Nice, timely leak, a couple of days after Iraq awarded a couple billion in oil contracts to Russia.
The source added that the main aim of the war would be to secure control of Iraqi oilfields… The source added that the main aim of the operation was not so much to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) but to secure U.S. control over Iraqi oilfields…“Hussein is the pretext. The real aim of the military action is control over Iraqi oil,” he said.
Yeah, no duh. Securing the oil fields is one of our main strategic (not necessarily financial) goals - last time we went to war with Iraq, Saddam torched them and it took years to correct the damage. The thought of one of our “allies” giving out publically our time-table for war, then trying to cheapen the humanitarian resolve by making it all about the oil they’ve just been bribed with absolutely sickens me.
Another plus for Ken Pollack - he predicted this sort of shit, and his completely frank assessment of Russia as corrupt and bribable in “The Threatening Storm” makes this sort of development no surprise to anyone who read his book.
Well, you know, Saddam torched them after we invaded Iraq.
It was like:
Saddam: “OK you lousy imperialist pigs, stay the hell out or I’ll light these oil wells on fire and ruin the environment.”
Bush 1 : “Read my lips - Do your worst.”
Saddam: (lights like 50 oil wells to prove he’s serious)
That’s right! Except that it was like 700 oil wells. And they were in Kuwait. And it was after Iraq had launched an unprovoked invasion of Kuwait. And it was in response to coalition troops driving the Iraqi invasion force out of Kuwait. And in terms of being ruinous to the environment, the eleven million barrels of oil Saddam intentionally dumped into the Arabian Gulf were worse than the fires. But otherwise, that’s right!
Well, I was in Poland at the time. The story we got was that he lit up like 50 wells to show he’s serious, the Americans kept advancing so he just set them all on fire.
[edit]hmm… guess I didn’t make that very clear in the original post[/edit]
Well, I was in Poland at the time. The story we got was that he lit up like 50 wells to show he’s serious, the Americans kept advancing so he just set them all on fire.
Well, they basically lit them as they went, retreating from the coalition forces. I can’t believe people were trying to pin this on us. “No, please Saddam! Whatever you do, don’t hurt our precious oil!” The environmental damage, the property damage, the illness caused to the firefighters, the lost revenue for the Kuwaiti oil concerns, these things all lay at Saddam’s feet. It wasn’t a “if you don’t stop, I’ll torch them all” thing. It was a “If I can’t have them, no one can!” thing…
