John Bolton: The Wars are for Oil

[Octafish]

See the Pride of Plato's Retreat state it in his professorial, if practiced, way:



The United States went to war for oil.

"Well, Iran has made little secret of its desire to gain hegemony in the
Persian Gulf, the critical oil and natural gas producing region that
we fought so many wars to try and protect our economy from the adverse impact
of losing that supply or having it available only at very high prices..." -- John Bolton, "ambassador" by default

Humph. Not all that original a thought, seeing how Henry Kissinger said the same thing,
as did Alan Greenspan and a whole bunch more satraps of the 1-Percent.

[mmonk]

1. D

uh.

[Octafish]

2. You are well informed, mmonk.

Unfortunately, my Friend, that puts you in the minority.

An example: I believe you know, but how many people do you know who remember George Herbert Walker "Poppy" Bush lied the United States into Gulf War 1?

The guy did say Saddam was like Hitler. And if anyone should know Hitler...

[mmonk]

3. Yep.

Fortunes are made in the trade craft of war.

[Octafish]

7. ''Money trumps peace.''

This is news to my Republican neighbors. And they get visibly angry when it's brought to their attention:



Hear and see the Giggling Warmonger say it.

""Let's put it this way. Uh. Money trumps peace. Sometimes. Heh heh heh.
In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests. Throughout the world."
-- Crazy Warmonkey George Walker Bush, appointed pretzeldent

I remember Cindy Sheehan tried to bring it to our nation's attention.

Unfortunately, not many people listen to Ms. Sheehan -- especially those in authority.

[mmonk]

10. One can even add to the chimp's words.

War is money.

[Octafish]

14. Too bad the one President I remember who took the opposing view was assassinated.

JFK thought we should explore outer space -- the New Frontier -- in peace. Thus, he gave a civilian agency management of the manned space program.

In the process, the United States accomplished what had been considered impossible for most of humanity's existence. We ventured to the moon and back. And we did so in less time than the decade prescribed.

Imagine what we could do using the nation's economic might, workforce and brainpower? It's easy to see how humanity could mine the moon and asteroids, establish bases on the moon and Mars, explore the outer planets -- all in peace.

We also could accomplish even greater things on earth, with such a can-do spirit and attitude. I believe we'd be able to solve our world's problems -- from hunger and diseases to ignorance to resource depletion to pollution and over-population -- through peaceful means.

Of course, peace means cooperation. And when people cooperate, they get to know and like each other. And when people like each other, it's harder to scare and divide them. Unity makes people harder to conquer, which brings us back to the current state of affairs.

War is money.

[spanone]

4. k&r...

[Octafish]

8. Lysistrata Project

A handy compendium of fact:

War & Oil

[Cali_Democrat]

5. No coincidence that Libya also has a shitload of oil

nt

[Raster]

6. No coincidence whatsoever!

[Octafish]

9. Thomas Friedman himself said the oil might be the smaller part of the war on Iraq.

The main part was to stop the dictator from using his WMDs on us.

A War for Oil?

WMDs -- especially nuclear weapons -- were the same story Poppy Bush used to garner public support for the First Iraq War, back in 1990.

I was a reporter then, and I remember how quickly the public opinion changed from being against a war to "liberate" Kuwait to one of stopping a threat to America.

The oil never was a reason stated out loud then, either.

[mmonk]

11. And we know we can scrap his #1 reason.

[slipslidingaway]

18. Yes ...

a friend of ours was working Benghazi a few years ago and mentioned the possible new oil discoveries in Libya :(

[BlueIris]

12. Thanks, Octa. What would we do without you? nt

[Octafish]

16. Thank you, BlueIris. Very much appreciate it. However, I gootta give credit where credit is due...

CounterPunch featured the YouTube thingy as their "Website of the Day" today.

Allow me to make it up by linking to a CounterPunch article by Milan Rai from February 2003: Oil and War.

Main Point: This is not a war for oil. It is a war to control the profits that flow from oil.

That's the truth. Especially when considering that a year's oil revenues exceed the combined budgets of all the governments in the world.

[BlueIris]

17. I think that point is key.

And it explains quite a lot.

[Dragonfli]

13. Here is a picture of that neanderthal without TV make-up-

[Octafish]

19. So easy, a cavewoman could do him.

That image shows what a 1,000 words may not, the truth.

And since we're on the subject:

Reagan, the Bushes, and Saddam Hussein

EXCERPT...

According to Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Noriega insisted to him that he had had the best of relations with Bush for years. But Noriega told Birns that at an airport meeting in Panama shortly before the invasion, he had had a spat with Vice President Dan Quayle when he refused to commit Panama to a more confrontational role in fighting against Washington’s Central American enemies. Birns, who was in Panama as Noriega’s “honorable enemy” guest only hours before the U.S. invasion and was arguably the last American to meet with Noriega before U.S. troops arrived, told me that the Panamanian strongman was bitter because after years of servitude to Washington’s various regional crusades, Bush was unceremoniously dumping him.

[taterguy]

15. Well when people go apeshit when the price goes up he kind of has a point

Our economy is based on oil.

The only reliable way of insuring access to oil is the use of military force.

That's been US policy since the Embargo in 1973.

Of course, we could devote resources to finding alternatives but that would be too much of a hassle, as long as it's mostly brown people who are dying.

[Octafish]

20. Americans kept cool as Bush accomplished his mission...

Gas cost $1.46 when he, uh, took office. It went as high as $4 something.



I got angry, but didn't hear too many others voice it.

The thing is, whenever there's a war for oil, oil prices skyrocket.
As Greg Palast notes, war makes the world's reserves more valuable
and the Saudis (among other people and corporations) even richer.