General Barry McCaffree: Iraq War is about OIL.

[Eric J in MN]

McCaffree just said that on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews.

Wish he told us before the US invaded.

He also said that we have to give more money to the military and we can't let Iraq become a failed state, or it will spread problems to Saudi Arabia and the other neighbors, disturbing our oil supply.

(A new domino theory, though he didn't call it that.)

[mike_c]

1. domino theory, domino theory...!

Hell, it was so right the first time, it's probably true in the ME as well.

Oh, wait a minute....

[Eric J in MN]

4. The irony is that the topic of the interview was....

...comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq, but General Barry McCaffree said that without intending to evoke Vietnam.

[yourout]

2. I have a better idea.........lets spend money on breaking our oil addicition.

It can be done....we just need the will power to do it.

[MGD]

12. That's what I'm talking about.

Make fossil fuels obsolete and watch thousands of empires crumble overnight. What a dream.

[Kolesar]

25. 55 miles per hour...eom

[mymomwasright]

3. Become a failed state?

It already is! The only thing we're doing is delaying the inevitable. The Kurds had a referendum on separation. The Shia are preparing for when we leave (civil war), and the Sunni are wishing in one hand and....

[Eric J in MN]

5. I agree. Also, I have more confidence that the Iraqis can improve...

...things if the US occupation ends than if it continues.

[enuffs_enuffs]

6. Thanks Mr. Obvious... btw, McCaffree eat me. n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Barely McFree has a funny way of trying to display his tough

stance on various issues. It's the mouth gestures that get me.... he needs to cut it out.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Really? I wonder what Barry McCaffrey has to say on the subject

"This is the most competent and brilliantly led military in a tactical and operational sense that we have ever fielded.... There is no reason why the U.S. cannot achieve our objectives in Iraq."

-the other Barry McCaffrey, on the war in Iraq.

[EVDebs]

9. Those 14 'Permanent Bases' are what's fuelling the insurgency

and the Quakers, by putting those bases on their website, made themselves targets of the administration and NSA

www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.html

and

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0930/p17s02-cogn.html

and

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0131-10.htm

show that these bases tell Iraqis that we're in Iraq to stay permanently

just like the old plans from '73

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/01/02/MNG8G427D61.DTL

that Rummy and Cheney both must have dusted off and renamed "Iraq" crossing off "Saudi Arabia".

[H2O Man]

11. True.

You are absolutely correct.

[AnnInLa]

10. It is about oil, and a long-range plan

to position the U.S. on top of, or very near the few huge fields of oil left in the world. The final conflagration will be over oil.

[MGD]

13. "The final conflagration will be over oil."

"will be"? Welcome to the future.

[EVDebs]

14. Dems MUST make alternative energy a priority NOW ! nt

[NNN0LHI]

15. How much oil could we have bought for the $400 billion Bush pissed away in Iraq so far?

A lot I bet you.

Don

[MGD]

16. $400 billion = 1,600,000,000 gallons of gasoline @ $2.50 a gallon.

or about 416 days worth of gasoline at our current rate of consumption (384.7 million gallons/day).

or, if you prefer to look at it from a crude oil perspective, 7,955,449,483 barrels of oil at $50.28/barrel which is equal to 382.43 days of oil consumption at our current rate of 20,802,000 barrels a day (at 42 gallons/barrel).

This site is pretty informative.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickoil.html

[never cry wolf]

20. You mean 160,000,000,000 gallons

not nitpicking, just a couple of decimal places.

[me b zola]

17. I heard this when it aired and almost fell out of my chair

McCaffree flat out admitted what many critics of the war have said long before the "shock & awe" began. Oil is what our sons & daughters, brothers & sisters, fathers & mothers are dying for every day.



Thanks for posting, Eric. Recommended.

[Disturbed]

18. It's also about water.

The US Multi-Corps are fueling this war in the ME. It's about a lot of things besides oil, although oil is top priority.

[Joanne98]

22. Blue gold

[Subdivisions]

19. Der-der-derrrrr!

ala Carlos Mencia.

[AntiFascist]

21. Funny how the truth is FINALLY coming out...

and we used to be criticized for stating this obvious fact.

[leeroysphitz]

23. I also liked how he just casually mentioned that "spreading democracy"

was just a rationalization for the U.S. occupation that materialized only after WMD's did not.

I couldn't believe that I was actually hearing these things that we've all known
for years now coming out of one of the talking heads on TV! Is the whole world
turning upside down?

[Celebration]

24. He also said

Invading Iran or targeting it with missiles would be unmitigated disaster. Our oil supply would be cut off and we would be in huge trouble within a week. He said he always learned that people should not talk tough unless they were prepared to follow through, and that this administration talked tough without the ability to back up the talk.

On another note, the McCain plan to bring in an additional 20,000 troups temporarily got a big thumbs down from him.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

26. Iraq became a failed state when we toppled Saddam

It would have been very difficult to turn out any other way.

Paul Bremmer guaranteed it would go badly when he disbanded the Iraqi army and fired all the members of the Baa-th party. We didn't have enough troops to step in and fill the power vacuum.

Bremmer also didn't know that most civil servants in Iraq had to be party members. He accidentally fired all 50,000 teachers in the country when he fired the party members. Another neo-con genius in action.

In scientific terms, it was a complete unmitigated cluster-fuck from the get-go.

[cassiepriam]

27. Bush got greedy, now we may end up with no oil.

[baby_mouse]

28. Can we have a Scrabble theory?

I'm no good at dominos. Also, internet spelling might improve.

[Roland99]

29. Wouldn't it behoove this nation to sink hundreds of billions into, oh, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY???

But, then again, those of the ilk discussed by Dan Rather on HD Net (the denizens of K Street) wouldn't rake in their lucrative paychecks. And, we all know we can't have starving lobbyists. Much better to have millions in poverty, thousands drowning in NOLA, millions sick due to lack of healthcare, etc. than have a few lobbyists suffer thru non-6-figure-paying jobs.