10 Years Ago We Went To War For Oil

Most knew it all along.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

"Of course it's about oil, we can't really deny that," said General John Abizaid in 2007, former head of U.S. Central Command and Military Operations in Iraq. Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan agreed, writing in his memoir: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." Then-Senator and now Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the same in 2007: "People say we're not fighting for oil. Of course we are."

 

Close .... it was that Saddam was finally going to move his oil revenues from the Dollar to the Euro ....


Iraq: Baghdad Moves To Euro

November 1, 2000

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1095057.html

Baghdad's switch from the dollar to the euro for oil trading is intended to rebuke Washington's hard-line on sanctions and to encourage Europeans to challenge it.

But the political message will cost Iraq millions in lost revenue.
RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel looks at what Baghdad will gain and lose, and the impact of the decision to go with the European currency.


Prague, 1 November 2000 (RFE/RL) -- Iraq is going ahead with its plans to stop using the U.S. dollar in its oil business in spite of warnings the move makes no financial sense.

Baghdad this week insisted on and received UN approval to sell oil through the oil-for-food program for euros only after 6 November.
Iraq had threatened to suspend all oil exports -- about 5 percent of the world's total -- if the body turned down the request.

The move comes despite repeated cautions that Baghdad's departure from the oil industry standard of the dollar will cost the country millions in currency conversion fees.
UN officials have said Iraq will have to reduce the price of its crude oil by about 10 cents a barrel in order to compensate buyers for the additional costs.

And the UN has said moving to the euro will mean Iraq earns less interest on its oil revenues, which are held in a UN- monitored escrow account in New York.

The UN also has warned that Iraq's switch will create cumbersome new administrative processes because Baghdad says it wants to keep its existing deposits in dollars for now.
That means the oil-for-food program will have to maintain two accounts -- one in dollars and one in euros -- for the time being.


With Iraq now set to begin oil transactions in euros as early as next week, President Saddam Hussein has clearly made up his mind that banning the dollar is worth flying in the face of financial logic.

The euro reached record lows last week as it traded at 82 cents to the dollar, down 30 percent since its launch in January last year.
Currency traders say they don't expect a rebound soon.

The calculation has set analysts scrambling to find where Baghdad sees the payoff.

Pierre Shammas, a Middle East expert at the Cyprus-based Arab Press Service, calls the move an emotional one impossible to understand on economic grounds.

"As long as the euro goes down, you don't switch to a currency that goes down in value while the dollar goes up in value.
Saddam has not spelled out his plan in detail.
These are politicians talking.
They are not experts, they are not central bankers, they are not even oil men."

But he says Saddam may feel the strategy is worth the price because it allows him to draw a clear line between what Iraq sees as two camps in world opinion regarding the UN sanctions.

 

Then why didn't we KEEP the oil for ourselves, like the USSR used to do?

 

Yeah, When does obama give us all that gas we traded blood for?

Why is he hiding it?

 

From ExxonMobil and Chevron to BP and Shell, the West's largest oil companies have set up shop in Iraq. So have a slew of American oil service companies, including Halliburton, the Texas-based firm Dick Cheney ran before becoming George W. Bush's running mate in 2000.

For the first time in about 30 years, Western oil companies are exploring for and producing oil in Iraq from some of the world's largest oil fields and reaping enormous profit

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

We sorta did. Via large oil companies. It was for them.

 

Great, When do gas prices come down?

 

IRAQ is making a fortune SELLING OIL, to MANY DIFFERENT NATIONS' INVESTORS, just like BEFORE the WAR...please explain the US government's "ownership" of the Iraqi oilfields...outside of Leftninny Madeup Bullcrap Land....

 

Where is it stated anywhere about US gov'ts ownership.

 

Iraq is making very little
Iraq's oil production has increased by more than 40% in the last five years to 3 million barrels of oil a day (still below the 1979 high of 3.5 million set by Iraq's state-owned companies), but a full 80% of this is being exported out of the country while Iraqis struggle to meet basic energy consumption needs. GDP per capita has increased significantly, yet remains among the lowest in the world and well below some of Iraq's other oil-rich neighbors. Basic services such as water and electricity remain luxuries, while 25% of the population lives in poverty.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

Reading. Give it a try.

 

why would chevron want less for their product?

 

Why would gas prices come down? Do you think large western oil cos give a rats arse about what you pay for gas?

 

The U.S.A. paid in blood with 4,000 + Americans lives,how much " OIL " did we get for going to war ? Was it worth it ?

 

bingo!!

 

"We Went to War for Oil" Who went to war?

Iraq was doing business with NUMEROUS oil companies, both BEFORE,and AFTER the war.

Your point is utter NONSENSE, easily debunked by the ACTUAL FACTS, outside of Leftmythology...

 

Oh, Wolfowitz said that after we invaded Iraq .... we could simply steal Iraq Oil, sell it on the open market and these revenues would pay for death & destruction ... oh, and nation-building ...


"There’s a lot of money to pay for this ... the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years …

We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”

~ Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary .... 03/27/2003

 

It is a crock of schidt that we went to war for oil. If we did where the hell is all that oil?????

 

in the ground

 

MOre madeup total bullcrap. He never said a SYLLABLE about "stealing" Iraq's oil. We can all read what he ACTUALLY SAID.

WHy always make up nonsense? It FOOLS KNOW ONE.

Iraq is on charge of ITS OWN OIL....

 

I think the important point about the Iraq War holocaust ... is that neocons shed their uniforms and put on founding father garb and called themselves tea partiers ...

Yeah, in April 1945, nazis did the same thing and simply blended-in with the crowd.

 

Here ya go with the hitler bit....

put down the bong, before you post...

- - - Updated - - -

Cause Obama is in charge now.

Why is he keeping all that oil?

 

I like how you presented those facts. Don't use fake news as your source.

 

You are who claimed "we went to war for oil". Where is OUR OIL?

 

Read the article, or get someone to read it to you.

 

Again, Never ever claimed it was "our". If you can't comprehend simple english don't come spewing partisan BS. Big Western Oil Cos are the group benefiting. B I G W E S T E R N O I L COs. There nice and big and real slow I typed that for you.

 

lol! no one meant YOU pal. the war was for cheney's pals!!