Two years before the invasion of Iraq, oil executives and foreign policy advisers told the Bush administration that the United States would remain “a prisoner of its energy dilemma” as long as Saddam Hussein was in power.
That April 2001 report, “Strategic Policy Challenges for the 21st Century,” was prepared by the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy and the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney.
In retrospect, it appears that the report helped focus administration thinking on why it made geopolitical sense to oust Hussein, whose country sat on the world’s second largest oil reserves.
“Iraq remains a de-stabilizing influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East,” the report said.
“Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export program to manipulate oil markets. Therefore the U.S. should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq including military, energy, economic and political/diplomatic assessments.”
Everybody with half a brain figured this out a long time ago.
Oil was half of it.
ReplyDeleteThe other half was so Bush could have a legacy.
He was too much of a pussy to go to Viet Nam -- his daddy got him into the TX Nat'l Guard instead where he promptly went AWOL for 18 months, but even this idiot son understands that all great presidents have a war record to call their own.
But it didn't work out for him too well.