Recently in another thread, Z-dr repeated the mindless mantra of the misinformed, joining the ranks of Daschle's Ankle-Biting Dacshunds of Discord and Disinformation. According to the leftists, peace-at-any-price crowd, President Bush only wants to go after a regime change and disarmament of Saddam Hussein so he and his croneys can get their hands on the Iraq oil supply. According to that crowd, Russia and France are acting only from pure humanistic concerns about the horrors of war.

How the Hell would France know anything about fighting a war? They've never won one! As for the altruistic motivations of France and Russia, a few documented and well concealed facts present themselves that tend to cast a somewhat different light on the matter.

Under the United Nations Sanctions that limit Iraq to a Oil For Food and Medicine Program, Russia has managed to gain control of approximately 40% of the Iraqi oil production since the lifting of the original UN sanctions against Iraq imposed in 1991. The United States and a few other nations purchased approximately 1% each of the remainder of the oil Saddam was permitted to sell under the program, for a total of approximately 12% of Hussein's production. Russia has supplied less than 10% of the food or medicines provided to Iraq in return for that money. The United States has supplied approximately 34% of the food and medicines to the people of Iraq, most of that in the form of gifts and grants to the people of Iraq. Hussein doesn't like that because our contributions are actual food and medicines, not cash he can convert to more weapons.

Now let's look at our ungrateful, so-called "friends" in France... home of the odoriferous and cowardly. Let's not forget our "principled" American bashing friends the Germans either. France has deals with Iraq for nearly the same amount of Iraqi Oil as does Germany, absorbing the remaining 48% of Iraq's petroleum output. Rather than provide food or medicines, France and Germany each sell weapons systems and components to the Hussein dictatorship. In addition, they send "advisers" who help the Hussein power base to build and develop aggressive weapons he calls "defensive." They work through Syrian and other "cutouts" to smuggle prohibited materials to the Iraq weapons builders. The last four shipments of prohibited materials and items discovered en route to Iraq all originated in France or Germany.

In addition, France, Germany and Russia each have already signed deals in place worth BILLIONS OF DOLLARS if the restrictions are ever lifted from Iraq. One Russian deal alone that was recently threatened by Saddam is estimated to be worth over $600-million per year if it comes to fruition. The same goes for France and Germany. They have committed to agreements with Hussein worth BILLIONS OF DOLLARS if they can get the trade embargoes lifted from Iraq.

Let's not forget some other key facts you won't ever be told by Martin Sheen, Janeane Garafolo, Ed Asner, Mike Farrell, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Barbara Stressand, Richard Gere, Danny Glover or any of that crowd. They won't tell you because it makes them look and sound like the mindless, ill-informed, misguided idiots they really are and those facts expose pure and simple financial greed as the basis of the Russian, German and French positions.

Should Husssein's regime finally be ousted, the Russians can kiss over $8-BILLION in past debt from Iraq goodbye. They are well aware that money won't be forthcoming from any regime that supplants Hussein. The same can be said for the $6.5-BILLION owed to France by Hussein and the $5.9-BILLION owed to Germany. Their chances of collecting those debts go below zero if Hussein is ousted. They have no chance of controlling Iraq's oil output if Hussein assumes room temperature, as he ought to do. They have a lot to lose if Hussein goes, not to mention their alignment with Arab nations intent on the destruction of Israel. That's a lot of political capital down the drain, especially if a democratic form of government takes hold in post-Hussein Iraq.

Yes, it IS all about oil and money, but - as usual - the blame-America first crowd have it bass ackwards. Russia, France and Germany want control of Iraq's oil. That is why they really oppose toppling a petty dictator with a proven record of human rights abuses and use of WMD, even against his own people. President Bush and his people have said it repeatedly and unequivocally... Iraq's oil is for the people of Iraq. We - the United States of America and Great Britain - have absolutely no desire to steal it or even violate their rights to it.

The sources for this information I have presented here are fairly respected ones. They are Reuters, Newsweek, the Nation, the New Republic, the Brookings Institute, AP, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and MSNBC. Of course, Fox News, CNN and others had this information as well, but I don't wish to have another episode of someone claiming the only sources I ever consult are "conservative right wing" sources of rhetoric.

It takes effort to dig out this information because the data is seldom presented in one place. An interested person must read the entirety of many articles in which tidbits of the intelligence are exposed in a way intended to make them appear more benign than they truly are. Only when one starts putting all these minor bits of information together can one see the overall landscape.

Do you think any of this will ever be acknowledged by the America-haters and partisian political cheerleaders of the left? Does anyone believe that someone who spews mindless, provably wrong bile and venomous insults against American leaders would ever acknowledge and accept these realities and consider revamping his or her arguments? If you do, I have some highly unique desert sand to sell you for you will obviously buy anything.