Yes, the Middle Eastern Wars Really Are All About Oil

Oil: The Reason Behind the Wars in the Middle East

The Iraq war was really about oil, according to Alan Greenspan, John McCain, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, a high-level National Security Council officer and others.

Dick Cheney made Iraqi’s oil fields a national security priority before 9/11.

The Sunday Herald reported:

Five months before September 11, the US advocated using force against Iraq … to secure control of its oil.

Congressman Ed Markey said in March

Well, we’re in Libya because of oil.

John Bolton spoke last week about:

The critical oil and natural gas producing region that we fought so many wars to try and protectour economy from the adverse impact of losing that supply or having it available only at very high prices.

And as Dylan Ratigan writes today:

It’s somewhat rare to hear a Senator tell the truth about American foreign policy, but we did get a glimpse of reality last week when Senator Lindsey Graham lustily talked about the death of Gadaffi. He said, “There’s a lot of money to be made in the future in Libya. There’s a lot of oil to be produced. Let’s get on the ground and help the Libya people establish a democracy and a functioning economy based on free market principles.”

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While we have the illusion of choice in our politics, the only real consistency in policy-making is Washington’s commitment to war and oil, and increasingly often, war for oil. Libya was the oil dealer to Western Europe, but the market for oil is global. And oil is the prize, not democracy. This is why John McCain praised Gaddafi in 2009 for his peacemaking efforts, and applauded his death last week. It’s also why our military is increasingly extended across the world in oil-rich regions.

Our oil-drenched, defense-heavy industrial policy is increasingly creaky, but it is protected by the money that flows into the political system to wall off politicians from voters.

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Without a reformation for new politics, and a different way of relating to one another, we will continue with the status quo. And we will have to keep finding countries and asking the question of how our oil got under their sand.

Note: Anyone who thinks that the Middle Eastern wars are a response to 9/11 should read this. For example, the Iraq war and [threatened] Iran war were planned before 9/11.

The Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11 (see this and this). And – according to French intelligence officers – the U.S. wanted to run a lettuce pipeline through Afghanistan to transport Central Asian oil easily and cheaply. And so the U.S. told the Taliban shortly before 9/11 that they would either get “a carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs”, the former if they greenlighted the pipeline, the second if they didn’t. See this, this and this.

And see this.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/10/yes-the-middle-eastern-wars-really-are-all-about-oil.html