Finally, someone in a position of influence in Washington, someone who can't be accused of playing partisan politics, has spoken the truth about George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq: It was primarily about the oil.
Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman who attained rock-star status during his tenure in Washington, declares in his new memoir that "the Iraq War is largely about oil." Calling his admission a "politically inconvenient fact," the maestro, as his fans pronounced him during his star turn in our nation's capital, has struck a rather dissonant chord for the Bush administration, which has insisted -- and will vehemently continue to insist -- that oil had nothing to do with our disastrously divisive and tragic invasion of Iraq.
We all know the changing and changeable list of White House-proclaimed motives for our decision to start a war, ranging from Saddam Hussein's alleged store of weapons of mass destruction to America's duty to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq, to the need to deal a decisive blow to Islamic terrorists. We also know that we are now bogged down in a civil war with no apparent end. But a discussion of the rightness of this war is not my intent here. Rather, I'm going to take the opportunity to remind you, dear readers, of the evidence that points to the truth of what Greenspan is saying. The administration has already begun to hit back, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates challenging Greenspan's version during an appearance on ABC's This Week program, and we can expect that the self-serving pronouncements will flow freely. So it's important to recall the facts.
In my 2005 book, Over A Barrel: Breaking The Middle East Oil Cartel, and an updated version, Over A Barrel: Breaking Oil's Grip On Our Future (coming soon to a bookstore near you), I reported the details. To begin with, after toppling Saddam Hussein, the United States passed up a golden opportunity to break Iraq's ties with OPEC, thereby removing its vast reserves of crude oil from the cartel's malicious grip. Instead, the Bush administration hastened to reinstate the connection, claiming America had no business intervening in Iraq's dealings with OPEC.
Of course, we had no such qualms about intervening in every other aspect of Iraqi life, randomly arresting and imprisoning thousands of Iraqi men, dissolving the Iraqi army, ridding the country's institutions of the only people who knew how things worked, and virtually guaranteeing that an anti-U.S. insurgency would ensue under the amateurish ministrations of Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
But when it came to oil, we pretended it was "hands off." In reality, however, we first enlisted oil professional Philip J. Carroll, formerly of Shell Oil, to "advise" the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Then, after Rob McKee, a former ConocoPhillips executive with ties to Halliburton, entered the picture, it was full steam ahead on building a strong national oil company that would be dependent on Big Oil consultants and destined to rejoin the OPEC band of extortionists. As Greg Palast wrote in Harper's magazine, any objections from the Iraqi Governing Council were summarily dismissed, while Vice President Dick Cheney openly advocated an OPEC-friendly policy for Iraq.
For the oil boys, it was just business as usual, the American consumer and the world economy be damned. And, as we've seen in the intervening years, as oil climbed from $28 a barrel in September of 2003 to over $80 a barrel in September of 2007. This increase in oil price alone is costing the American consumer an additional $400 billion a year. The consumer is only peripherally on the mind of an administration beholden to Big Oil and big oil prices -- even if it means war with all its cost of lives and treasure.
So we talk about foolish things and the drumbeat for more war goes on. Tell your representatives that we want action to stop the nonsense. Words! Like Eliza Dolittle, we've heard enough of them. Show us something real. Cut off thge funds. Shut down the government if necessary. Shout the demand: No More Lies! No More Wars !
It's not about the oil
It's not about making money
It's not about Freedom
It's not about WMD
It's not about Democracy
What it is about is -- the CONTROL of the money from the oil , they dont want those angry Middle Easteners ( terrorists ) using all that money (theirs) on NUCLEAR technology (Bombs) , before the oil is gone they will have 90% of the worlds money .
Bush has admitted this twice , and nobody noticed .
Trouble is, there doesn't seem to be any way to criticise Israel without being called antisemitic. Does the statute of limitations ever run out on that?
(No, it wasn't "run for your lives, we're about to destroy everything and everyone you hold dear)
Did he say "We're coming to liberate you. Please don't shoot at our valued American Troops"?
Nope. He said "We're coming to liberate you. Don't you DARE set any oil fields on fire."
Funny that Cheney and cohorts should want Iraq in OPEC along with our new foreign policy demon, Chavez. Who, along with Putin, just loves oil at $60+ a barrel. National security, I don't think so.
To paraphrase an old saying "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but the gas guzzing consumer stays fooled ALL of the time.
It was also about oil... but primarily about Israel! Just look at the main forces that led us to war: the Neocons, AIPAC, and the "liberal hawks" (who may be socially liberal, but true Likudniks when it comes to US foreign policy in the Middle East).
To come up with this bullshit of "primarily about oil" is an effort to steer the American people´s attention away to the Israel Lobby and the way it has led us to the Iraq war and how it is forcing us into another war (Iran).
And Greenspan is correct to backtrack some. It isn't all about oil. Iraq's location is also a key. Militarily speaking, hegemonywise.
My fellow Americans, it won't be too long that you will see gasoline prices are so high, you won't be able to drive SUV and heat your home.
You still have time to stop Bush's madness. Please voice your oppostion against White house Iraq policy. Stop Bush from invading another country Iran illegally. Bush and his Neo-Con cronies are beating drum to get your support. If they do it you will regret rest of your life. God Bless America to be sensible.
America will destroy itself, am most of the civilized World with it for Oil.
When do you think they will Nuke Iran ?