No War For Oil.

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Tuesday December 07, 2004 12:10 by righteous pragmatist

Never were truer words spoken

The figures simply do not add up for an war for oil.

The facts are that Iraq's sole export commodity is crude oil and by 2004 estimates this ammounts to a mere $7.542 billion.

As anyone who has followed American activities in Iraq will be aware in 2003 after the March-April war a decision was made to spend $87 Billion dollars In Iraq which Senator Kerry among others voted for.
The U.S. Military expenditure since is in the region of several billion per month causing a drain on the America treasury.
Before the conflicts end and the withdrawl of American forces the cost of this war will probably be in the order of a over a Trillion $ or more.
If the invasion of Iraq was really about oil then why didn't America save itself the trouble and just BUY it off Saddam without deposing him.

There are only two possibilities to explain the situation now that the war for oil argument is discredited.

1. Either Americans are stupid

OR

2. Their motive for invading Iraq all along was in fact REAL - eliminating rogue dictatorships such as Saddam Hussein's Iraq which threaten the international community with their support for Islamic terrorism and potential to develope and use WMD.

Why else did Col Qaddafi cave into the international pressure and surrender his WMD to the destruction of IAEA insepectors as soon as Saddam was hauled out of his spider hole?