Yeah, ’cause…this couldn’t POSSIBLY be related to the worldwide oil crunch and economic crisis. Nah, must be a blood for oil neocon conspiracy! People
The biggest ever sale of oil assets will take place today, when the Iraqi government puts 40bn barrels of recoverable reserves up for offer in London.
BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are all expected to attend a meeting at the Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair with the Iraqi oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani.
Access is being given to eight fields, representing about 40% of the Middle Eastern nation’s reserves, at a time when the country remains under occupation by US and British forces.
Oil companies will find their reputations at risk from the actions of their Iraqi counterparties, such as joint venture partners, suppliers and agents. They will also have to contend with oil smuggling and the possibility that the ruling alliance could collapse, Matthee said.
He said that if the conspiracy theory that western oil companies egged on US and British governments to invade Iraq were true, the plan could backfire on them and benefit rivals in Asia instead. “It is possible the American army has provided the economic stability that will encourage Malaysian, Chinese and other Asian companies to become involved,” he said.
Yes, oil was one of the reasons for the invasion of Iraq, but it wasn’t the only one.
*****
Primary reason:
* to prevent a Nexus of Evil situation
* to prevent UBL from setting up headquarters in Iraq as Saddam had annually and bi-annually requested for 5 yrs. UBL had turned down each offer based on the idea that he was safer in Afghanistan, but driven from Afghanistan in 2001/2…the possibility of UBL moving AQ HQ to Iraq was much more likely and easily a worst case scenario for the war on terror (see also 911 Comm report and SIC 911 report and SIC Iraq investigation report for details OR multiple RR threads on “AQ’s ties to Iraq per _____”)
Secondary reason:
* to remove/resolve the hundreds unresolved WMD issues (any one of which could kill thousands in the hands of an Iraqi trained terrorist-like Abu Musab Al Zarqawi
* to get the hundreds of AQ terrorist who fled Afghanistan to Iraq
* to end Iraqi support for terrorists in general
Tertiary reasons:
* to create a battlefield against terrorists made of America’s choosing-not the terrorists preference (UBL’s preference was Afghanistan, the Graveyard of Empires where he felt he had already destroyed one superpower)
* to create a bastion of democracy in the middle of a region plagued by tyranny and oppression…things that spawn terrorism
* to drain the swamp of terrorists in the region; ie, to draw terrorists into a fight against the US military and not the Springfield, Ohio police Department
* to offer the Iraqi people a chance at restoring their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-rights that some Americans believe are endowed to all men by the creator
* to end the 4000-5000 Iraqis per month who were dying because of UN sanctions per the UN’s claims
* to prevent Saddam from continuing to terrorize the Iraqi people and his neighbors (all but one of which he had attacked)
* to support a legitimate govt in Iraq.
* to position US forces in a more threatening/deterring position to Iran, Syria, etc.
* With Al Queda’s #1 and #2 leaders pinned in Waziristan/Pakistan, as a means of going after the Al Queda’s #3 man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, who had already attempted to kill hundreds of thousands in London, Rome, Paris, and Jordan using chemical and biological weapons via training he had been given from Saddam
* To end the funding of Palestinian terrorists by Saddam and thus help deter bi-weekly suicide bus bombings that had completely derailed the peace process
* to prevent the funding of Al Queda by Iraq through the mega-corrupt UN Oil-for-Food program
* to shift American oil dependence (and funding) from terrorist-breeding-ground of Saudi Arabia to a Democratic and representative govt in Iraq
and so on…
See author page
If this was a War for Oil, I would think we would be getting a better deal than the OPPORTUNITY for some of our oil companies to BID on oil rights. It couldn’t possibly be that Iraq is a free and independent state that wants to sell it’s natural resources like everyone else. /sarc
Major oil companies, none of them U.S. owned, will bid on the oil rights. The U.S. does not have one oil company on the list of Major oil companies. Kind of puts democrat propaganda in the grave, doesn’t it.
What do you Patriotards think about your masters having duel Israeli/American citizenship? In my book, I call an American Citizen who pledges allegiance to a country other than the USA a traitor. Maybe I’m just more of a Patriotard than y’all. Kind of strange that one can’t become President without support from AIPAC don’t ya think? Whatever you do, don’t step out of “Left vs. Right” la la land illusion.
Rob,
Maybe you should take a look at this:
Questions and answers on dual US/other citizenship
http://www.richw.org/dualcit/faq.html#israel
I respectfully disagree, the real 1A and 1B are in fact
1A., to drain the swamp of terrorists in the region; ie, to draw terrorists into a fight against the US military and not the Springfield, Ohio police Department
1B., to create a bastion of democracy in the middle of a region plagued by tyranny and oppression…things that spawn terrorism
Do note how the various Arab governments know they they are now dealing with a democratically elected Iraqi government. The must scare the crap out of them. For the Iranians it is worse, firstly there will be a shift in Shia power from Iran to Iraq, and the people in Iran will see have happens in real elections. Expect clergy to be hanging from the lamp-posts when oil hits $40, as it will in about 2 weeks.
Bush played the long game.
Dual Isreali/American citizenship? What in the world are you yammering about Rob? Been drinking the Clinton bong water? And who are you referring to? Palin because she has come out several times speaking of support for Isreal? America & Isreal have been close allies since 1949. Biden agrees with Sarah that it is important to maintain America’s ties with Israel. How about a link or something instead of just a fly-by obscure post? Are you saying you’re anti-Semetic?
Oh a couple of the things left out of the lists as to why we went into Iraq:
* To end the war and cease-fire status we had maintained since 1990
* To end the decade long OPERATION: NORTHERN & SOUTERN WATCHES and it’s continual high maintenance costs to our military forces so they could be finally freed up.
On a Fox interview with Donald Trump when the first bill was sent to the House a couple weeks back he did foresee that the financial crisis would spread to the rest of the world, but it would surprisingly stimulate our economy because gas prices would plummet because OPEC would be forced to reduce their artificially high prices. He suggested they could drop to $2 a gallon by November if the crisis continued. He also said that he expected that the bailout was only the tip of the iceberg and he expected further stock market problems but nothing serious.
Why are we seeing more stock market corrections? And yes I said corrections. Two reasons;
1) Because stocks have been artificially over-valued since the 1980’s. Around that time they ceased reflecting companies’ “actual worth” at the time and became measurements of companies’ “future worth”. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failures started a run on the banks by investors pulling their savings in panic. Without the cash deposits to back them up Lehman, Wacovia and the others banks’ crumbled. So why were investors pulling their money? That leads to number..
2) Obama won the DNC primaries beating out Hillary & put his tax plan online. Watch the polls. When Obama’s numbers go up, Wall Street numbers go down. Investors are hedging in case of an Obama win. So the logical basis for a bad economy being a plus for Obama as continuously touted by the media is fundamentally flawed. The wisest minds in Wall Street know an Obama win would spell doom for our economy, but Dems, the media, and Obama campaign have duped the American public into believing the exact opposite.
If it weren’t for three High Ranking Senators (I believe one was regrettably my own Schmucky Schumer) who lambasted the Iraqi Gov’t’s deal to give the contracts to American Oil Companies (BAD BIG OIL) we would have access to that oil now. But Chucky and his dem stooges, killed the deal and the oil contracts went to China. So any time you hear dems say why aren’t the iraqis giving the Oil to US or our oil companies, say, DEM SENATORS, case closed.