GROUND ZERO, New York City, Mar. 5--In all the sword rattling issues of America's build up of military forces to invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein, little is heard about protecting Iraq's "Snakes Of Power."

       These "snakes" vermiculate through the sand and land like arteries in a human body, pumping the richness of the nation to the world.   The snake's body is 4,014 miles long.
         There are three parts to the snake.  One segment is 2,702 miles long, another 1,360 miles in length, and the final one, 467 miles.    The parts represent respectively the pipelines carrying crude oil, natural gas and petroleum from the womb of Iraq.
        Despite the lofty argument that America is fighting a war for the independence of the Iraqi people, and to depose a great Terrorist threat to the world, there is the nagging reality that Iraq is a fuel-based plethora of wealth, pumping through its arteries life-giving raw energy the world needs to keep its engines of industry churning efficiently.

    A major part of the French, Germanic and Russian opposition to a unilateral attack on Iraq by the U.S. includes their fear the U.S. will control these pipelines once the smoke has cleared and Saddam Hussein has been killed, captured or sent into exile.  
       War has it spoils, no matter who wages it.

       In the last war against Saddam Hussein, he set the fields of rich black gold afire in Kuwait--his way of denying spoils of war.

        In this war, American tactics will include guarding the 4,014 miles of "golden pipes" with the same ferocity that Saddam's Special Republican Guard will exercise in protecting their leader  from being rousted out of power after two decades of issuing edicts of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency upon his 24 million people.

       Controlling the pipelines will indeed be a prize the U.S. can hold up to the world as payment for unseating Hussein.  It is also the fly in the ointment.   The debate of "for whom the oil toils" forces the hackles to stand at attention on the necks of world leaders who don't want America to have anything to do with the distribution or management of such a rich resource.  They fear U.S. management would add, not subtract, to the power of the Red-White-And Blue.

        Then there is the budget deficit.    The cost of war to the U.S.  is estimated to run into hundreds of billions.  Estimates include up to $200 billion at one end, and $100 billion at the lower edge.  Roosting in the backs of war planner's minds is the thought that victory over the pipelines will more than pay for the cost of war, for the manager of the pipeline's riches will certainly have the edge on cutting the best deals.
         Real estate and what's on it plays a crucial part of any war.   Few can deny that Iraq's appeal is far more alluring than that of North Korea when it comes to conquest.   Driving Saddam out of power and installing an interim government with U.S. support includes, obviously, having our hand stuffed deep in Iraq's oil-rich cookie jar.   But, rousting Kim Jong Il out of power and taking over management of North Korea is not as enticing.  North Korea's real estate is shockingly poor, underdeveloped and would require a complete overhaul.
        Iraq, on the other hand, would simply require changing hands on the pipeline valve.
        So as American and British troops are planning to attack and hold certain strongholds, you can bet the pumping stations are key targets.   Special Ops teams will more than likely be assigned to each critical twist and turn of the pipelines, and be sent in to take them over in the first wave.

       To neglect the thousands of miles of pipelines would be irresponsible.   Ultimately, the bowels of Iraq from which the oil, petroleum and natural gas flow is the dowry of the Iraqi children--it is their ticket to prosperity once the region is stabilized.  It nags the question:  "For Who Does The Oil In Iraq Toil?"
         Currently, the Middle East is ruled by a single class--the rich--who scoop the wealth of their nations off the top and lavish it upon themselves while their people remain prisoners to an ancient way of life, deprived of their equal rights to the fruits of the soil.
          Arab leaders will not like the idea that the "Snakes Of Gold" will eventually be returned to the hands of the people if a democratic state is installed, and the principles of equality are dished out.    If Iraqi people start to prosper because the structure of the new leadership focuses on the Rights of The Children's Children's Children, then the sheik's powers across the Middle East will be threatened.

         "You mean that oil belongs to my children?"  will be a cry the rest of the Arab states will not want cried across Iraq's borders to their own.    They would prefer to keep the people thinking that the rich reserves belong to the state, and that since the state is controlled by the ruling families, the best the people can expect is a few alms tossed their way on occasion while the bulk of the wealth goes to Swiss bank accounts, or is used to fuel the palatial life style of the upper class, the privileged few who claim dominion over what belongs to the citizens.
          America has learned the lesson of trying to take the wealth from those it conquered.  Native Americans were once a most impoverished people, relegated to scrapping out a meager existence on tossed away land the U.S. gave them to sustain their cultures.    Few realize American Indian Nations are sovereign, and are free from most federal laws that limit a state.
         Thus, the gambling casinos.   On Indian land, in the heart of states prohibited to enjoy legalized gambling, casinos rivaling the glitter and pomp of Atlantic City and Las Vegas have sprouted up.   Once poor, many Native Americans now enjoy an endowment of wealth from the licensing of gaming on their land.

        It has taken nearly two centuries for the rights of the Indians to farm the wealth of the land to surface, but time favors those who possess the real estate.  
         In Iraq, America may become a temporary "favored nation" in the oil distribution arena post-war.   But as time marches forward, and a democracy of sorts befitting the culture of the Middle East rises out of the sand, the Voice of the people will soon cry for their fair share of the "black gold" currently used to sustain Saddam and to build weapons and might.
        If the legacy of the American Indian serves as any model to the future of Iraqi citizens, it means they will eventually gain control of Mother Earth's fruits, and quickly learn that resources are power, and that they have a right to those resources.
        More importantly, they will learn the earth belongs to their children, and their Children's Children's Children, and since that earth is rich, that those resources should flow downhill not uphill, and spill into the hands of the many rather than the few.
     

    Japan is another example of returning the land to the people.   After the war, America helped frame the Japanese Constitution.   It favored the democracy of wealth, providing each citizen rights over their leaders, and the ability to vote them in and out of office.
        Billions of dollars in aid went into the restructuring of Japan's economy, and helped it build and modernize its industry so that every square inch of the island nation became a highly productive machine, issuing wealth unrivaled in Asian nations to all the people.
      Japan has become one of the great trading partners with the United States, evidenced by the glut of Japanese manufactured vehicles Americans drive, as well as an advanced system of electronics and technology that offers both Japanese and American children better ways of life.
        It would be crass to assume that America's war in Iraq is singularly focused on the "spoils of oil."   Even though in the short-run America will benefit from managing the restructuring of Iraq--as it did when the Marshall Plan helped rebuild Europe or General Douglas Macarthur's efforts did in reshaping Japan's democracy--the hard truth is the long-range benefactors of any democratization of the land will flow not to the U.S. but to the Children's Children's Children of Iraq.  For whom will the spoils of war ultimately toil?  For the children.

        Funds from the oil will help Iraqi children be educated in their individual rights. They will learn over time that the oil, petroleum and natural gas sloshing in the womb of Mother Earth beneath them is their reward for centuries of subservience.   When they grasp that knowledge and clutch the conviction of generational rights, they will turn their natural resources into prosperity for their society, and fight for its preservation as fiercely as Saddam Hussein is currently cleaving to desperate despotic control over what fundamentally belongs to them.
       So when the dissenters trying to demean America's battle in the Middle East flog the American flag with cries:  "No War For Oil," they are really shouting:  "Let The Despots Control The Oil.  Let The People Of Iraq Suffer Their Rights Of Ownership."
      Were the myopic protestors to look down the pipeline, they would see it is a Pipeline of Vigilance.  They would see America as the Sentinels of Vigilance guarding these precious economic resources for the benefit of the Iraqi Children's Children's Children.
       If they squinted hard, they would see the Beast of Terror struggling  to control of the spigot, screaming wildly to the U.N. to not have its claws cut loose from the pumping stations that divert the "black gold" from the people's pockets to the Beast's pockets.  They would change their signs if they could see to:  "Saddam's Blood For The Children's Oil."   They would realize that Saddam has, for more than 23 years, practiced the art of "The Children's Blood For Oil!"   But what do protestors know but protestation?
       Hopefully, as the pressure mounts and the presence of the 101st Airborne Division and the other nearly 200,000 American troops standing by adds backbone to those tired of Saddam's rule, the people of Iraq will realize they are being plundered and will depose him before we have to.   But the odds of that are slim these days.
       Instead, we will probably have to conquer Iraq and then turn the land over to the future generations as we have in the past.  But before we pass the children the rights to the land, we will teach them the land belongs to them, and all its riches are their legacy. 

      We will not teach them that kings, sheiks, monarchs or despots are in charge of their future, or that any autocrat has the right to deprive them of their heritage or wealth.   Instead, we will teach them they are the Sentinels of Vigilance, and have a duty to guard their liberty and freedom as well as their real estate rights from the Beast of Terror's clutches, for he will surely rape the land as he has in the past..
        We will teach them that "For Whom The Oil Toils?," that it toils the children and their Children's Children's Children.
         And, if their history is written fairly, they will record that America did indeed fight the war in Iraq for oil, but not just for selfish, self-serving reasons, but ultimately for the children's future as a free and rich Nation of Vigilance.

Mar. 4--Screaming Eagles Of Vigilance