Not trying to start anything ... Just FYI again

It seems there were multiple reasons for war... it wasn't about "freedom" or WmDs
1. See the memo that surfaced about the oil companies all getting their cuts after the US UK invasion. (more Mentioned in other links as well) (the timing puts the lie to the U.N. dancing going on then. Before Blixs U.N. Final WMD report. Before Powells Speech to the U.N.. War was a done deal. Oil a strategic target.)
2. Saddam was threatening to begin selling oil in euros rather than dollars. killed. A Huge problem, BTW Kadafi made the same "threat".
3. We have multiple "enduring" military bases in Iraq now.
4. And an embassy "larger than the Vatican".
5. A militarily strategic local in the middle east. To help Israel... and protect the oil flow in the region
6. the American Military industrial complex and friends of Cheney and crew have made BILLIONS/Trillions? from Iraq.
7. Saddam didn't make nice with Israel. killed.
8. the Neo-Cons and Neo-Libs thought it would be easy to rule the world. But they are still trying.




Quote Originally Posted by CNN
Before the 2003 invasion, Iraq's domestic oil industry was fully nationalized and closed to Western oil companies. A decade of war later, it is largely privatized and utterly dominated by foreign firms.

From ExxonMobil and Chevron to BP and Shell, the West's largest oil companies have set up shop in Iraq. So have a slew of American oil service companies, including Halliburton, the Texas-based firm Dick Cheney ran before becoming George W. Bush's running mate in 2000.
CNN
Bush Sr. was direct
"We need the oil. It's nice to talk about standing up for freedom. But Kuwait and Saudi Arabia aren't exactly democracies."
TIME' magazine , August 20th , 1990

"Bush said extremists controlling Iraq 'would use energy as economic blackmail" and try to pressure the United States to abandon its alliance with Israel. At a stop in Missouri on Friday, he suggested that such radicals would be 'able to pull millions of barrels of oil off the market, driving the price up to $300 or $400 a barrel.' Oil is not the only reason Bush offers for staying in Iraq, but his comments on the stump represent another striking evolution of his argument on behalf of the war. "
Wash-Post
Bush Says U.S. Pullout Would Let Iraq Radicals Use Oil as a Weapon

"The man once regarded as the world's most powerful banker has bluntly declared that the Iraq war was 'largely' about oil.
Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and retired last year after serving four presidents, Alan Greenspan has been the leading Republican economist for a generation and his utterings instantly moved world markets. In his long-awaited memoir - out tomorrow in the US - Greenspan, 81, who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for almost two decades, writes: 'I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.'"


Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said of the Iraq war in 2007:
"People say we’re not fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about America’s national interest. What the hell do you think they’re talking about? We’re not there for figs."

4 Star General John Abizaid – the former commander of CENTCOM with responsibility for Iraq – said:
"Of course it’s about oil, it’s very much about oil, and we can’t really deny that."

John McCain said in 2008:
"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East."

Sarah Palin said in 2008:
"Better to start that drilling [for oil within the U.S.] today than wait and continue relying on foreign sources of energy. We are a nation at war and in many [ways] the reasons for war are fights over energy sources, which is nonsensical when you consider that domestically we have the supplies ready to go."

FormerUnder Secretary of State, John Bolton said:
"The critical oil and natural gas producing region that we fought so many wars to try and protectour economy from the adverse impact of losing that supply or having it available only at very high prices."

Top REPUBLICAN Leaders Say Iraq War Was Really about Oil Washington's Blog