Well said, Nate.  Weapons of Mass Destruction proved to be a false goal and
liberation seems to be a rather thin veil.

Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL, the original name) can only be about oil,
particularly if you understand anything about world oil supply.  At the
Offshore Technology Conference a couple of years ago, oil industry experts
debated "Peak Oil: Myth or Reality" and the Saudi Oil Minister spoke
afterwards to correct Matt Simmons' comment that the Saudis are pumping 50%
water in their oil.  The correction was that they are pumping 33%.  Why is
this important to the US?  Because it means that there is significant
reservoir management occurring ...  or the Saudis can no longer
independently drop oil prices by turning up the spigot.  It is widely
believed that Iraq has the second most plentiful supply of oil (and widely
misunderstood that neighboring countries were drilling horizontal wells to
tap Iraqi fields) with Iran holding the next most abundant reserves.

America uses 25% of the world's oil while importing more than half of it
http://www.bp.com/genericsection.do?categoryId=92&contentId=7005893  The
President's staff is largely from the Energy Industry, so securing oil is
not an unexpected goal.  It should also not surprise anyone that the prize
is almost constantly under attack: http://www.iags.org/iraqpipelinewatch.htm

Most Americans, secure in our SUV's, rarely look at these issues - blatantly
obvious to most outsiders.  Hussein was a bad dictator to be sure, but
Nate's right, America would never have cared had its "national interests"
not been at risk.

The Koran is very explicit that Jihad can be declared on foreign occupiers.
Our viewpoint: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/990
Theirs: http://www.jihadunspun.com/home.php

As long as the world relies on oil as the basis for our economy, America or
some other country will secure their national interests and Jihad will
remain in place.  Whereas I strongly disagree with the methods, I doubt many
of us would behave differently if our country was occupied by a foreign
Superpower.  Long term, I believe the only answer for world peace is to find
an alternative energy source.  And, despite the hype, hydrogen is not an
energy source.

To preempt James, please answer me offline if you want to challenge my
opinion.  I've worked in and around the oil industry for over 25 years and,
while it doesn't make me an expert, it does give me some perspective others
might not have.

Nate Duehr wrote:

Carey Fisher - NCS wrote:


> And another thing...  No one brought this up yet but I'm in a mood!!!
This
>  was not a war for oil.  But, I wouldn't have a problem if it was.  Who
>  developed the oil fields in the first place?  Do you really think the
> middle east oil field would be pumping like crazy if the Brits and Yanks
hadn't
>  developed them prior to them being "nationalized" (stolen) by the Mid
>  East countries.  And who put out the fires Saddam set in the oil fields
> after the US and the Coalition threw Saddam out of Kuwait and liberated
> that country?

Not just the U.S., France, Germany, and Russia all have fields there.

Of course, with large multinational corporations paying the bills, who
really knows... ?  They're really running this show anyway.

Actually if you look at where troops are actually deployed... that new
pipeline out of Iraq through Afghanistan seems to have an unusually high
number of armed "guard posts" owned/operated by the U.S. military along
it.

Hint: We're really just building a pipeline and guarding it at this
point.  The Democracy is secondary to that.

(Again, I'm not saying that's good or bad, I'm just stating facts on these.)

Oil is all that's there.  If it weren't we wouldn't give a shit and we'd
let Saddam or anyone else do whatever the hell they wanted there.

Proof: Look at Africa if you don't think so.  We bailed out and came
home without "liberating" anything.  We only "liberate" people when
there's something there we want.

As far as the overall big-picture Middle East goes:

China's the next major power due into the theatre.  That'll be
interesting when they finally decide they strategically MUST have a
toe-hold there right in the Gulf.

My favorite bumper sticker idea right now:

"Turn off that SUV if you really want to Support Our Troops."


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