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Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just buy the oil from Iraq?

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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 01:56 AM
Original message
Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just buy the oil from Iraq?
I mean, it's obvious the whole point of the Iraq war was to grab control of the oil under Iraq. Obvious to me anyway. A trillion taxpayer dollars, 4,400+ Americans killed, 100,000+ civilians killed - was it really worth it? How much oil is there anyway? Wouldn't it have been better to just write a check for $1 trillion instead?
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RandomThoughts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 01:58 AM
Response to Original message
1. Do you post that seriously?
Edited on Wed Sep-01-10 01:58 AM by RandomThoughts
It is not about what it cost, it is about where the money goes.

If people can understand that a very few people, in a few places, within a hiarchy, are not looking out for best interest of people. Although to be fair, many of them don't know it.

Things make alot more sense.
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begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 01:59 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Do you post that seriously?
It doesn't make "alot" of sense to me.
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RandomThoughts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 02:01 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. why did you put alot in quotes.
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WinkyDink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 07:56 AM
Response to Reply #4
13. Because it isn't a word, just as "alittle" isn't.
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CaliforniaPeggy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 01:59 AM
Response to Original message
2. But it wasn't just the oil, though that was a big part of it.
It was about the power, the control, the money.

And for all those things, they needed war.
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dkf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 02:03 AM
Response to Original message
5. We had sanctions on Saddam.
That was our idea.
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Anakin Skywalker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 02:23 AM
Response to Original message
6. But Saddam Said "No Sale".
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sandnsea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 02:28 AM
Response to Original message
7. Should we buy it from Iran? n/t
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Sherman A1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 04:05 AM
Response to Original message
8. It would have been cheaper to simply
Buy Iraq.
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Nay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 05:36 AM
Response to Original message
9. Yes, but that wasn't the only reason Bush started a war -- during
war, the rich assholes make tons of money in the chaos. THAT was the main point of the war, to get away with billions of taxpayer dollars under cover of war.
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LawnKorn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 05:53 AM
Response to Original message
10. The United States did not want Iraqi oil. The US wanted to prevent China from getting the Iraqi oil
We have been actively engaged in a shooting war in the middle east since 1991 for the purpose of preventing China access to the crude oil in the region. Our current, never ending activities, in Afghanistan (truly the arm pit of the world) are to prevent the construction of pipe lines from the oil rich regions to China and India.

The United States does not want anything from Iraq, but we will risk global war to keep other nations from getting into Iraq.
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taterguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 05:55 AM
Response to Original message
11. US policy since the 1973 Embargo has been to not trust the market
Yes, we could buy the oil.

But at some point they could decide to stop selling it.

And since that would cripple us we had to do something.

War is just so much easier than altering our lifestyles.

A war only impacts the poor bastards that fight in it.

Lifestyle change would have an impact on everyone.

Was it worth it? I don't think so but I'm one of those sanctimonious pricks that rides a bike everywhere.
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ThomWV Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 06:31 AM
Response to Original message
12. We didn't need Iraqi oil, we needed Iraq as a base to control surrounding oil countries.
and if not t to control Iraq's neighbors then it was a base from which to intimidate them.
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Toots Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 08:28 AM
Response to Original message
14. But how would the War Profiteering Republicans get all the money?
This is about War Profiteering, make no mistake about it. The Oil is just iceing on the cake.
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Javaman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 08:59 AM
Response to Original message
15. because if it was just about it being a commodity, no one would have made a dime.
It was about the take over, lock, stock and barrel of Iraq's oil producing industry.

Before the war - Iraq's oil was nationalized

After the war - Iraq's oil is privatized.

See?

It's like the old adage from the bible, I'll paraphrase, "if you buy the oil, you only drive for a day, but if you steal all the oil, you maintain the american way of over consumption while making billions off the sweat of 3rd world country puppet leaders!"
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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 09:03 AM
Response to Original message
16. a lion's share of that money went right into their friends' pockets
that's the difference
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TBF Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 09:11 AM
Response to Original message
17. Sure, but you're not Bush. He had a family vendetta to take care of.
He wanted to take out Saddam, and he would've found a way to do it one way or another. 911 presented an opportunity to do it - and my only surprise was in his supreme incompetence (bombing them the same week as the attack would've been a much faster way to do it then create the "WMD" fiction and I think it would've flown politically as a "strike back"). Of course dragging it out in a prolonged war helps defense contractors and lord knows how much his family members have invested in those companies ...
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rucky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 09:16 AM
Response to Original message
18. I don't think Cheney's energy commission got the ROI they were expecting. n/t
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Fumesucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 09:20 AM
Response to Original message
19. Saddam switched from dollars to euros for payment for Iraqi oil in 2000
At that point his fate was sealed..

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998512,00.html
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 09:56 AM
Response to Reply #19
20. +1 n/t
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ljm2002 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-01-10 10:08 AM
Response to Original message
21. There was another factor...
...namely, the fact that oil has been traded for dollars, not some other currency. Saddam Hussein was getting ready to go on the euro for purposes of trading oil. That would have yanked the rug out from our economy pretty quickly. So maybe that had something to do with it too, and possibly that was a much larger $$ amount that was at stake.

Not that it justifies the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
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