"It's All About Oil"

[MikeH]

We were trying to translate Ming's a bastard into as many languages as possibe and someone said that this was Ming's a bastard in Finnish. Actually it means something like Ming's my lover.

[TheStinger]

Ahhh- cheers

[Imran Siddiqui]

Using the Bush administation's own rhetorical yardstick, Kim Jong Il measures up as way more dangerous than Saddam. Yet with him we're negotiating. Now why is that?

Kim might have nukes already. And since when were we negotiating? I thought we cut him off.

The US has 5% of the world's population and uses 20-25% of the world's oil. Gas-guzzling SUVs are the fastest-growing segment of its car market. Its fastest-growing regions are the suburbs, which generally lack any form of mass transportation. It's fastest growing cities are in the south and west, where cities can generally be navigated only by car (pedestrian-unfriendly, mass-transit-free). It's the only industrialized country in the world without a decent rail infrastructure. In America, everything is about oil.

And only 2% of our oil imports come from Iraq.

It ain't about oil. It's about Bush's hatred of Saddam. UR thinks that is probabaly worse, and he may be right, but those that think this is about oil, don't really understand Bush at all.

[DanS]

Going in to secure oil fields for our benefit is silly, especially considering that Saddam will sell us all the oil we want anyway. As recently as August 2002, we were buying over a million barrels of oil a day from him.

[PeteH]

An article related to war/oil/economy:

http://chapelhill.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/2177.php

It is fairly long, but this should give you the basic idea of the topic:

"The upcoming war in Iraq is mostly about how the ruling class at Langley and the Bush administration view hydrocarbons at the geo-strategic level, and the overarching macroeconomic threats to the U.S. dollar from the euro. The Real Reason for this upcoming war is this administration's goal of preventing further OPEC momentum towards the euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to pre-empt OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Iraq along with its 2nd largest proven oil reserves. This essay will discuss the macroeconomics of the "petro-dollar" and the unpublicized but real threat to U.S. economic hegemony from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency. The following is how an astute and anonymous friend alluded to the unspoken truth about this upcoming war with Iraq...

"The Federal Reserve's greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its international transactions from a dollar standard to a euro standard. Iraq actually made this switch in Nov. 2000 (when the euro was worth around 80 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering the dollar's steady depreciation against the euro." (Note: the dollar declined 17% against the euro in 2002.)

"The real reason the Bush administration wants a puppet government in Iraq - or more importantly, the reason why the corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a puppet government in Iraq - is so that it will revert back to a dollar standard and stay that way." (While also hoping to veto any wider OPEC momentum towards the euro, especially from Iran – the 2nd largest OPEC producer who is actively discussing a switch to euros for its oil exports).

Note: I just pulled the link from a separate list I read, have no idea of the credibility of the sources etc, but thought it was an interesting factor to add into the mix if the facts check out.

[Kropotkin]

Oil is the reason why the area is so important in the first place. That however doesn't mean that everything that happens there is directly linked to oil. That part was probably much more important the first time around.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Pete: That was an amusing article.

[Sten Sture]

It ain't about the oil, the economics don't make sense.

But it might be about the water. Iraq has the major source of fresh water in the region by a long measure.

It is probably about keeping Israel from launching another preemptive strike at Iraq's nukes, like they did 15 years ago.

It is probably about setting up for the fall of the Saudi royal house.

[TheStinger]

Its about sand, we need it to grit our roads(not my joke but pretty good)

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by TheStinger
Its about sand, we need it to grit our roads(not my joke but pretty good)

That is a good one. In the winter we get all that damn beach sand blowing on to the roads, its a big fat hassle around here.

[Spiffor]

I still think it is about having a reliable source of oil during the upcoming tension against Saudi Arabia, which funds terrorism.
It is also about the US being the only power in the region, by deterring any Arabic country to become one, and punishing any country who would like ot become one. In the end, it means US supremacy on oil.

There may be some other concerns as well (I don't believe any second we'd go to war only because Saddam is an *******, it is pure propaganda for the public opinion), but domination over this oil-rich part of the Arabic world seems to be the highest priority.

Now, you could say that Bush is just power-hungry, rather than oil hungry

[Imran Siddiqui]

I don't believe any second we'd go to war only because Saddam is an *******, it is pure propaganda for the public opinion

Believe it, because that is the reason for war. It has little, if anything, to do with oil.

*shrug* Euros for some reason see Bush as this master schemer, who is trying to get power and oil, while at the same time calling him a moron. It's kinda funny. Most Americans though, I believe, know that this war is because of Bush's hatred for Saddam and all he stands for.

[DaShi]

Isn't NASA just about the "Moon Gold"?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by DaShi
It's NASA just about the "Moon Gold."

"Moon Cheese"

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
*shrug* Euros for some reason see Bush as this master schemer, who is trying to get power and oil

Master schemer!!? The whole power and oil theory is so obviously lacking in imagination or finesse that it has Bush's named stamped all over it!

Only a moron or a megalomaniac would think of a plan like that...