White House: We are staying in Iraq to protect the oil

This morning, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said it himself:

"The reasons we went to Iraq are well understood and had to do with[weapons of mass destruction], enforcing U.N. sanctions. To the extentthat oil has anything to do with our engagement in Iraq today, it isthe danger that al Qaeda could obtain control of oil assets and usethem to threaten our interests.???‚¬??

Alan Greenspan said roughly the same thing:

"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq  war is largely about oil."

So the White House really thinks al Qaeda is going to take over the oil in Iraq?  The terrorist organization neither has the capacity nor the force to seize and hold Iraqi oil installations.  What Tony Fratto said was a miscalculation at best, and a deliberate lie at worst.

Al Qaeda is still amassing along the Afghan-Pakistani border.  No wonder the terrorist organization wants us to remain in Iraq.

Comments

[granny]

I think the thought is that Iran will take it.Along with a lot of other stuff...like land.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Yeah, I know what they are thinking. But if we weren't concerned with oil, and took a larger step towards energy independence, which would help create jobs by the way, then we wouldn't be worried about potential energy disasters in the Mideast.

[Ted K.]

I hear you about taking a large step in our own energy independence.

So I am sure you both will back me up in calling for the Drilling in Anwar and off the coasts so we can get and use our own oil and cut out some of that Mid-East crude, while in tandem trying to come up with more efficient energy sources and using more nuclear power plants.

[niggapuhleez]

Ted K.

Come out of your cave and savor the sweet fragrance of rationality!

Expanding our quest for oil into ANWAR totally ignores the need to find a new fuel for the new century. By encouraging continued reliance on fossil fuels, you play into the hands of those who stand to profit from our perpetual dependency. Dependency which threatens our national security!

Opening ANBAR is merely a short-term "band-aid" for the problem, the only sensible long-term fix is to find cleaner alternative fuels and abandon fossil fuels to the troglodytes. Then we can sit back and sell our "black gold" to the "suckers" (AKA the rest of the world)!