Someone whom I respect said this explanation made the most sense.  I disagree and think this guy's bias has fuzzed his logic.  I expect to have dialogue about it.  Your analyis will help.  Thanks.

www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=483&row=0


Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools
THE MISSION WAS INDEED ACCOMPLISHED
The Guardian
Monday, March 20, 2006
by Greg Palast

Get off it. All the carping, belly-aching and complaining about George Bush's incompetence in Iraq, from both the Left and now the Right, is just dead wrong.

On the third anniversary of the tanks rolling over Iraq's border, most of the 59 million Homer Simpsons who voted for Bush are beginning to doubt if his mission was accomplished.


**********
Palast returns to the pages of the Guardian today with this column. Catch his commentaries weekly at CommentIsFree.Guardian.co.uk

**********


But don't kid yourself -- Bush and his co-conspirator, Dick Cheney, accomplished exactly what they set out to do. In case you've forgotten what their real mission was, let me remind you of White House spokesman Ari Fleisher's original announcement, three years ago, launching of what he called,

"Operation

Iraqi

Liberation."

O.I.L. How droll of them, how cute. Then, Karl Rove made the giggling boys in the White House change it to "OIF" -- Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the 101st Airborne wasn't sent to Basra to get its hands on Iraq's OIF.

"It's about oil," Robert Ebel told me. Who is Ebel? Formerly the CIA's top oil analyst, he was sent by the Pentagon, about a month before the invasion, to a secret confab in London with Saddam's former oil minister to finalize the plans for "liberating" Iraq's oil industry. In London, Bush's emissary Ebel also instructed Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, the man the Pentagon would choose as post-OIF oil minister for Iraq, on the correct method of disposing Iraq's crude.

And what did the USA want Iraq to do with Iraq's oil? The answer will surprise many of you: and it is uglier, more twisted, devilish and devious than anything imagined by the most conspiracy-addicted blogger. The answer can be found in a 323-page plan for Iraq's oil secretly drafted by the State Department. Our team got a hold of a copy; how, doesn't matter. The key thing is what's inside this thick Bush diktat: a directive to Iraqis to maintain a state oil company that will "enhance its relationship with OPEC."

Enhance its relationship with OPEC??? How strange: the government of the United States ordering Iraq to support the very OPEC oil cartel which is strangling our nation with outrageously high prices for crude.

Specifically, the system ordered up by the Bush cabal would keep a lid on Iraq's oil production -- limiting Iraq's oil pumping to the tight quota set by Saudi Arabia and the OPEC cartel.

There you have it. Yes, Bush went in for the oil -- not to get more of Iraq's oil, but to prevent Iraq producing too much of it.

You must keep in mind who paid for George's ranch and Dick's bunker: Big Oil. And Big Oil -- and their buck-buddies, the Saudis -- don't make money from pumping more oil, but from pumping less of it. The lower the supply, the higher the price.

It's Economics 101. The oil industry is run by a cartel, OPEC, and what economists call an "oligopoly" -- a tiny handful of operators who make more money when there's less oil, not more of it. So, every time the "insurgents" blow up a pipeline in Basra, every time Mad Mahmoud in Tehran threatens to cut supply, the price of oil leaps. And Dick and George just love it.

Dick and George didn't want more oil from Iraq, they wanted less. I know some of you, no matter what I write, insist that our President and his Veep are on the hunt for more crude so you can cheaply fill your family Hummer; that somehow, these two oil-patch babies are concerned that the price of gas in the USA is bumping up to $3 a gallon.

Not so, gentle souls. Three bucks a gallon in the States (and a quid a litre in Britain) means colossal profits for Big Oil, and that makes Dick's ticker go pitty-pat with joy. The top oily-gopolists, the five largest oil companies, pulled in $113 billion in profit in 2005 -- compared to a piddly $34 billion in 2002 before Operation Iraqi Liberation. In other words, it's been a good war for Big Oil.

As per Plan Bush, Bahr Al-Ulum became Iraq's occupation oil minister; the conquered nation "enhanced its relationship with OPEC;" and the price of oil, from Clinton peace-time to Bush war-time, shot up 317%.

In other words, on the third anniversary of invasion, we can say the attack and occupation is, indeed, a Mission Accomplished. However, it wasn't America's mission, nor the Iraqis'. It was a Mission Accomplished for OPEC and Big Oil.

**********
On June 6, Penguin Dutton will release Greg Palast's new book, Armed Madhouse: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War. Order it here today. View his investigative reports for Harper's Magazine and BBC television's Newsnight at www.GregPalast.com.

If that's true, then where the Hell is all this oil going?

Unless he is just lineing his pockets we are getting spit in the way of cheaper oil

No, it wasn't about oil, it was about Saddam Hussein and our country's safety.  And Iran is next.

Don't you peopel get tired of the same rhetoric? IS ALL BIG OIL'S FAULT!!! IT WAS CHENEY's FAULT! IS BUSH'S FAULT; HE WANTS THE OIL!!!

If he wanted the oil why didn't he invaded Venezuela or Brazil instead of Iraq? Venezuela has better oil reserves than Iraq and is closer to us, no need to be pumping the stuff into tankers then ship it across the Atlantic; makes more sense to truck it from Venezuela to panama, then pump it into tankers and move it across the Gulf Of Mexico into the US...

ASSUMING THAT ALL THESE MORONS ARE CORRECT!!!

Which I know they aren't.

Considering that the Iraqi National Oil Company (or whatever its name is) is selling as much as it can produce, limited by 30 years of neglect by Saddam, and current sabotage by terrorists, on the open market at market prices, the article is nonsense.

it was so that I could get my combat patch before I got out.

[/thread]

Quoted: No, it wasn't about oil, it was about Saddam Hussein and our country's safety.  And Iran is next.

I believe your right. Iran has chosen its fate IMO, they're rushing headlong into that which will lead to their destruction. We are trying VERY hard to avoid war but It may be inevitable

Obviously that fuckstick hasnt been to the gas station lately.

NO

Quoted: Obviously that fuckstick hasnt been to the gas station lately.

Dont know about Iraq and Oil.
But ill bet you a 100 bucks
This quarter will go down as one of the most profitable for the oil industry in a while. Everytime gasoline goes up in price the Big Oil companys make a killing

ETA
Im thinking 5 a gallon by 4th of july. Then a call to draw down the strategic oil reserve, and this time it will happen. Elections and all you know. Some time in september gasoline will come down in price but still be about 8 cents higher than the beginning of the year. Seems to be the trend last 5 years

Quoted: Quoted: Obviously that fuckstick hasnt been to the gas station lately. Dont know about Iraq and Oil. But ill bet you a 100 bucks This quarter will go down as one of the most profitable for the oil industry in a while. Everytime gasoline goes up in price the Big Oil companys make a killing ETA Im thinking 5 a gallon by 4th of july. Then a call to draw down the strategic oil reserve, and this time it will happen. Elections and all you know. Some time in september gasoline will come down in price but still be about 8 cents higher than the beginning of the year. Seems to be the trend last 5 years

what? you mean to say that when prices go up but costs stay nearly the same that profits will go up too?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Obviously that fuckstick hasnt been to the gas station lately. Dont know about Iraq and Oil. But ill bet you a 100 bucks This quarter will go down as one of the most profitable for the oil industry in a while. Everytime gasoline goes up in price the Big Oil companys make a killing ETA Im thinking 5 a gallon by 4th of july. Then a call to draw down the strategic oil reserve, and this time it will happen. Elections and all you know. Some time in september gasoline will come down in price but still be about 8 cents higher than the beginning of the year. Seems to be the trend last 5 years what? you mean to say that when prices go up but costs stay nearly the same that profits will go up too?

Step 1 : Raise costs

Step 2 : ???

Step 3 : Profit

If it were just about the oil, it would have been much easier to just make friends and buy it.

Iraqi oil is not of the highest quality.  I am under the impression that it costs quite a bit to refine compared to say Saudi oil or oil from other regions.  Can anybody confirm this?

If Iraqi oil is so great, why was Kuwait invaded?

Quoted: If it were just about the oil, it would have been much easier to just make friends and buy it.

we were buddy buddy in the 80's why not now?  

Iraqi oil is not of the highest quality.  I am under the impression that it costs quite a bit to refine compared to say Saudi oil or oil from other regions.  Can anybody confirm this?

I have heard the same

If Iraqi oil is so great, why was Kuwait invaded?

oil, but mainly a better port

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Obviously that fuckstick hasnt been to the gas station lately. Dont know about Iraq and Oil. But ill bet you a 100 bucks This quarter will go down as one of the most profitable for the oil industry in a while. Everytime gasoline goes up in price the Big Oil companys make a killing ETA Im thinking 5 a gallon by 4th of july. Then a call to draw down the strategic oil reserve, and this time it will happen. Elections and all you know. Some time in september gasoline will come down in price but still be about 8 cents higher than the beginning of the year. Seems to be the trend last 5 years what? you mean to say that when prices go up but costs stay nearly the same that profits will go up too? Step 1 : Raise costs Step 2 : ??? Step 3 : Profit

Underpants gnomes.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Obviously that fuckstick hasnt been to the gas station lately. Dont know about Iraq and Oil. But ill bet you a 100 bucks This quarter will go down as one of the most profitable for the oil industry in a while. Everytime gasoline goes up in price the Big Oil companys make a killing ETA Im thinking 5 a gallon by 4th of july. Then a call to draw down the strategic oil reserve, and this time it will happen. Elections and all you know. Some time in september gasoline will come down in price but still be about 8 cents higher than the beginning of the year. Seems to be the trend last 5 years what? you mean to say that when prices go up but costs stay nearly the same that profits will go up too? Step 1 : Raise costs Step 2 : ??? Step 3 : Profit Underpants gnomes.

Gas prices and oil is a little to big for them, they are getting help from Crab People.

The original idea came from a Manitee.