Abizaid: "Of Course It's About Oil, We Can't Really Deny That"

Think Progress:

During a round table discussion on "the Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet" at Stanford University on Saturday, Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, said that "of course" the Iraq war is "about oil":

"Of course it's about oil, we can't really deny that," Abizaid said of the Iraq campaign early on in the talk.

"We've treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations," the retired general said. "Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back."

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[ownsthepodium]

Seems the Sanchez meme died out pretty quick huh? Why would that be? Another failed fallacy, the Dems are getting struck down left and right.
Did any hufftards read the transcript?
Heck no, silly question.
It's right here:
http://www.militaryreporters.org/sanchez_101207.html

Want some highlights your handlers kept from you?
Here you go:

[ownsthepodium]

10. “Unfortunately, I have issued ultimatums to some of you for unscrupulous reporting that was solely focused on supporting your agenda and preconceived notions of what our military had done.”

9. “Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you seek for self aggrandizement or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories.”

8. “As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed.”

7. “It seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the ‘collateral damage’ you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.”

6. “The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry.”

and agendas.”

[ownsthepodium]

5. “Other major challenges are your willingness to be manipulated by ‘high level officials’ who leak stories and by lawyers who use hyperbole to strengthen their arguments. Your unwillingness to accurately and prominently correct your mistakes and your agenda-driven biases contribute to this corrosive environmen­t.”

4. “All of these challenges combined create a media environment that does a tremendous disservice to America. Over the course of this war, tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats for America because of the tremendous power and impact of the media and by extension, you, the journalist. In many cases, the media has unjustly destroyed the individual reputations and carriers of those involved.”

3. “In my business, one of our fundamental truths is that ‘the first report is always wrong’. Unfortunately, in your business ‘the first report’ gives Americans who rely on the snippets of CNN, if you will, their ‘truths’ and perspectives on an issue.”

2. “When you assume that you are correct and on the moral high ground on a story, because we have not responded to questions you provided, is [sic] the ultimate arrogance and distortion of ethics. One of your highly-respected fellow journalists once told me that there are some amongst you who ‘feed from a pig’s trough’. If that is who I am dealing with, then I will never respond, otherwise we will both get dirty, and the pig will love it. This does not mean your story is accurate.”

1. “All are victims of the massive agenda-driven competition for economic or political supremacy. The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas. What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war…For some of you, just like some of our politicians, the truth is of little-to-no value if it does not fit your own pre-conceived notions, biases

[speakingtruth2power]

How many people were stupid enough to actually read this idiots long post?

rentstheurinal's lengthy screeds are simply appeals for attention made up of obvious projections and absurd revisions of loose facts.

[ZingoBonMot]

~onerouspodium~

nobody's paying attention to you anymore

[serialcoma]

It's amazing to me that some people, you specifically sipsthe urinal, can remain so completely ignorant and be so seemingly happy about it... sad, pathetic troll.

[wadenelson1]

It's like car bombs in Iraq, rents-the-urinal.

Huffposters can barely finish commenting on the last ex-military man to admit the truth before another comes out.

Forgive us for not being able to keep up.

[ownsthepodium]

Yet here you all are, ignoring the truth, again.

[ManipulatedByMedia]

The guy is a paid thug. Ignore him..

[ownsthepodium]

Paid?
Nah, don't need it, don't want it. I expose you 'tards as the idiots you are purely for my own entertainment.
And damn does it send you into fits.

[bushdoescrack]

bush is definately not the brains behind the entire iraq disaster, americans need to know who the "ring leader" is. cut off the head and the body will die.

[olivia]

Except for Cheney, none of them hold any public office.

[opines]

Bushcrack:

The Pentagon has been calling the shots. Their power no longer can be controlled by Congress and no one can be elected President who opposes Pentagon policy

The American military runs on oil, and belated admissions by the generals that it was the primary reason for the war does not mean that they were against the invasion/o­ccupation.

We could not give that as the reason for our preemptive strike when we began the war, but now, we are prepared to admit it, but not as a reason for ending the war.

This is the Pentagon's way of telling the American public that we NEED the oil if we are to achieve our imperial objectives and keep our economic bubble afloat.

It is not a call to end the war.

[brooklyncitizen]

McCarthy-ism all over again.

This has been part of American politics and mode of operation for decades, Bush is just more blatantly obvious and foolish, he lacks Reagan's duplicitous skills but does share Nixon's criminal mind.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/15/1351243

[outnow]

The generals on the ground will advise the president. They have. He just won't take their advice. They are gagged until out of military service. By then there's a new "yes man." Or, a new war. But its all about the oil and profit-making for corporations.

[Kansas Evans]

Maybe this'll give the Dems the courage/cover they need to stop funding the occupation.

[tekla]

Did any sane person think that they had any other reason to like us other than we were a market. Why should they be any different then us?

[Kansas Evans]

I gotta admit, I'm not quite sure what you're saying. Can you give that to me one more time?

[tcagle]

We still have to contend with the lunatic fringe dead-enders in the Senate who keep us from a supermajority. How long will they cling to this tattered administration? I guess until they sense they have to bail, sometime between now and re-election time.
The other alternative is to make them filibuster every time they threaten to do so, rather than just passing and conceding defeat. I would even go for the nuclear option at this point and say to hell with the closure requirement of 60.

[Kansas Evans]

I'm frustrated with the dead-enders, too. I agree that instead of just passing and conceding defeat, Reid needs to force McConnel to really filibuster.

That's why I like the idea of cutting off funds. We don't need a supermajority to do that!

[Felicty]

BUT OF COURSE we already knew this war was ONLY about oil.

Who is really surprised to learn this?

[lisakaz]

The 29 percenters still have their heads so far up Bu$hco's tushie, it'd be news to them.

[whomung]

re 29% learning..­.. I don't think so....

To LEARN SOMETHING, you actually have to allow the information to change you.... If you don't CHANGE AND GROW, you aren't LEARNING..­..

You're STUCK

[ariuszme]

You mean like this?

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/0/c/bush_sheep.jpg


:-)

[condieshoes]

Mention it Plowboy, you might as well.

[TWOSHORT]

Why is this story a bomb shell?REPO­RTERS!NEWS SERVICES!NEWS NETWORKS!Why are they in the news business to give us yesterday's news!!They only found out about this today!!!!!!!Man bush is the smartest president in the history of america!Nixon Agnew would love Bush

[whomung]

Rommel fought against is WWII.... and he was good at it.... he lost, but, he was no shit smart

He also tried to help kill Hitler....

Not all American military are fascists..­.. some of them fight for true democracy.­. I support that

[tekla]

As someone who taught lots of ROTC people in the university I have nothing but the highest respect for the officer of corps of the USA. I only hope that might yet save us from ourselves.

[whomung]

A lot of really honest, patriotic, CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL troops got SCREWED IN THE ASS by these guys

(not to mention hundreds of thousands of dead, maimed, and displaced innocent Iraqi's)

All for insane greed, stupidity, and arrogance

The more that stand up, the better... Go troops.... Tell the TRUTH

[gardengoddess]

America's military is not, nor has ever been, the problem. The problem is military leaders, who are not really military, but political.

[Plowboy]

Yes, General, we all know that it is about oil. But it is also about one of the major sources of corruption in our government. No, I'm not talking about old fashioned greed. That source of corruption can be addressed, but there is another source of corruption in our government that cannot be addressed because it cannot even be mentioned.

[ownsthepodium]

LMAO
That which cannot be named! But it's bad! It's scary bad! Trust me, it's bad, I'm a hufftard, I know!

[serialcoma]

You are a delusional, bush licking fool.

[CyrusBeaucephus]

fuck off you whiny right wing blowhard---

supporting brutality is FUNNY, ha ha ha ha

Fuck you and your kind

[MrBritesnide]

Once you mouth is off the Scaife appendage, you really don't have much to offer, do you?

[hugs4u]

Go ahead and mention it.

[olivia]

Well you should mention it.

[whomung]

yeah... I'd like to hear it too