General Abizaid: "Of course the Iraq War is about Oil"

[DeadCanDance]

Fascinating. Another former Commanding General in Iraq decides to come clean: the Iraq War is about oil.

I fondly remember when I was called a treasonous moron for saying that years ago.



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.”

http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/10/15/roundtableDebatesEnergyIssues

 

[Diuretic]

Standing by for all the BushCheney boosters to start admitting they are all wrong.

Well come on then, hurry up, roll up and plant your admissions here now

 

[dilloduck]

Standing by for all the BushCheney boosters to start admitting they are all wrong.

Well come on then, hurry up, roll up and plant your admissions here now

I thought everyone assumed that oil would be a factor from the start but go ahead with your impeachment trial.

 

[Gunny]

Fascinating. Another former Commanding General in Iraq decides to come clean: the Iraq War is about oil.

I fondly remember when I was called a treasonous moron for saying that years ago.



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“:

Depends on what context you said it in. If you made the usual, lefty claim it was about stealing iraq's oil, I don't know that I would have called you a treasonous moron, but I WOULD have asked WHERE is this oil?

If you said it in the context that any and all interest in the Middle East by Western nations is their rerspective oil supplies, I'd have said you were correct.

 

[DeadCanDance]

I thought everyone assumed that oil would be a factor from the start but go ahead with your impeachment trial.

You know full well the bush adminstration and its supporters never said anything about the war being about oil. They in fact, went out of their way to deny it.

If I had said (like General Abazaid did) "Of course the war is about oil" four years ago, I would have been shouted down by bush fans as a tinfoil hat conspiracy nut.

 

[Diuretic]

I thought everyone assumed that oil would be a factor from the start but go ahead with your impeachment trial.

Impeachment is no concern of mine. It's just that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is all about securing its oil supplies. The other reasons were straight-out bullshit.

 

[Gunny]

You know full well the bush adminstration and its supporters never said anything about the war being about oil. They in fact, went out of their way to deny it.

If I had said (like General Abazaid did) "Of course the war is about oil" four years ago, I would have been shouted down by bush fans as a tinfoil hat conspiracy nut.

The war itself is not about oil. Interest in the Middle East period is. Be for real. If it wasn't for oil in that sandbox from hell, it would get as much intervention as Darfur.

 

[hjmick]

Impeachment is no concern of mine. It's just that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is all about securing its oil supplies. The other reasons were straight-out bullshit.

In a global economy that is seemingly dependent on the free flow of oil, this is no small deal.

 

[Gunny]

Impeachment is no concern of mine. It's just that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is all about securing its oil supplies. The other reasons were straight-out bullshit.

Hogwash. It was about taking out an idiotic dictator who rattled his saber at us every-other-month and didn't notice that we changed Presidents on him, and that post 9/11, his blustering was taken more seriously.

YOUR reason is straight-out bullshit.

 

[Diuretic]

In a global economy that is seemingly dependent on the free flow of oil, this is no small deal.

The oil would have been still been available, it's just that the oil may have been made available by Saddam to interests other than the US and Britain, to name just two.

 

[Diuretic]

Hogwash. It was about taking out an idiotic dictator who rattled his saber at us every-other-month and didn't notice that we changed Presidents on him, and that post 9/11, his blustering was taken more seriously.

YOUR reason is straight-out bullshit.

Delusional. It was about removing Saddam to ensure the oil was held for suitable western interests. 9/11 had sod-all to do with it other than to suck people in. This whole invasion and occupation was and is about oil.

 

[Gunny]

Delusional. It was about removing Saddam to ensure the oil was held for suitable western interests. 9/11 had sod-all to do with it other than to suck people in. This whole invasion and occupation was and is about oil.

I didn't say 9/11 had anything to do with it beyond changing the mindset of the powers that be toward threats doled our way.

The invasion was not, and is not about oil cuz if it was we'd have some of it, now wouldn't we?

Seems to be a lack of evidence of your part.

 

[Diuretic]

I didn't say 9/11 had anything to do with it beyond changing the mindset of the powers that be toward threats doled our way.

The invasion was not, and is not about oil cuz if it was we'd have some of it, now wouldn't we?

Seems to be a lack of evidence of your part.

In the words of the famous Lone Ranger joke - "waddya mean 'we' White Man'?"

The invasion wasn't meant to take the oil, merely make sure it was available to the corporate interests being served by Bush and Cheney. Iraq is supposed to have the second largest oil reserves in the world. Losing that was anathema to the corporate interests being served by Bush and Cheney (I need to write a macro for that phrase). So the invasion and occupation was launched to get rid of Saddam who was threatening to sell oil to anyone but the corporate interests etc. And what's more he was threatening to deal in other than greenbacks which would have threatened the viability of the dollar.

Now, it was never intended to grab the oil and flood (sorry, pun) the market with it. We all know what happens when there's too much of something, the price goes down in the open market, so grabbing it and doling it out would have attacked the profits of the aforesaid corporate interests. As you probably know, oil is at a record price right now and the corporate (oil and associated businesses) interests have never had such high profits.

All in all the invasion and occupation has been a success for Bush and Cheney in serving their corporate masters. It has been less successful for others.

 

[dilloduck]

In the words of the famous Lone Ranger joke - "waddya mean 'we' White Man'?"

The invasion wasn't meant to take the oil, merely make sure it was available to the corporate interests being served by Bush and Cheney. Iraq is supposed to have the second largest oil reserves in the world. Losing that was anathema to the corporate interests being served by Bush and Cheney (I need to write a macro for that phrase). So the invasion and occupation was launched to get rid of Saddam who was threatening to sell oil to anyone but the corporate interests etc. And what's more he was threatening to deal in other than greenbacks which would have threatened the viability of the dollar.

Now, it was never intended to grab the oil and flood (sorry, pun) the market with it. We all know what happens when there's too much of something, the price goes down in the open market, so grabbing it and doling it out would have attacked the profits of the aforesaid corporate interests. As you probably know, oil is at a record price right now and the corporate (oil and associated businesses) interests have never had such high profits.

All in all the invasion and occupation has been a success for Bush and Cheney in serving their corporate masters. It has been less successful for others.

Is it your assertion that oil corporations only support Bush and Cheney and corporations in general have no political investment in any other political party ?

 

[Diuretic]

Is it your assertion that oil corporations only support Bush and Cheney and corporations in general have no political investment in any other political party ?

I wasn't really addressing that broader question, just trying to explain why the invasion and occupation of Iraq happened when it did. So I suppose to directly answer your question, no, I wasn't making either assertion.

 

[Gunny]

In the words of the famous Lone Ranger joke - "waddya mean 'we' White Man'?"

The invasion wasn't meant to take the oil, merely make sure it was available to the corporate interests being served by Bush and Cheney. Iraq is supposed to have the second largest oil reserves in the world. Losing that was anathema to the corporate interests being served by Bush and Cheney (I need to write a macro for that phrase). So the invasion and occupation was launched to get rid of Saddam who was threatening to sell oil to anyone but the corporate interests etc. And what's more he was threatening to deal in other than greenbacks which would have threatened the viability of the dollar.

Now, it was never intended to grab the oil and flood (sorry, pun) the market with it. We all know what happens when there's too much of something, the price goes down in the open market, so grabbing it and doling it out would have attacked the profits of the aforesaid corporate interests. As you probably know, oil is at a record price right now and the corporate (oil and associated businesses) interests have never had such high profits.

All in all the invasion and occupation has been a success for Bush and Cheney in serving their corporate masters. It has been less successful for others.

O-o-o-o-o-h...... gotcha ..... it was to steal the oil but not steal the oil.

 

[Diuretic]

O-o-o-o-o-h...... gotcha ..... it was to steal the oil but not steal the oil.

I didn't say that.