Low budget Audis and Oil Wars

[Lawrence C Katzenstein <Lawrence.C.Katzenstein-1@tc.umn.edu>]

Hi:
   Enjoying my V8Q(finally), and the advice from the list. Great resource.
However, I still remain concerned about playing budget roulette with the
V8. Discussions that V8 engines are not rebuildable or slush boxes costing 
6k are really scary. There is a 91 20V 90Q at a local dealer for 12K. It
looks great. Would it be much cheaper to run than my V8 given the
resources of this list? Also, the Audi club mechanic here who examined my
car said that it runs well, but the bomb is just beginning to wear. The
brake light doesn't come on while the car is running, but only when pumped
several times when the car is standing still. At what mileage does the
bomb usually wear out?
   I find the argument on the causes of the Gulf War kind of misguided.
There were several motivations and oil was one. We were still stuck in a
very large deficit and trying to sell our goods abroad. Middle East oil
supplies both Japan and Europe. Even if we use Texas, Louisiana, Alaska,
Venezuelan, Mexican and Middle East oil, many of our trading partners do
not. Inflation in those countries would have had an effect on us. Remember
the effect of the 1973 oil embargo on our economy? 
   The UCLA guy who said that the Middle Eastern oil we got was not from
Iraq but from surrounding countries missed the point. Our intelligence
said that Iraq was about to invade the largest supplier of these
countries-Saudi Arabia. This would have put 3/4 of the known reserves in
Saddam's hands. By the way, we were importing oil from Iraq too. One of my
Louisiana neighbors had just shipped exploration equipment before the
hositilities and one of my grad students who did security for an oil
company was sneaking around Iraq hiring Kurdish truck drivers to sneak his 
rig guys out of the country. 
    The pretext that we were there to restore democracy in Kuwait was
silly though. I guess we were making the world safe for feudalism. 
    The Israeli question was also interesting. The Israelis had had nukes
ready to be assembled at their Dimona breeder reactor since the late
1960's. In fact, their guys used to threaten the Sov's with the loss of
Odessa over their support for the Arabs during the Cold War. They were at
our equivalent of Defcom 1 during the Gulf War. If we didn't intervene we
would have had the Israelis countering Saddam's nerve gas warheads with
nuclear ones. I think this was a key reason that Bush had the sense to get
in. 
    Anyway, how did this whole Gulf War thread get started? We somehow
moved from Audis to Abrams tanks.
Best,
Larry Katzenstein