US Blames Attack on Iraq..I mean, Iran

September 16, 2019

Who can keep track. They’re all a bunch a dang mooslims anyway, right?

France 24 report below.

Posted by greenman3610
Filed in Crock of the Week

22 Comments »

22 Responses to “US Blames Attack on Iraq..I mean, Iran”

dumboldguy Says:

September 16, 2019 at 8:18 am
WashPost this AM says “Trump administration…” (read the demented but stable genius himself) “…is contemplating what U.S. officials characterize as a serious military response, although some in the Pentagon are urging restraint”.

He is waiting for the Saudis to tell us who “the culprit” is. Isn’t this a great way to run a country?

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- doldrom Says:
  
  September 16, 2019 at 10:59 am
  Yeah, let the guys who said Jamal Khashoggi left the embassy in Istanbul have the last say. They were even honest enough to admit that there was a misunderstanding by some low-level operatives. Almost as good as that cherry tree …
  
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earl Says:

September 16, 2019 at 9:11 am
Wow poor old planet Earth gets buckets of pollution yet again – and seriously, the Saudis have been bombing the manure out of Yemen (with weapons supplied by the Brits and USA and probably anyone else who can sell an arms deal) for nearly a decade now. It’s logical to assume that this is a response to that genocidal behaviour (or – dare I say it – even a “false flag” so that they – or someone – can blame Iraq – I mean Iran – and get the war they’ve been trying to trigger for decades already).
Anyway – rising oil prices will only drive more and more people to buy EVs – and then everyone can stop doing mass murder and ecocide, just to enrich the fossil fools & vile Saudi extremist gov’t.

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- jimbills Says:
  
  September 16, 2019 at 10:15 am
  Mmm. It’s too early to claim false flag, but the strike does two things – it provides an ease on oil prices to the OPEC countries (which were facing a massive oversupply lowering prices to unsustainable levels) and it provides a target of opportunity at Iran.
  
  On the oil glut, this is from two days ago:
  https://www.oilandgas360.com/opec-slides-closer-to-collapse-as-an-oil-glut-overpowers-the-oil-price/
  
  “Oil prices around their current level are already testing the finances of most Opec members who need a price close to $70 a barrel just to balance their budgets.”
  
  On people buying more EVs, maybe, but EV sales last month dropped last month:
  https://insideevs.com/news/363473/july-2019-ev-sales-recap/
  
  And to provide a scale, all US EV sales (including Tesla) in June (a better month than July) were a little under 38K. Ford F-150 sales alone in June were about 79K. We’re still talking decades before “everyone can stop doing mass murder and ecocide” at best, and the oil spike from the recent attack will be gone in a few months.
  
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  - jimbills Says:
    
    September 16, 2019 at 10:52 am
    Also, if this was a terrorist attack, it combines two elements in one: sophisticated technological abilities and extreme stupidity, as the Houthi rebels are likely to get bombed by the US, risk losing backing from Iran, and the attacks only help the Saudis in the medium run regarding the oil price.
    
    They might as well have just taped a “kick me” sign on their behind and handed the Saudis a billion dollars. The Saudis needed the oil price to break out of the $55-$65 range. Well, they got it, and they’ll have most of their production up within a month.
    
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  - J4Zonian Says:
    
    September 16, 2019 at 12:16 pm
    But it’s not at the end of the declining demand curve that everything happens. With divestment already reaching into the trillions, and common-sense divestiture due any time now, the oil industry is facing what the coal, gas and nuke industries are well into. Declining investment because of fear of stranded assets, declining demand demanding constant cutbacks in exploration and supply (just like this) and worse, unpredictable demand–decline on a shorter term long term scale than they’d like but with spikes and drops to mess with their minds constantly. More than half the coal and nuke facilities are already losing money, gas hasn’t been predictably profitable for years and mostly loses money, coal corporations are going bankrupt by the dozen.
    
    They’re depending more and more on what they claim to hate–government handouts, coming up with the most absurd excuses for them, like Trump and Perry kept trying. The mbillionaires will of course walk away with mbillions, but everyone else will be screwed by them in the process, and any progressive government will yank the subsidies out from under them.
    
    Car corporations are gaming the system to avoid undercutting their more profitable ICEVs, but at some point that won’t work any more and they’re likely to be left holding the bag, too. It’s very likely to be a monumentally fukdup mess all around, with hatred and recrimination galore, and the only thing that could avoid it is the last thing the fossil fools will ever allow–nationalizing the whole industry to coordinate an orderly collapse with its replacement by efficiency, electrification, wiser lives, and clean safe renewable energy.
    
    The whole system is a vomitous insane mash up of King of Hearts, Cuckoo’s Nest, Catches-22 through 36, with the least common denominator of the moral sensibility of Cersei and Joffrey Lannister.
    
    Reply
- rhymeswithgoalie Says:
  
  September 16, 2019 at 12:41 pm
  I think a “false flag” would involve Saudi Arabia killing a lot of their own people. People are easily replaced. They aren’t going to screw around with the goose that lays the golden eggs.
  
  Reply
  - jimbills Says:
    
    September 16, 2019 at 12:55 pm
    “They aren’t going to screw around with the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
    
    But, IF this was an inside job, and right now I’m not claiming it is, the damage was purely superficial, and it raised the oil price, so it really helped them. I’ve been hearing for years now how the Saudis need the oil price at $70 plus. So much of their yearly budget comes directly from oil, and they essentially pay off their citizens from that budget to keep them from revolting.
    
    Links:
    
    CNN from 9/10/19:
    https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/09/investing/saudi-oil-minister-prices/index.html
    
    Reuters earlier in the year:
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-economy-imf/saudi-arabia-would-need-oil-at-80-85-a-barrel-to-balance-budget-imf-official-idUSKCN1Q01N0
    
    Reply
    - andrewfez Says:
      
      September 17, 2019 at 1:52 pm
      Not an inside job: Saudis can get OPEC to reduce production anytime they want: They are the ones that have traditionally controlled supply in response to any discrete demand, and further have used that power to flood the market with supply in an attempt to take out competition, and restrict supply in the market to attempt to squeeze consumers. It’s not like they’re above just plainly turning the spigots up or down out of greed; they don’t need some excuse to do so.
      
      Reply
      - jimbills Says:
        
        September 17, 2019 at 3:30 pm
        I don’t disagree with your main point or the details. However, OPEC isn’t 100% in control of the oil price these days with the U.S. and Russian output up in recent years.
        
        They could certainly reduce their production, and have, to raise prices – but by how much? Very recent history suggests they’ve been close to losing control of the market.
        
        “It’s not like they’re above”
        
        I don’t think they’re above virtually anything to further their own interests – but yeah, an ‘inside job’ in this case would be an extreme and pretty insane scenario, and like I’ve implied or stated several times in this thread, it isn’t something I’d be willing to argue or personally believe. There’s no evidence for it other than they are likely to benefit from the prices in the medium run after the expenses of repair and lost production, and they would also benefit from the increased international scrutiny of Iran and/or the Houthis.
  - jimbills Says:
    
    September 16, 2019 at 12:56 pm
    WSJ earlier this month:
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/low-oil-prices-slam-saudi-economy-11567503002
    
    Saudi budget last year:
    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/saudi-arabia-2019-budget-announces-higher-spending.html
    
    If the attacks continue and are truly damaging (more so than a month of half production), then the false flag stuff is clearly just conspiracy.
    
    My main point, though, is that the Houthis appear to be idiots. They helped Saudi Arabia, and almost certainly greatly hurt themselves.
    
    Reply
    - jimbills Says:
      
      September 16, 2019 at 1:58 pm
      Just saw this, which answers the ‘inside job’ stuff to me in the negative:
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-attacks-reveal-oil-supply-142715098.html
      
      The prior attacks hadn’t hit my news radar, and the drone strikes are clearly part of a pattern by the Houthis. They also certainly have the motive to attack Saudi Arabia. Their strategy seems highly flawed to me, but maybe they’re just desperate.
      
      Reply
    - jimbills Says:
      
      September 17, 2019 at 11:01 am
      NYT has a paywall, but this is a very interesting article.
      
      Apparently, the evidence is highly suggestive that the recent attack far exceeds the capabilities of the previous attacks from the Houthis. It seems the attacks were not just drones, but missiles as well, and the Houthis haven’t had missiles or drones of that level of sophistication or range in the past. Additionally, the angle of attack (based on the sides of the tanks hit) suggests the attacks came from the western direction (nearly opposite of Iran, 90 degrees to Yemen, closer to Iraq, closer still to the Red Sea, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia itself, although they could have been set to alter course for intentional misdirection before the hits):
      
      Reply
Gingerbaker Says:

September 16, 2019 at 9:12 am

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- Gingerbaker Says:
  
  September 18, 2019 at 4:30 pm
  7 downvotes.
  
  OK, granted – there was no text in my reply.
  
  But the point of the post was, essentially, that Iran and Iraq are similar, and that indictment of Iran is like the bull**** indictment of Iraq by the Bush administration.
  
  Sorry, but that is baloney.
  
  Iran is run by extremist Islamist jihad fundamentalists who are about to get their hands on multiple hydrogen bombs. Who already sponsor terrorist murder all around the world. ( See the effing map?!?) Who have multiply expressed their intention to obliterate the US and Israel.
  
  This is an actual B-movie Islamist terrorist plot playing out in real time, and the consensus here is 7 downvotes?
  
  Are you all effing nuts? You really think this is not coming to our shores?
  
  Reply
  - dumboldguy Says:
    
    September 18, 2019 at 4:35 pm
    Those are not “real” down votes. It’s the phantom anal orifice who hacked WordPress to give you that many.
    
    Reply
    - Gingerbaker Says:
      
      September 18, 2019 at 5:01 pm
      The f***ers getting on my nerves. Thanks, DOG 🙂 :).
      
      Reply
doldrom Says:

September 16, 2019 at 10:23 am
It’s the Yemeni setting up Iran.

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doldrom Says:

September 16, 2019 at 10:25 am
Or the deep State afraid that Iran will slip Trump’s mind without Bolton to goad him.

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rhymeswithgoalie Says:

September 16, 2019 at 12:42 pm
US and Russian oil producers are happy, I’d bet.

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- dumboldguy Says:
  
  September 17, 2019 at 3:48 pm
  Gasoline prices rose overnight in my area from $2.20 /gal to $2.70 /gal. More price-gouging by the U.S. “producers”
  
  Reply
  - Sir Charles Says:
    
    September 18, 2019 at 7:12 pm
    There are 1.7 million active oil and gas wells in the US. That’s one well per 200 capita! But wells aren’t paying off at current prices. Frackers are surely rubbing their hands now.
    
    Honi soit qui mal y pense.
    
    Reply