Iraq and OIL. What was the war about?

If you accept that the goal of the war was to eliminate Saddam Hussein and bring relative stability to a strategic part of the world (oil), then those goals have been largely accomplished. Kurds are no longer gassed. Kuwait & Saudi is no longer under threat of invasion by Iraq. Iraq is not going to invade Iran. Iraqi oil taps are open and the country no longer faces the sanctions which we were told eliminated almost an entire generation of children:roll:

The proverbial silver lining.

digsbe said:

Sadam was viewed as a thread and that's why the Iraq war was started. He was a crazy dictator in a hostile and fragile part of the world.

Click to expand...

You got off to a good start but if Saddam was in a part of the world with no resources the USA has to have, we would of ignored him just like we ignore the parts of Africa that are killing people with wild abandon because they don't have oil. We didn't go in there to steal oil as some claim but we did go there to theoretically stabilize a part of the world that has us literally over a barrel, an oil barrel to be precise. Until we get a president that will allow pipelines from Canada and new drilling in USA, we will continue to spend blood and treasure in the cess pool known as the middle east.

Peter Grimm said:

Do you grasp that some American oil companies in Iraq does not mean that the US controls Iraq's oil assets?

A. US companies are not controlled by the US, they are independent

B. Does the article mention other nation's oil companies in Iraq?

C. Does all the Iraqi oil go directly to the US, or does it get sold on the open market?

Click to expand...

First, I don't believe iraq was about oil. That said, we don't have to control it for it to help us concerning oil. More oil on the market, and no move to the Euro does help the country.

Meathead said:

If you accept that the goal of the war was to eliminate Saddam Hussein and bring relative stability to a strategic part of the world (oil), then those goals have been largely accomplished. Kurds are no longer gassed. Kuwait & Saudi is no longer under threat of invasion by Iraq. Iraq is not going to invade Iran. Iraqi oil taps are open and the country no longer faces the sanctions which we were told eliminated almost an entire generation of children:roll:

The proverbial silver lining.

Click to expand...

Saddam was gassing the Kurds when he we were his ally. American companies even provided the precursor for the illegal mustard gas that was used.
Iraq was of no threat to Kuwait & Saudi Arabia after the Persian Gulf war when we completely destroyed their military capability to be threat to any of their neighbors, and it appears that Iraq will return to civil war to determine what type of government they wish to have, after almost 5,000 Americans sacrificed and almost $2 trillion in National debt.

Where is the silver lining again???

Catawba said:

Where is the silver lining again???

Click to expand...

Kurds are no longer gassed. Kuwait & Saudi is no longer under threat of invasion by Iraq. Iraq is not going to invade Iran. Iraqi oil taps are open and the country no longer faces the sanctions which we were told eliminated almost an entire generation of children

Catawba said:

It was the collected wisdom of the Cheney's Energy Task Force, which included oil company experts from around the world. As they noted (from above),
"U.S. energy independence is not attainable." and "Persistently tight crude oil markets highlight the concentration of resources in the Middle East Gulf region and the vulnerability of the global economy to domestic conditions in the key producer countries."

Click to expand...

This ignores the fact that this does not make intervention necessary.

Catawba said:

What you talking about Willis??? "Iraq has already signed 11 deals with foreign oil companies which will see its production quintuple to about 12 million barrels per day (mbpd) by 2017."

Can Iraq become world

Click to expand...

It's amazing what a country's economy can do after one lifts crippling sanctions.

Catawba said:

Well, we killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions during the Gulf war and sanctions. How much more convincing do you think they needed???

Click to expand...

What does this have to do with offering to lift or reduce sanctions in exchange for more oil?

Catawba said:

Give me a reason we had to invade and occupy one of the least powerful countries on the planet for almost a decade that didn't involve oil, or that represented a threat to the US?

Click to expand...

Faulty intelligence stated that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction. He had previously acted aggressively with his neighbors, even when they posed no threat to Iraq. The Bush Administration, concerned about the instability that a more powerful Saddam would have on the region (and yes world oil prices), decided that regime change was in order.

Meathead said:

Kurds are no longer gassed. Kuwait & Saudi is no longer under threat of invasion by Iraq. Iraq is not going to invade Iran. Iraqi oil taps are open and the country no longer faces the sanctions which we were told eliminated almost an entire generation of children

Click to expand...

We are the ones that insisted on the sanctions and we are the ones that enforced them. We are also the ones that knocked out their water and wastewater systems which led to the deaths of millions, mostly children because of disease.

Saddam was gassing the Kurds when he we were his ally. American companies even provided the precursor for the illegal mustard gas that was used.
Iraq was of no threat to Kuwait & Saudi Arabia after the Persian Gulf war when we completely destroyed their military capability to be threat to any of their neighbors, and it appears that Iraq will return to civil war to determine what type of government they wish to have, after almost 5,000 Americans sacrificed and almost $2 trillion in
National debt.

Everything has been ruled out for justification for the most powerful country on the planet invading and occupying one of the weakest countries on the planet, except what stated above that I placed bold emphasis on.

DrunkenAsparagus said:

This ignores the fact that this does not make intervention necessary.

Click to expand...

That was the recommendation of Cheney and the oil execs.

It's amazing what a country's economy can do after one lifts crippling sanctions.

Click to expand...

The sanctions we insisted on and enforced? They didn't change Iraqi oil law.

What does this have to do with offering to lift or reduce sanctions in exchange for more oil?

Click to expand...

Sort of like a bank robber offering to release hostages for a getaway car and million dollars?

Faulty intelligence stated that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction. He had previously acted aggressively with his neighbors, even when they posed no threat to Iraq. The Bush Administration, concerned about the instability that a more powerful Saddam would have on the region (and yes world oil prices), decided that regime change was in order.

Click to expand...

No we used a completely bogus claim by an Iraqi that had been rebuffed by Saddam to justify carrying out Cheney's task force recommendations for a military solution to the oil law in Iraq. We knew that Iraq was of no military threat to the US or its neighbors since we completely destroyed that capability in the Persian Gulf war and didn't let them rebuild it during our enforcement of sanctions against them.

A mix of the three.