We all know it. It wasn’t about WMDs. It wasn’t about 9/11. It wasn’t about stopping terrorists or bringing democracy to peoples hungering for freedom or ‘finishing the job’ Bush Sr. started in the way most meant it. All that was lying and rhetoric to hide the truth. It was about what the Bush family and financial friends understand most — oil, and how Saddam wasn’t playing by America’s rules anymore.
Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil
AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.
However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.
Greenspan, 81, is understood to believe that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the security of oil supplies in the Middle East.
Britain and America have always insisted the war had nothing to do with oil. Bush said the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam’s support for terrorism.
As an aside, here are some pre-war quotes by now ‘stay the course’ Republicans about going to war with Iraq.
Greenspan, hardly a liberal and not exactly a fan of Clinton while he was in office, now considers Clinton a “political hero” compared to what Bush & Co. have done to the economy since, turning Washington into a place where “[g]overnance has become dangerously dysfunctional.”
Heck, I really wish the reason was oil. However, I think the real reason is that our idiot in chief is a religious nut-job who hopes to bring on Armageddon so he can spend time with baby Jesus up in heaven..
I worked in the American oil industry for a spell. “Follow the money” was never more true.
Think back. When Bush was elected, oil was $18 a barrel, folks. These criminal bastards are stealing the world blind – and Americans bend over for more.
While there may be a lot of validity to this statement, the only reason it is in the news is because Greenspan wants to sell some books.
recycled comment…
There is a reason to proceed with impeachment regardless of the lateness of the hour: Cheney and Bush are despicable war profiters.
“Follow the money”: Cheney’s boardroom buddies at Halliburton and W’s oil patch pal Ray L Hunt* have been the recipient of fiscal largess beyond imagining.
These are all small men driven by nothing but greed.
Thousands of American soldiers have been wounded or killed; thousands of Iraqi civilians have been maimed or murdered — for the financial gain of Halliburton and Hunt.
Bush and Cheney should receive the death sentence; complicit Senate and Congressional officeholders should be banned from public service, and the Fox fifth columnist collaborators should be stripped of their broadcast license.
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* For insight on Ray L Hunt, read the 09/14/07 Paul Krugman column in the New York Times titled “”A Surge, and Then a Stab”.
The link to pre-war quotes while enlightening is about Bosnia, not Iraq.
“VERBATIM QUOTES FROM WHEN CLINTON WAS COMMITTING TROOPS TO BOSNIA”
Would love a list of the ones for Iraq though.
#1. I agree – I wish it WAS about oil. that at least would make some kind of sense.
Going to war to found a Jeffersonian Democracy [TM] in a country that only exists as a single state because it was a single province of the Ottoman Empire and which is riven with sectarian hatred would be just … stupid.
Bush is the Anti-Christ. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing
The next few years is likely to produce dozens of such books.
I REALLY like it when RICH/politicians THINK they are pulling the wool over our eyes, and trying to hide the truth from us Poor folk.
And some people WONDER why many of us dont vote.
WE aint going to See a poor person in office.
We aint going to see someone that ISNT bought and paid for, in office.
Even if and when we do…Will the congress and reps, HELP or hinder?
Bull. The war is not about oil, power or special interest, The war is about saving humanity from terrorism and driving democracy in places where, well, it’s not?
It is God’s will for America to do this and he chose George Bush to carry out his will.
10,
thanks for the Laugh.
OK,
Who here can truly suggest that a Politician, could tell US/we the truth, in a TIMELY manor, before something wreaks this country.
#5. Dick Cheney’s 1994 quotes about what a terrible idea it would be to overthrow Saddam and occupy Iraq were spot-on.
You do realize that if the Middle East oil was cut off the West would have to go to war and take it. Like it or not we’re addicted to crude and our economies would collapse without it. We were forewarned in the 70’s, but no one wanted the pain of weaning off crude imports then. Few wants it now either.
12 – ECA
Politicians aren’t allowed to tell us anything important, especially the truth. If our current crop ever did, we’d crucify them – for excellent reasons.
What I find amusing in September of 2007 is this statement by Alan Greenspan merits a headline at all. This is news? A similar headline in 2002 and 2003 might have been news but in 2007 it’s history, not news.
#14, RT,
You scare me because you are correct.
I’ve been saying from the start that it was all about the oil. When I point this out to some people they say that we have every right to take their oil. Isn’t that called stealing?
Greenspan states the obvious — war for oil — but is oil a bad reason for war? Why not secure the crude and have the world reap the benefits of stable economies in the future (whether or not they realize this is the price of free and stable economies)… and have a side benefit of killing a few terrorists.
The lie is making terrorists and WMD’s the main thing. The main thing IS oil and it is worth fighting for… killing terrorists is icing on the cake.
Thanks, Greenspan, for saying this and being the rare voice of reason.
What I find hilarious is this libertarian republican praising Clinton because of his decisions towards small gov’t and deficit reduction. Republicans do neither unless opposing spend-o-crats. Maybe the best U.S. gov’t is a Dem president with Rep house & senate.
at this point i dont really even care all that much one way or the other – ie: my apathy is at an all time high…
#10 – I fart in your general direction!
14,
we dont have to…MOSt of the oil in the USA is from canada, S. America, Alaska(if they would FIX the pipelines) and Offshore rigs..
Corporate America WOULD go to war, probably… And the rest of us would be Kicking their can.
15,
Ya i feel like a 12 year old, being told the birds and bees, and Thinking something is being left out.
Why do we use oil?? Easy.
ITS CHEAP to use and process. And the profit margins are VERY VERY HIGH. There are alternatives, but they dont make the SAME profit margins. SO what a bunch of Corp heads would have to take Pay cuts.
3-While there IS a lot of validity to this statement, the only reason it is in the news is because WAR FOR OIL IS STILL NOT GENERALLY RECOGNIZED OR EVEN DISCUSSED. LIKE ANY AUTHOR, Greenspan wants to sell some books.
Course, BushCo is a coke addled religious wing nut trying to out perform his Daddy could also explain the whole thing leaving us with only Cheney’s motives.
>>It is God’s will for America to do this and he chose George
>>Bush to carry out his will.
Heh heh. I heard different. I talked to God, and He told me George Bush is a fucking asshole. And, as Rosario points out, he may well be the anti-Christ. Or maybe that’s Ted Haggard? Jimmy Swaggart? Jerry Falwell?
Anyone who commits acts of hatred in the name of God is in contention for that upright-walking horned goat, Beelzebub.
Personally, I’m taking God’s word for it. Little King Georgie is the anti-Christ.
I suspected this snake-in-the-grass was a lying liberal when he choked the economy a year before George Bush senior came up for re-election. Due to that trick, he was a major contributor to getting the Clintons in office.
This liberal is trying to use all his reputation to try to get the Clintons in office again! He is trying to destabilize Iraq, to put Bush in a bad light in time for the election. He has already destabilized the economy which could collapse at any time.
And he put Bernanke in his place, to take the heat for his bad economic policies. Poor Bernanke was not bright enough to realize he was being set up.
>>We were forewarned in the 70’s, but no one wanted the pain
>>of weaning off crude imports then.
Oh, plenty of people would have supported the pain of weaning off crude imports. Not Cheney’s Energy Cabal though, and they are the ones who set policy. Tens of thousands of dead Americans later, we’re learning that maybe we should have pursued that dream that came alive during the ’73 oil embargo, 100+/mph cars, improved mass transit, alternate fuels.
Instead, we still have mindless fucks driving around in
>>Instead, we still have mindless fucks driving around in
Hmm. Again, the end of my reply was CUT OFF. This is getting annoying. Not good, for a “tech blog”. Shoulda been:
“…in
This oil crisis is the voters’ fault. They voted Carter out of office because he told them the gravy train was over on oil. All politicians from then on had to give the voters cheap oil by any means possible. But the world is almost out of oil. The world economy is about to collapse.
The voters are going to be hurting. They won’t want their freedoms and luxuries abridged. There will be violence in the streets. Someone will have to become the despot to bring order. Will it be the Fascists or the Marxists?
to the people saying oil is a good reason for war:
If we put the hundreds of billions of dollars it costs to fund this war into research of alternatives and incentive to use those alternatives then we will never NEED to kill for oil.
-How about tax breaks for companies who convert their fleets to new alternative powered trucks?
-Real incentive $$ for the auto industry to produce decent alternatives?
-Tax breaks for people who buy alternative powered vehicles?
Instead of spending the money of war spend it on a SOLUTION.
Without taking real action we will remain stuck on oil and will eventually have more blood for oil conflicts in the future. And this is OK to some of you?
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>>Instead, we still have mindless fucks driving around in
Hmm. Again, the end of my reply was CUT OFF. This is getting annoying. Not good, for a “tech blog”. Shoulda been:
“…in
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OK, I give up. I’m not typing it in for a third time. Between this cutting off of comments and the all-too-often “time-out” error when trying to connect to dvorak dot org slash blog, I’m becoming disgusted.
The world economy will not collapse without cheap oil, although the sprawling power structures based on cheap oil want us to think so, and the fat asses who drive 2-5 blocks in SUVs are panicked at the thought of walking.