[Hoot Gibson]

I find it ironic that Barack Obama's reelection chances may hinge more on the timing of Israel's strike on Iran than anything else. I wonder if he regrets the disrespect that he has shown Netanyahu over the past three years.

There is no doubt that Israel would rather see Obama defeated this fall than not. Obama's policies in north Africa and the Middle East have created chaos and in Libya, Egypt, and Syria, and now they are threatening to plunge our country into another recession - one that Obama will not be able to blame on Bush.

[INDENT]

Oil price rise raises specter of global recession

(Reuters) - A jump in energy prices is jamming the slow-turning cogs of an economic recovery in the West, but that may be nothing compared to the economic shock an Israeli attack on Iran would cause.

Oil rose to a 10-month high above $125 a barrel Friday, prompting responses from policymakers around the world including U.S. President Barack Obama, watching U.S. gasoline prices follow crude to push toward $4 a gallon in an election year.

Europe may have more to fear as its fragile economic growth falters and Greece, Italy and Spain look for alternative sources to the crude they currently import from Iran, where an EU oil embargo, intended to make Iran abandon what the West fears are efforts to develop nuclear weapons, comes into force in June.

In euro terms, Brent crude rose to an all-time high of 93.60 euros this week, topping its 2008 record.

"The West's determination to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is coming at a price - a price that might include a second global recession triggered by an oil shock," said David Hufton from the oil brokerage PVM.

[/INDENT]

[vundy33]

I wouldn't say that this Administration's policy have created chaos in any of those countries...but I agree with you otherwise.

[Hoot Gibson]

At best, this administration was extremely naive thinking that whatever governments emerged from the "Arab Spring" would be better than the ones that they repaced - but I think that they knew better. IMO, this country has no business intervening in the internal affairs of another country unless it advances our own interests.

We pulled the rug from under Mubarek's government in Egypt, where we had a fairly reliable ally and where it was pretty predictable tht the Muslim Brotherhood wood fill the power vacuum that resulted. It was the same mistake that Carter made with Iran when he pressured Tehran to make "democratic reforms" that loosened his grip on power and led to his ouster.

In Libya, we backed a grooup of rebels who had no interest in creating a democracy. The result has been anarchy in place of a stable government that had been relatively benign toward us for the past few years.

Now, apparently we are going to make the same mistake in Syria, where Al Qaeda has been behind the bloodest attacks against the Syrian government. Sometimes, when an enemy is self-destructing, the best thing to do is stand buy and watch. Syria is ruled by thugs but Iran is the real villain and the real threat to our national security in Syria, and overthrowing the Assad government will not change that fact.

Meanwhile in Iran, which has a large population of pro-American people who were educated in our colleges, the pubic support for anti-government groups has been almost non-existent. I am sure that we are engaged in covert activities within Iran but our government should be condemning crackdowns on protesters there in a very public way.

[vundy33]

Also, wanna guess where there majority of Al-Qaeda come from? Syria, lol...and Syria was the main staging ground for them during the Iraq war. I hate what those people are going through, but we can't help them, we just can't. Their neighbors are more than capable of helping out...it's ridiculous that everyone looks at us when something like this happens, and then when we do help, they just end up using it against us.

[mrsportsfan]

I still don't understand how we ended up with a vice-president (Cheney) who was CEO of Halliburton and was conducting business with Sadam Hussein while they were under United States sanctions and was not prosecuted but gets to be one of the worst VP's of our Country's history? I am still waiting for that explanation.

[Hoot Gibson]

I still don't understand how we ended up with a vice-president (Cheney) who was CEO of Halliburton and was conducting business with Sadam Hussein while they were under United States sanctions and was not prosecuted but gets to be one of the worst VP's of our Country's history? I am still waiting for that explanation.

Maybe you will get your answers if you post your question in the Conspiracy Theories forum.

As for worst U.S. Vice Presidents, you can look under every historical rock and you will be hard pressed to find a worse VP than the bumbling idiot who will apparently once again be Obama's running mate this fall. I am still skeptical that Obama will not manufacture some excuse to throw Biden under the bus before the election. An October substitution of Hillary for Slow Joe will come , as no shock to me. I am not sure which would be worse - a corrupt competent socialist or a total buffoon.

[mrsportsfan]

Most of oil price is day traders and fear of this and that. It is not actually very often a shortage of oil. The pipe line they want to run from Canada to the Gulf Coast to me is the biggest joke. Exxon uses their commercial about the jobs building it. Yes, for the time it takes, and then the thicker lining of their pockets begin. Just as at the end of the year, instead of the surplus helping drive down costs, they sell it off to other countries because of their taxes. There is no worse place for refineries than the golf coast. We should offer some breaks for taxes if they have surplus at the end of the year to help bring prices down, not drive it up. That oil is not staying in the US and until there are some ground rules set up about where that oil goes, until then I say that doesn't get constructed.

[mrsportsfan]

I don't see one suitable person running fit to run this country.