more on US ready to seize Gulf oil in 1973

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2004 11:05:51 -0800
From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross () stapleton-gray com>
Subject: Re: [IP] US ready to seize Gulf oil in 1973
X-Sender: ross () stapleton-gray com
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com

At 07:35 AM 1/1/04, Dave Farber wrote:
> The United States considered using force to seize oilfields in the Middle 
> East during an oil embargo by Arab states in 1973, according to British 
> government documents just made public.
> ...
> The episode shows how the security of oil supplies is always at the 
> forefront of governments' planning

And eerily recalls the conclusion of "Three Days of the Condor:"
http://www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com/reviews/condor.htm

TURNER
Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?

HIGGINS
We have games, that's all. We play games. "What if...?" "How many
men...?" "What would it take...?" "Is there a cheaper way to destabilize a
regime?" That's what we're paid to do.

TURNER
So Atwood just took the games too seriously. He was really going to do
it, wasn't he? Supposing I hadn't stumbled on the plan? Say nobody
had?

HIGGINS
Different ball game. The fact is, there was nothing wrong with the plan.
Oh, the plan was alright. The plan woulda worked.
...


An interesting disclosure; I think that (1) such a policy of "rolling 
declassification" is, on balance, a healthy thing for a Democracy (and it's 
a shame that we've retreated from a more positive attitude toward 
declassification that had been advanced in the Clinton Administration, 
toward policies of "resist FOIA as a matter of course," etc.; and (2) the 
oil field news, coupled with the Bam tragedy, suggests a hook upon which 
one could hang a signficant policy change vis-a-vis the Middle East, in 
relations with Iran.

An imaginative approach to the last would be to convene a sort of "truth 
and reconciliation summit," which would put as the first agenda item an 
American apology for and explanation of the 1954 coup that installed the 
Shah (and an explanation of "we're sorry, your self-determination was a 
secondary consideration in our desire to check the Soviets, who were at 
least as aggressive as we in bludgeoning others into a protective 
perimeter" would be reasonable), before addressing the 1979 embassy 
takeover.  It's also worth noting such things as the 1988 Airbus shootdown 
(http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/july88crash.html) and support 
for Iraq in the Iran/Iraq War, on the other side of the balance from 
Iranian support for militant groups as proxy combatants in Lebanon and Israel.

But that resemblance to "Three Days of the Condor" really *is* spooky...

Ross
Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc.
http://www.stapleton-gray.com



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