ANALYSIS: IRAQ JUST WON THE INFORMATION WAR

Iraq just won the information war, when Trade Minister
Mohammed Mehdi Saleh told a solidarity conference in
Baghdad "Iraq's oil, nationalized by the president...
from the hands of the British and Americans in 1972...
will remain in the hands of this people and this leadership."

This quote is getting more mileage than anything Washington
can pump out of the "WagTheDog-Room" deep inside its Pentagon.

If you watch all the volleys being lobbed in both directions
with any kind of a neutral eye, it's like watching a pingpong
match. And it looks like Saddam Hussein might have won a
decisive victory.

Washington is busy trying to leak out the possibility that
Hussein can live in Belize, Costa Rica, Ireland and other
Tony Blair holdings if he wants to avert war. They sound
a little desperate trying to claim "Washington could fight
and win two wars at once if need be." They also work at
saying they've begun training in Vieques again, and they
obsess their hardest to avoid two issues. Linkage to
Israel and linkage to Oil.

Well, Hussein seems to have kicked Bush in the horseteeth
on this one. Or was that horse-kicked Bush in the teeth?
Yeah, that's it. Information is getting out. And the
Pentagon is trying desperately to spin it, respin it
and twist it any way they can; but this one doesn't seem
twistable. It's clear and it's concise.

The Iraqi people are going to fight to hold on to the
oil fields they believe they have the rights to because
they've lived on that land for as long as anyone can
remember.

This is a perfect model for Chiapas, Nigeria, Venezuela
and Black Mesa, Arizona.

No longer will the Untied States government be able to
trick a people into leaving their land, or forking over
precious resources for pennies a pound when the people
have become smart enough to say "you want our resources?
Pay us dearly."

And in Iraq's case, they're asking to be paid in the blood
of young men and women from the 50 states.