Ever the oilman, Mr. Bush thinks in terms of dollars per barrel. And, while listening to Ed Schultz today, he had more than one conservobot caller talk about how the rebuilding of Iraq should be paid for by Iraqi oil; that the war itself will be paid for by Iraqi oil.

"You can measure progress in terms of oil sold on the market..."

Dumb bastards.

To even think about harnessing that rich vein of black gold, you have to secure the infrastructure. If you can't pump it, pipe it, load it and ship it, it's all but worthless.

That infrastructure is... a target. Every wellhead, every pumping station, every remote section of pipe, every tanker truck and every tanker ship has a big bullseye painted on it's side.

Systems Disruption "consists of simple attacks (using ad hoc weapons) on critical nodes of infrastructure -- oil, gas, electricity, water, etc. These attacks, if properly targeted, can cause cascades of failure that sweep entire systems."

Look, they've got to believe that anything the new Iraqi government knows, at least one faction of violent actors also knows. After all, they only let the Prime Minister know that George was coming 'til five minutes before the meeting.

"Mr. Allawi, you will be meeting with the President of the United States in five minutes." "WHAT? Beard of the prophet, I'm not ready! I have no notes! I don't have an agenda! What the... Mr. President, it is so good to see you...")

They didn't tell him because some faction or other would have known within hours. They didn't tell him because if the wrong faction had the right information, they would have whacked Our Boy George if they had to sacrifice themselves in droves to do it. And if our security people believe they're capable of that, despite the undoubtedly formidable defensive ring around him, they're surely capable of blowing up a few bits of infrastructure.

"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing."