CNN is reporting that Iraq will have a budget surplus of $80 billion (yes, with a ‘B’) over the next 4 years on the backs of worldwide oil consumers, especially those here in the U.S. But didn’t we invade Iraq for the oil? ‘No war for oil’ was the incessant mantra at the start of this ill conceived, badly planned war, but those who used this expression are probably a little embarrassed now. I mean, we’re fighting the war and not getting the oil. Oh to be so wrong as to be so right!
The Iraq war has been a complete waste from its inception, to the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banners, to the insurgency, to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, to Iranian interference, to terrorists being attracted to the chaos we created like mosquitoes to a bug lite. Take the fight to them indeed. Why? So our troops can act as sacrifices, not soldiers? So we can destabilize the region? So we can make the Iraqis rich beyond their wildest dreams? Over 5 years after the start of the war, I still argue that a special forces coup would have been the way to go, and yet President Bush recently reissued the order banning assassinations of foreign leaders of state. Way to go, President Foresight!
After all, how could the Bush administration possibly capitalize on Afghanistan’s poppy trade, it’s main source of income? Is the ‘War on Drugs’ finally over? Can opiates be used as automotive fuel? I didn’t think so, and yet in 2008 we are only beginning to talk again about the consequences of our depleted troops numbers in the newly ‘Democratic’ Afghanistan. The Taliban is coming back with a vengeance, in case you haven’t heard. That’s right, we dropped the ball again.
We are running huge deficits here in California, where a lot of proposed oil exploration is expected to take place. Our leaders and the American public recognized this problem on a national level in 1978, and yet, half way around the world, a country that was supposed to greet us as liberators is selling us out.
According to McClatchy Washington Bureau (via Yahoo):
The GAO estimates that Iraq will earn $67 billion to $79 billion in oil sales this year, twice the average annual amount of revenue that it generated from oil sales from 2005 through 2007. This windfall comes despite the fact that Iraq is still struggling to approach pre-invasion oil-production levels.
No wonder they want us to go: they probably want us to leave them alone so that they can manipulate the market even further and fight a civil war over the resulting profits. I say let them and let’s drill baby, drill! Bring on the nukes. Bring on the hydrogen. Even Paris Hilton gets it!
Consider this my Declaration of Energy Independence. I’m voting Libertarian. For real change, consider Barr/Root (not Barack) 2008. I’ll be talking more about the Libertarian Presidential ticket soon, so watch for my article about my experience with VP candidate Wayne Allyn Root.
SMS
