FACT - This War Is Not About Oil

[KAknight]

I wanted to clear up confusion from this thread.

I am getting very tired of misinformed people saying that this war is only about oil. That is in fact not true at all. The oil we get from the middle east is a very small part of all the oil we consume. Less than 15% Moreso, Iraq makes up a very small part of that 15% - most of it comes from Saudi Arabia & Kuwait.

How do I know this? I am sitting in Ponca City, OK as I write this, working at ConocoPhillips. Before I worked here, I was at Citgo Petroleum - which is owned by the Venezuelan gov or PEDEVESA. The CEO of Citgo is named Oswaldo Contreas. In Venezuela he is known as General Contreas. The US obtain around 40% of its oil from PEDEVESA. Lately, the Venezuelian government has been very unstable. If the US was really willing to go to war just over oil, be would be occupying Venezuela to ensure the flow of oil doesn't stop.

Please understand, Saddam's refuseal to disarm is the reason why we are at war.

I welecome any discussion of this, but please keep it civil. I am not trying to start a flame war, but I did want to share some facts about the oil industry.

This war is only about oil. Its not the 15% oil from Iraq or other misleading statistics.

The US wants to dominate the region for two reasons:

1) Reliable source of oil in the future at favorable rates/terms
2) Military Bases for strategic reasons.

Don't expect Bush to go on national television and announce that he's doing this for his oil lobby buddies in Texas. Th emotives are plain for all who want to see---this is an illegitimate war against a soverign nation for the primary purpose of occupying it and using it for strategic advantage for the US.

This is what I beleive after reading and analysing various global media. Unless I see very complelling reasons that the US is waging this war for altruistic reasons I won't buy any such weak arguments.

[Epidemic]

Please God, make it stop.

Texas buddies?

OIL OIL OIL.

PROOF PROOF PROOF

NONE NONE NONE.

epidemic, sometimes the truth does hurt. I apologize if I said it too often.

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Hmmm, I was just wondering what the cost of war with Iraq was and the cost of Iraqi oil.
From what I gathered, the two were highly disproportional, and guess which was higher... *hint* not the latter

[KAknight]

Shanahi - where are you getting the information for your theory? Do you have any data to back up your hypothesis, or are you just telling us your fact-defered "gut" feeling on the socio-economic motivation of the geo-political conflict?

[J-Excel]

It's like my parrot.

Oil lobby... squawk... military bases... squawk

Anyone's OPINION on why we are there is irrelevant at this point.

Oh, mine's just gut-feel. How about you? You got proof its not about oil?

[daveleau]

"Truth" with no proof or any basis is anything but...well... true. It is funny how some people take their own assumptions and the assumptions of others to believe it is fact, even when there is not one shred of proof. There is motive, just as there is motive for shahani, KAKnight, or Epidmeic to rob a bank (I mean hey, we all need and love money), but there is not tendency from looking at historical info on the subject. Really, to me, the people who follow these baseless ideas and are repeatedly asked for proof, yet never give it up (because it is not there) strike me as strange.

As far as the OIL-IS-THE-CAUSE people, we must wait until the end to show them of there errant ways, then surely they will find some other reason to jump on the anti-whatever bandwagon and will disavow anything that says they are wrong. Typical. They do not pay any attention to the fact that we found a Chem Weapons plant described as "huge", or that we have POWs in Iraq being executed, or that the Iraqis have been firing scud missiles at us, which are weapons they are not supposed to have. Yeah...inspections work REALLY well. As the confirmation of Colin Powell's evidence continues to be found, these people will find a tiny crack in the US action and exploit it and use it to talk badly about the entire operation. This is their way. It is not rational, but it is what has happened from the beginning of the US and it will likely continue to the end of the US.

[osprey4]

The oil debate is dying a death slow even by Hollywood standards.

But here's one more nail in the coffin...

"The war against Iraq is being fought for the sake of oil companies." FALSE. Even the writer Susan Sontag, an unwavering critic of the war against Iraq, recently called the No-Blood-for-Oil argument "stupid." Oil prices, and oil company profits, are determined by market economics. If lots of oil floods the worldwide market, the price of oil goes down; if oil becomes scarce, the price goes up. Either way, oil companies adjust. Oil companies benefit most from stable relationships with stable governments; what they don't like is instability — which is precisely what war creates.

In the global market, which very few people seem to understand, there are only buyers and sellers, not friends and enemies.