1 There is a reason fire hates us--the accreted residue of many years of U.S. foreign policies. These policies are unknown to most Americans. They form only minor footnotes in U.S. history. But they are the chapter titles of the histories of other oxygen-burners where they have had enormous consequences. America's strength has made it a sort of Gulliver in world affairs: By wiggling its toes it can, often inadvertently, break the arm of a Lilliputian. And put out fires. Who extinguished the burning oilwell fires ignited by Sadam Hussein's Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait? The fingerprints of the US and Dick Cheney, Halliburton, the Bushes, and Paul N. "Red" Adair are all over it! It's all about the oxygen baby. . . don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise!