Here We Go Again -
Nigeria: More Dead Children
Editor
Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com
“Second zero was the moment in which (Brandon) Bryant's (Drone pilot) digital world collided with the real one in a village between Baghlan and Mazar-e-Sharif.
“Bryant saw a flash on the screen: the explosion. Parts of the building collapsed. The child had disappeared. Bryant had a sick feeling in his stomach.
"’Did we just kill a kid?’ he asked the man sitting next to him.
"’Yeah, I guess that was a kid,’ the pilot replied.
"’Was that a kid?’ they wrote into a chat window on the monitor.
“Then, someone they didn't know answered, someone sitting in a military command center somewhere in the world who had observed their attack. ‘No. That was a dog,’ the person wrote.
“They reviewed the scene on video. A dog on two legs?”
But that’s OK: In Iraq and Afghanistan our Department of Defense classified Enemy Combatants as any (discernible or not) male over the age of 12. So, the child Bryant blew in to oblivion was obviously a hell-bent terrorist.
Now, rather than just continuing our failed missions in Afghanistan and Iraq we’re adding Nigeria to the mix, as well.
Why might we do that? Oil, once again. Using the same manufactured reasoning as before, Nigeria’s border to Mali represents a threshold over which Mali’s Al Qaeda Islamic Extremists will cross into neighboring Nigeria and wreak havoc with Nigeria’s hitherto peaceful citizens, converting them all to frothing Terrorists, whose secret thoughts involve blowing up a Wal-Mart in Duluth.
Does it matter that 33% of Nigeria’s vast Oil export business is directed to the United States? Does the fact that Nigeria’s very unpopular, yet Western-friendly president whose name belies any iota of Egalitarianism, Goodluck Jonathan, suppresses the people of Nigeria through a systematic enslavement of poverty while the wallets of those who administrate the government bulge from Oil pay-offs by Shell, Exxon-Mobil and the usual suspects?
Nigeria’s Oil production for the last few years has been hampered by a series of attacks and hooliganism directed at the Oil companies that dominate the region. History is chock-full of examples where those who dominate international markets often and frequently recruit our military to defend them against those who wish to expand or better-control operations on foreign soil.
No one ought to forget (USMC) General Butler’s words, "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives…”
Nigeria is no different than Iraq was to Exxon-Mobil. We did not go to Iraq to unseat a lone, deranged president. We went there to make the Majnoon and West Qurna oil fields safe for Shell and Exxon-Mobil, after Hussein revoked Russia’s leases a few months earlier: These are just easily verifiable facts, people: Remove your heads from your asses.
Unfortunately, America is too consumed with Gun Control at the moment to pay any attention to what our President is doing. Do you think that’s a coincidence? Do you really think that President Obama or any member of Congress finds the loss of 20 children in Connecticut unsettling?
From the U S Energy Information Administration:
“Nigeria's hydrocarbon resources are the mainstay of the country's economy, but development of the oil and natural gas sectors is often constrained by instability in the Niger Delta.
“Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and has been a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) since 1971. In 2011, Nigeria produced about 2.53 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of total liquids, well below its oil production capacity of over 3 million bbl/d, due to production disruptions that have compromised portions of the country's oil for years (emphasis added). The Nigerian economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector, which accounts for over 95 percent of export earnings and about 40 percent of government revenues, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The oil industry is primarily located in the Niger Delta where it has been a source of conflict. Local groups seeking a share of the oil wealth often attack the oil infrastructure and staff, forcing companies to declare force majeure on oil shipments. At the same time, oil theft, commonly referred to as "bunkering," leads to pipeline damage that is often severe, causing loss of production, pollution, and forcing companies to shut-in production.
“Foreign companies operating in joint ventures (JVs) or production sharing contracts (PSCs) with the NNPC include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, Eni, Addax Petroleum (recently acquired by Sinopec of China), ConocoPhillips, Petrobras, StatoilHydro, and others.”
So, here we go again, just as in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan…Advisors then troops, only now we’ve added drones to the pot: stirring well we can expect many dead Nigerians, and a reduced loss of Clean, Wholesome, Christian Americans: Because in truth it always has been as Colonel Oliver said in the movie, Hotel Rwanda, when speaking about the lack of American involvement during the genocide of hundreds of thousands of innocent people caught in the cross-fire of hate:
“You’re not even a nigger…”