Re: The truth leaks out

[Barkley Rosser <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

    Heck, I'll get everybody ticked off here also.  I don't think

that oil was the primary motive for the war in Iraq.  It was the

ultimate motive in the sense that this war was the culmination

and followup of the first Gulf War, which was about oil.  Who

really gave a hoot if Iraq controlled Kuwait otherwise?

     Why was it not about oil directly?  Ironically because both

Bush and Cheney are closely tied to the Texas oil industry.

On the one hand Bush wants a low price of oil in the short run

to juice up the economy so he can get reerected.  OTOH, he

does not want too low of a price because that hurts the profits

of the Texas oil companies.  Ideally he would like the price at

about OPEC's goal, $25 per barrel, enough to make the companies

and OPEC members money, but not so high as to cause US

consumers to give up their addiction to gas hog SUVs.

     The war was fought because Bush is a compulsive-obsessive

reformed alcoholic, out to get revenge for Saddam's effort to

assassinate his dad.  Also, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11

he did believe that al Qaeda and Saddam were linked, even though

this was later found to be false.  Also, it was great politics domestically.

With the war in Afghanistan over, people were going to start paying

attention to the economy and domestic issues again.  Instead, he

was able to keep the focus on national security-war on terrorism-

homeland security, which gave him a Republican Senate, and may

well give him his reerection next year, if he can keep the economy

from souring too badly.

       The short run gainers economically from the war in Iraq are

such administration-connected firms as Halliburton, Bechtel, and

Fluor.  The oil companies may eventually get a piece of the action

in long term Iraqi oil development.  But "control of Middle East oil"?

This is a joke.  We already control it through the Saudis.  Keeping

their asses clean was what the first Gulf War was about, not this one,

although getting US troops out of KSA will help stamp down the threat

to their regime from bin Laden in the longer term.

Barkley Rosser

Barkley Rosser

----- Original Message -----

From: Eugene Coyle

To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 7:42 PM

Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The truth leaks out

Maybe it wasn't the truth.  Maybe they felt that going after North Korea would get a lot of US troops at the DMZ quickly killed.  To say nothing of all the people in Seoul.  Maybe it was easier to mention the oil -- which everybody knows anyway --  than to say that "We are afraid of the consequences of attacking North Korea."

Gene Coyle

k hanly wrote:

The truth was evident to anyone who cared to look at the website of PNAC or
other right wing  think tanks or who read any of the hawk's pronouncements
re the need for US control of middle east for energy requirements. Most of
the anti-war groups knew all along the war was about oil so it was not a
question of fearing that it was such.
    How do these admissions fit in with the Straussian Platonic lying for
the public good.?You arent supposed to lie and at the same time make the
truth public. That seems counterproductive.

Cheers, Ken Hanly

----- Original Message -----
From: "Louis Proyect" <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 1:15 PM
Subject: The truth leaks out


  

Guardian, Wednesday June 4, 2003

Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil

George Wright

Oil was the main reason for military action against Iraq, a leading
White House hawk has claimed, confirming the worst fears of those
opposed to the US-led war.

The US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz - who has already
undermined Tony Blair's position over weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
by describing them as a "bureaucratic" excuse for war - has now gone
further by claiming the real motive was that Iraq is "swimming" in oil.

The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates
at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and reported
today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt.

Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was being treated
differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had
been found, the deputy defence minister said: "Let's look at it simply.
The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that
economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea
of oil."

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,970331,00.html

--

The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org