British MP: Iraq war was for oil

[bemildred]

Labour MP and former UK environment minister Michael Meacher slammed Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush for starting a war he said was to secure oil interests.

"The reason they attacked Iraq is nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, it was nothing to do with democracy in Iraq, it was nothing to do with the human rights abuses of Saddam Hussein," he said on Friday at the sidelines of the Fourth International Workshop on Oil & Gas Depletion in Lisbon, Portugal.

When asked by Aljazeera.net whether the war in Iraq was about oil he said "the connection is 100%. It is absolutely overwhelming".

Meacher connected the wars in Iraq with a desire by US and UK interests to dominate oil supplies in times of increasing market volatility. He also thought the war was designed to pressure Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil supplier.

al Jazeera

[napi21]

1. So when is ShrubCo going to start slamming England?

Too bad the Brits have the ba**s to say what most of us have been saying for a very long time. When do you suppose Rove is going to put the word out to slam the Brits 'cause they don't agree with us?

[K8-EEE]

9. Uh-oh! Brit Bill O'Reilly Boycott Coming -- YAWN

Yeah they hate the French and they weren't NEARLY as honest about the evildoers. No more Guiness for splotchy! He'll have to check his loofas for the "made in UK" label...

[LynnTheDem]

13. Don't forget POLAND! Poland admitted it was for the oil right from the

start.

Talk about stunning hypocrisy still; POLAND...a nation that KNOWS EXACTLY how horrendous it is to be invaded...turns around and joins an INVASION of a sovereign nation that Poland KNEW was no threat, KNEW was not in need of any "humanitarian intervention", KNEW the "mass graves worse than Hitler murdered millions/500,000/400,000/300,000 was all bullshit, KNEW there were no ties whatsoever to 911 and/or al Qaeda.

And yet for OIL, Poland INVADED a sovereign nation.

I don't EVER again want to hear about the suffering Poland went through when they were invaded. By invading Iraq, Poland made every death they had during Hitler's occupation IRRELEVANT and for NOTHING whatsoever.

Just as BUSH has done to the millions of Americans who died fighting AGAINST nations whose leaders launched wars of aggression, resource wars, and imperialism.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Dem US senator admit to the truth too?

Just one. Don't hold your breath while waiting for one to do so.

Don

[chlamor]

6. That's the rub

"Just One"

In my eyes they are all cowards and complicit in their silence. When the truth has been silenced the silence becomes a lie. They are ALL liars.

Just say the simple words-Treason and Lies.
Then proceed with the simple and required process of withdrawal from Iraq and impeachment of all the responsible parties.

I won't be holding my breath. The US Senate has become a corpulent cult and when even the mildest whisper of resistance is heard all the liberal onlookers begin cheerleading because we have come to expect so little.

[Iowa]

7. Great post chlamor!

You are an accomplished wordsmith.... sums up my feelings exactly.

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[cyberpj]

11. "Just One" - The same number of Dem senators it would have taken in 2000.

So I'm with you. Either they're too beholden to their own corporate feeding tubes or are afraid of the BushCo Rove machine if they have any skeletons at all in the closet (and who doesn't?) I think both are true.

Meanwhile -- If/when things start to turn around --I'm going to be really pissed when all Dems start taking credit for it ---when it was groups like DU and bloggers and the goddamn Internets that did it!!

[Jacobin]

10. Yes. I'm waiting, not so patiently, for that to happen

[ckramer]

12. Truth?

How much a pound?

Telling the truth is optional. Nobody wants to tell the truth. Democracy is not about truth, it's about votes. Everything said and done are designed for the next election. If the law permits, they would kill to get votes.

Haha, boosh is selling this political system to Iraqis.

[Career Prole]

3. Smart man.

He knows the tide's turning! :bounce:

[cliss]

4. Well, I would say it was for 2 reasons; and they are both oil-

related. One was to establish bases in the area so we could spy on the entire Middle East. The other was to start pumping the oil.

James Howard Kunstler explains the situation in his new book, The Long Emergency. "The Iraq war is not hard to understand. It wasn't an attempt to steal Iraq's oil. It was not a matter of stealing the oil; it was a matter of retaining access to it. It was an attempt to stabilize the region of the world that holds two-thirds of the remaining oil, namely, the Middle East.

We opened a police station in the Middle East, and Iraq just happened to be the best candidate for it.We desperately wanted the oil supplies to continue coming out of them in a reliable way. So the Iraq venture was all about stabilizing the Middle East. It raises the obvious question: how long can the US hope to occupy unfriendly nations? The answer = not for long.

[dArKeR]

5. For Cheney yes but for aWol it was to destroy Islam and other non-

Christian based religions.

[killbotfactory]

8. Some neocon's actually believe their own hype

It was about spreading freedom AND controlling oil. So it's okay.