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"Oil?" Osten guessed, following up on the initial comments of Farr. "No. Power. Oil is the ticket to power. Saddam with strategic oil control becomes the sole purveyor of power. It is a power imbalance that makes all the religious, political, and social issues melt away. Arabs know that power imbalance is the greatest evil of all. It is the essence of evil. Foreign historians do not understand Arab history for this one pervasive ignorance. They will embrace a devil to fight a devil. One devil takes oil, another devil they feed oil. There is no big military issue in Somalia. Right? Right? Why? Because there is no power issue attached. It is, seen from here, purely a humanitarian issue. You see? Decisions don't turn on ideals nor philosophy, but on power." This Desert Storm conversation continued on at one end of the table while Macaluso, shifting his attention, rode his own train. Pointing at Shannon's button, "They're ALL crooks, Shannon. All of em". She responded, that Bill Clinton was echoing the positive, upbeat, constructive themes of JFK. "Promise me that you'll vote for him. For me. A personal favor. Pullleeeeese. Please, please, please". Mac responded with a feigned battery of arm farts as other lunch attendees hooted their shared disapproval. Then followed his best cloning of James Brown singing Please. He seemed too good at it. "Pleeeees, pleeeees pleeeeees. Arrrrrggggghhh, pleeeeeese pleeeeese..." Despite his apparent solidarity with this lunch circle, Mac was of a different mind than the rest, "Bill's doing a JFK imitation. You know? JFK was JFK, not acting like JFK. Elvis impersonators try to look like Elvis, but they're not him. They are not making new Elvis hits. They just rehash the old. It's mimicry. Anyway, it was JFK who got us into