Date: 03 Sep 96 12:03:48 EDT
From: Jon Flanders <72763.2240-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Attack on Iraq


 >> ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkey will appeal to the United Nations and its
Western allies to reverse a U.N. decision to delay a $2 billion
 oil-for-food plan for Iraq after fighting in the country's Kurdish north,
 officials said Monday. <<

 >>LONDON (Reuter) - The price of jet fuel soared nearly $9 a ton to $239
 a ton Monday, its highest level in five years.
    A delay in Iraq's oil-for-food deal pushed the market sharply higher, but
dealers said underlying demand from airlines caught short of fuel had already
driven prices near record levels.<<


  The new attacks on Iraq look pretty problematic to me, from the standpoint
of the US ruling class winning over working class opinion.
 Unlike the massive mobilization for a limited goal that swept up most US
workers in a Support the Troops frenzy, this bit of empire managing has
hallmarks of quagmire written on it from the start.

  Hell, the Pentagon people lost me quick this morning when they started with
the maps and graphs.

  Here is the US attacking southern Iraq in retaliation for Iraqi support in
Northern Iraq for an anti-Iranian Kurdish faction to the distress of the
anti-kurdish, Islamist Turkish goverment which just made an major oil deal
with Hussein. And the desire to boost oil prices is patently transparent.

  I am really looking forward to the shop floor discussion of this as it
develops.



  E-mail from: Jonathan E. Flanders, 03-Sep-1996




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