraq’s ancient ruins, the cost has been the uncountable loss of artifacts from the civilizations of Mesopotamia, a history that Iraq’s leaders often evoke as part of the country’s once and, anticipating archaeological research and tourism, future greatness.

see toon at top and articles below it...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11482061

Militants in Pakistan have destroyed at least 40 tankers carrying fuel for Nato in two separate attacks, police say.

The first attack hit a depot near Quetta while the second set ablaze a convoy in Nowshera, in the north-west.

Attacks on tankers have soared since Pakistan shut one of the main routes into Afghanistan over the deaths of several soldiers in a Nato raid.

The US and Nato have apologised for the helicopter attack last week which killed at least two Pakistani soldiers.

Nato admitted two of its helicopters entered Pakistan on 30 September and killed two border guards, mistaking them for militants after they fired shots.

Pakistan says three soldiers were killed.

The attack infuriated public opinion in Pakistan and led to anti-Nato demonstrations.

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Gus: In the wake of the "third" bombing of tankers convoy by Taliban sympathisers in Pakistan, the US military is talking once more of "green power" for its war machine... See toon and story at top...

A US Navy plan to have half its fleet running on alternative fuels by the end of the decade may provide a boost to Australian producers.

Audio: US Navy turns to biofuels (AM)

 

US Navy officials are expected to outline the plans - which include sourcing fuel from Australian producers - at an international conference on biofuels and shipping in Sydney today.

Part of the plan includes having an entire fleet of warships - dubbed the "Great Green Fleet" - running on biofuels by 2016.

The deputy assistant secretary of energy for the US Navy, Tom Hicks, says alternative fuels have already powered some of the world's most advanced engines in some of the most challenging situations.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-31/us-navy-moves-to-biofuels/3801612

 

See toon at top...

Faced with little public understanding of its modern mission, the U.S. Navy is reaching back 200 years to the War of 1812 in the hopes of bolstering its standing with the American people.

This week it launches an ambitious, three-year commemoration to mark the bicentennial of the often overlooked [1812] war. Beginning Tuesday in New Orleans, and continuing through the summer in New York, Norfolk, Baltimore and Boston, tall ships and warships from around the world will parade through American ports.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/navy-turns-to-war-of-1812-for-help/2012/04/14/gIQAHcB7HT_story.html?hpid=z4

see toon at top...

 

 

 

Occurring due to a perfect storm of prices, technology, and opportunity, [the recent surge] in domestic [oil] production is substantial, and has profound positive implications for the domestic economy. … However, these benefits are tempered by the realities of the global oil market, especially in light of continued instability in oil-producing regions, and soaring demand from China, India, and other emerging markets. Most importantly, the paper examines the myth of “energy independence,” underlining that even dramatic increases in domestic production cannot fully insulate the country from the costs of oil dependence, such as high prices and continued volatility, capital flows overseas, and the burden to the military in securing global oil supplies. [Bold added.]

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/who-needs-war-for-oil/

See toon at top...

Nellis Air Force Base, in Nevada, is part of an initiative that aims to cut the US military's energy consumption, replacing some of the oil it uses with renewable fuels.

But the transition, which is mandated by federal law, is not without its critics.

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reports from Nevada.

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2012/12/20121210163949436595.html

 

See toon at top...

 

Rising number of soldiers being dismissed for failing fitness tests

 

By Ernesto Londoño, Tuesday, December 11, 4:26 AM

Under intense pressure to trim its budget, the Army is dismissing a rising number of soldiers who do not meet its fitness standards, drawing from a growing pool of troops grappling with obesity.

Obesity is now the leading cause of ineligibility for people who want to join the Army, according to military officials, who see expanding waistlines in the warrior corps as a national security concern.

Between 1998 and 2010, the number of active-duty military personnel deemed overweight or obese more than tripled. In 2010, 86,186 troops, or 5.3 percent of the force, received at least one clinical diagnosis as overweight or obese, according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.

The trend has prompted the military to reexamine its training programs and is driving commanders to weed out soldiers who are deemed unfit to fight.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rising-number-of-soldiers-being-dismissed-for-failing-fitness-tests/2012/12/08/13d2e444-40b8-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html

 

The Pentagon is bypassing Washington’s own sanctions against Russia as it continues to buy petroleum products made from its oil, which takes a circuitous route to a US military supplier despite an ongoing embargo, a Washington Post investigation revealed on Tuesday.

Petroleum products made from Russian oil have continued to flow via a key Pentagon fuel supplier, the Motor Oil Hellas refinery on the Aegean Sea in Greece. The vital fuel is sent from Russian Black Sea ports through an oil storage facility in Türkiye, the outlet said, citing ship-tracking data.

The route reportedly helped disguise the Russian origin of the oil products, as they “changed hands multiple times before they reached Greece.”

On paper, the Motor Oil Hellas refinery sourced fuel from the Dortyol shipping terminal in Türkiye.

Ship-tracking records and trade data revealed that since the EU and G7 sanctions on Russian petroleum products took effect this past February, Russian deliveries to Dortyol have totaled 2.7 million barrels, or more than 69% of the fuel oil shipped by sea.

“I don't see any other possible conclusion than Russian fuel is going to Motor Oil Hellas,” said Robert Auers, a refined fuels market analyst at the research firm RBN Energy, who confirmed WaPo’s findings.

 

At least five shipments from Russia to the Dortyol terminal this year were initially sent by Russian oil major Rosneft, according to the outlet. After being loaded onto tankers, each cargo was then purchased by a firm based in the United Arab Emirates, trading data showed.

The fuel is no longer marked as Russian when it arrives in Greece, where it is being refined and mixed into a supply purchased by the US military.

“The precise amount of Russian-origin fuel oil in the products the Pentagon purchases could not be determined. Those products are refined using multiple ingredients that cannot all be tracked through production,” the Washington Post noted.

Since the US embargo on Russian oil took effect in early March 2022, the Pentagon has inked nearly $1 billion worth of new contracts with Motor Oil Hellas, the outlet said, citing federal contracting data.

More than a million barrels of jet fuel have also been shipped from the Greek refinery to government and corporate buyers in Italy, France, Spain and the UK since the ban on Russian oil products was imposed in February, ship tracking records show.

https://www.rt.com/business/587320-pentagon-buying-russian-oil/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

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