Among the shifting rationales for the war in Iraq, the most plausible motive may be the least discussed: access to oil.

by Kevin Phillips

In sum, the energy-related price of the administration’s dishonesty and massive miscalculation in Iraq ought to be a central discussion point in this election year and again in 2008.

[emphasis added]

see also:

Yes, It’s About Oil, at Greg Palast’s site

Short answer: It’s the oil, stupid.

and

Oil and Iraq, by the Global Policy Forum

The four giant firms located in the US and the UK have been keen to get back into Iraq, from which they were excluded with the nationalization of 1972. During the final years of the Saddam era, they envied companies from France, Russia, China, and elsewhere, who had obtained major contracts. But UN sanctions (kept in place by the US and the UK) kept those contracts inoperable. Since the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, everything has changed and the companies have been scrambling to grab their share of the spoils. In the new setting, with Washington running the show, “friendly” companies expect to gain most of the lucrative oil deals that will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars in profits in the coming decades.

1) After 9/11, Bushco diverted resources and manpower from capturing Osama bin Laden and shutting down the Taliban in Afghanistan as Bushco prepared for starting a war with Iraq, a country which was not involved in the 9/11 attacks.

2) Before 9/11, Bushco diverted the attention of our intelligence assets into preparing for war with Iraq while blowing off completely the threat that al Qaeda posed to U.S. citizens.

Of course, maybe George W. Bush, when he had the August 6th, 2001 PDB read to him, thought that Osama bin Laden was a Labor Organizer who was determined to “strike” inside the United States? Hey, if I remember correctly, during the 2000 presidential campaign, Georgie got some world leaders mixed up. Sometimes one wonders exactly what kind of medication Bush is on.

It is a certainty several very complete and
revealing books and histories will be done.
The Bush WH will have little control over any
of this. Call it the McNamara effect.

Clearly the pre-invasion effort remains the
darker episode thus far. It is surely going
to become known. Much like the machinations
of the Vietnam War era are now known.

The neocons wanted this war very badly.It
is likely oil and the control of oil was a
big reason also. The biggest story being?
That G.W.Bush was only a patsy,frontman and
huckster for a deeper run operation out of
the VPs office. Making G.W. the new version
of W.G.Harding.

W is not the sharpest pencil in the drawer
it is plain to see. That combined with some
other character qualities and flaws made him
the perfect puppet for shaded out puppeteers.

Here in mid 2006 it is plainly evident
the GOP run Congress was derelict in not
fulfilling its constitutional duties and
powers. What happened to Congress? Too
much money flooding in,single party control
corruption and spineless conduct three good
possible answers.

Why is Sen.Roberts pouring lots of “slow”
on getting anything completed anytime quick?

This election cycle is bringing on once
again a ferocious attack from the GOP and
the Bush WH to hold on to agenda control.

It is plain they are very afraid to lose
that power. These last 2 years of the Bush2
WH may well be the unreeling of all previous
6 years of Bush WH chicanery and deceit.

Sorry I missed your earlier post! :)

G.

You might find the following interesting. It’s apparent that Chimpy, et al, had Iraq in their sights long before 9/11.

Thanks to you, Jane, and the Mighty Firedoglake columnists/commentators, who make this blog such fun.

“…In interviews I conducted last fall, a well-known journalist, biographer and Bush family friend who worked for a time with Bush on a ghostwritten memoir said that an Iraq war was always on Bush’s brain.

“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and Houston Chronicle journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said, ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He went on, ‘If I have a chance to invade…, if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.’”

Bush apparently accepted a view that Herskowitz, with his long experience of writing books with top Republicans, says was a common sentiment: that no president could be considered truly successful without one military “win” under his belt. Leading Republicans had long been enthralled by the effect of the minuscule Falklands War on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s popularity, and ridiculed Democrats such as Jimmy Carter who were reluctant to use American force. Indeed, both Reagan and Bush’s father successfully prosecuted limited invasions (Grenada, Panama and the Gulf War) without miring the United States in endless conflicts.

Herskowitz’s revelations illuminate Bush’s personal motivation for invading Iraq and, more importantly, his general inclination to use war to advance his domestic political ends. Furthermore, they establish that this thinking predated 9/11, predated his election to the presidency and predated his appointment of leading neoconservatives who had their own, separate, more complex geopolitical rationale for supporting an invasion.

http://www.russbaker.com/TomPaine_com – Why George Went To War.htm

.

So it was Valerie all along who was their target. Take down Valerie and chill all other CIA employees. It had been unthinkable that a government would expose and betray their own agent and all her secret links. Now it’s not unthinkable. Now it’s another Cheney warning, Be Afraid.

Yes, I think it’s no accident that Plame and her entire cover operation got burned. By the time Joe Wilson wrote his article, it was clear the Administration wasn’t getting the kind of “intelligence” out of Iraq they wanted. Solution? Compromise the agent. Now there’s maybe not anyone left on the ground to contradict bogus information about WMD’s in Iraq… Iran… fill in the blank. Obstacle removed… who cares about the cost.