Bush’s Iraq Oil War

Yet, President Bush did get to the crux of the conflict. He warned that if the U.S. failed in Iraq, it would “endanger Iraq’s oil resources and could serve as a severe disruption to the world economy.� What ever happened to the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction? Wasn’t that the reason for the invasion?

[Black Star News Editorial]

 

So the Iraq invasion was about oil after all.

President Bush confirmed this in remarks he made to the nation yesterday, while trying to manufacture “success” in the war when all the evidence points to failure.

Referring to the escalation of fighting between the U.S.-backed government and insurgents in Iraq’s oil-rich region of Basra, Bush claimed prime minister Nouri al-Maliki was fighting “lawlessness.”

A remarkable statement since the “lawlessness” escalated after the US invasion and occupation.

Yet, President Bush did get to the crux of the conflict. He warned that if the U.S. failed in Iraq, it would “endanger Iraq’s oil resources and could serve as a severe disruption to the world economy.”

What ever happened to the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction? Wasn’t that the reason for the invasion?

Recall that after it became obvious that there were no WMDs to be found, since there hadn’t been any in the first place, the Bush Administration changed the goal.

The mission became to “restore” democracy in Iraq. Five years later, after deaths of 4,000 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen, deaths of possibly hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and a couple of elections, the goal of democracy remains elusive.

Iraq is war-torn. What’s more the government is rife with factionalism and unable to rule the country effectively let alone secure the peace. No wonder Republican candidate John McCain talks of the U.S. staying there for at least 100 years.

Meanwhile, the intense fighting in Basra has caused oil prices to rise with the benchmark futures contract rising $2.32 a barrel to $108.22 in industry trading, The Wall Street Journal reports today. Combatants also targeted oil pipelines from Basra, which according to the Journal report, citing the BP Statistical Review, holds about 10% of the world’s total.

Global oil markets are roiled, with conflicts in other major producing areas; it’s beginning to look like McCain knows something the rest of us don’t know.

As long as military confrontation remains the preferred U.S. strategy in Iraq, and as long as oil markets remain disrupted, and energy demand in the West, India and China, continues to grow, there’ll be no light at the end of the tunnel.

 


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