GWB's speechwriter confirms invasion was to steal oil

David's sure come a long way in the past decade.

I wonder if he's trying to become a respected journalist like his late mother.

Western oil firms remain as US exits Iraq

The end of the US military occupation does not mean Iraqis have full control of their oil.

Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 07 Jan 2012 18:45


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According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Iraq's oil reserves of 112 billion barrels ranks second in the world, only behind Saudi Arabia. The EIA also estimates that up to 90 per cent of the country remains unexplored, due to decades of US-led wars and economic sanctions.

"Prior to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, US and other western oil companies were all but completely shut out of Iraq's oil market," oil industry analyst Antonia Juhasz told Al Jazeera. "But thanks to the invasion and occupation, the companies are now back inside Iraq and producing oil there for the first time since being forced out of the country in 1973."

Juhasz, author of the books The Tyranny of Oil and The Bush Agenda, said that while US and other western oil companies have not yet received all they had hoped the US-led invasion of Iraq would bring them, "They've certainly done quite well for themselves, landing production contracts for some of the world's largest remaining oil fields under some of the world's most lucrative terms."

Dr Abdulhay Yahya Zalloum, an international oil consultant and economist who has spent nearly 50 years in the oil business in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, agrees that western oil companies have "obtained concessions in Iraq's major [oil] fields", despite "there being a lack of transparency and clarity of vision regarding the legal issues".

Dr Zalloum added that he believes western oil companies have successfully acquired the lions' share of Iraq's oil, "but they gave a little piece of the cake for China and some of the other countries and companies to keep them silent".

In a speech at Fort Bragg in the wake of the US military withdrawal, US President Barack Obama said the US was leaving behind "a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people".

Of this prospect, Dr Zalloum was blunt.

"The last thing the US cares about in the Middle East is democracy. It is about oil, full stop."

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/2011122813134071641.html

but 10 years ago this month marks the start of one of the worst mistakes in the history of the United States.

over 4000 lives wasted

almost nothing good to show for it.

George W. Bush and his administration set this country back years and we still have not recovered.

It's about the oil? If that were the case then how come less then 4% of the oil used in the US is from Iraq?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948787,00.html

I think it was about avenging the assassination attempt against daddy.

http://articles.cnn.com/2002-09-27/politics/bush.war.talk_1_homeland-security-senators-from-both-parties-republican-phil-gramm?_s=PM%3AALLPOLITICS

Don't know that it was just for oil but 10 years ago this month marks the start of one of the worst mistakes in the history of the United States. $2.2 trillion and over 4000 lives wasted with almost nothing good to show for it. Lies and false information got us there. Stubborn nationalism kept us there. So much time and money and so many young lives thrown away. George W. Bush and his administration set this country back years and we still have not recovered.

The administration prepared a map before the invasion dividing Iraq's oil among the US oil companies. It has been on the net, but I can no longer find it.

Don't know that it was just for oil but 10 years ago this month marks the start of one of the worst mistakes in the history of the United States. $2.2 trillion and over 4000 lives wasted with almost nothing good to show for it. Lies and false information got us there. Stubborn nationalism kept us there. So much time and money and so many young lives thrown away. George W. Bush and his administration set this country back years and we still have not recovered.

The American media establishment, now lambasted by conservatives for its coverage of the failures of the occupation, was long under fire from liberals for the manner in which it reported the run-up to the war and its apparently uncritical acceptance of the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

"This is one of the great journalistic mass delusions of the era," said Michael Wolff, a media commentator and columnist for Vanity Fair.

In an examination of unsigned editorials for the Columbia Journalism Review, Chris Mooney looked at the US media's response to Colin Pow ell's presentation on WMD before the UN security council last year.

"The US papers all pronounced Powell right, though they couldn't possibly know for sure that he was. In short, they trusted him. And in so doing, they failed to bring even an elementary scepticism to the Bush case for war