The Iraq War - Was it really about oil?
The Iraq War - Was it really about oil?
A common topic in the early 2000's that still shapes the political discourse today, a common question posited has always been; was the Iraq War about oil? My opinion is, well, probably not. Other than not getting the oil, which is predominately going to France, China, and Russia, [1][2] it wouldn't have even made logical sense to get the oil. Opening up foreign trade with an opposing oil company would have only hurt American companies, and if they somehow had obtained the oil, oil is only valuable because it's rare, just like gold, and more oil on the market means lower prices for oil companies. It's a lot like suggesting American manufacturing companies were behind the outsourcing to China; not only is there a lack of evidence, but it would actually hurt their own self-interests, so why would they even do it? There's not a single shred of evidence to actually suggest the invasion was motivated by a desire to obtain oil, other than people's words that the other side was thinking about it.
When something could have been done and people chose not to do it, it's usually good evidence they didn't want to do those things. The most powerful military in the world and the region just decided, without any external pressures, to allow it to go to other countries. They had all the ability to get the oil, and then decided "Nah, after taking over the world and leading them to think we needed to invade Iraq, let's not do the thing we spent trillions of dollars to do." A bank robber doesn't stop mid bank robbery when being called out; he keeps going until someone stops him. It's still possible some people are guilty of thought crimes, but even if they are evil, they likely wouldn't have wanted oil from Iraq. So, what about the other conspiracy theories associated with the war?
Well WMD's were actually found in 2006, Pakistan made the Taliban and then hid Osama Bin Laden over 6 years after the soviet-Afghanistan war with Russia was over, meaning we uh, did not create them. The Nigerian uranium forgeries were by the Italian government, and was one small part of the justification for the rest of the war which largely focused around humanitarian purposes and the other WMD's.
Nearly 500,000 or more people died before the Americans ever showed up, and some 200,000 are believed to have died after. But contrary to uh, some belief the Americans did not go back in time and cause Saddam to start massacring his own people, prior to their invasion. It isn't reasonable to say that America or the other two dozen+ countries involved in the war were responsible for the massive death toll given that A- they didn't commit the massacres themselves and B- Saddam was in the process of trying to annihilate the entire Kurdish population as well as millions others long before the U.S. or the allied coalition got involved. It makes about as much sense to blame emergency services for deaths after a hurricane or American troops for the death of the Jews by the Germans, it wasn't done by them and the mass murders were taking place long before we even got involved. As for "well, why wen're you involved in this other war?!" the short answer is we likely were, and the long answer is that we can't donate to every charity we want to. I.E. we aren't monsters just because we donated to cancer charities instead of AID's. Over 90% of Iraq's military equipment came from Chinese, Russian and French origin, somewhat strangely the three countries benefiting the most from the Iraq oil.
Now, many of you might be thinking "why did people believe these things for over 15 years if a 10 minute google search could have revealed they were false?". Well, that's a very good question. A lot of comes from the "listen-and-believe" mentality where you just basically believe whatever it is someone says without question, and then don't ever question it. It's a pretty effective strategy that's worked for politicians for decades.
But what do you think, Mythweavers?
A common topic in the early 2000's that still shapes the political discourse today, a common question posited has always been; was the Iraq War about oil? My opinion is, well, probably not. Other than not getting the oil, which is predominately going to France, China, and Russia, [1][2] it wouldn't have even made logical sense to get the oil. Opening up foreign trade with an opposing oil company would have only hurt American companies, and if they somehow had obtained the oil, oil is only valuable because it's rare, just like gold, and more oil on the market means lower prices for oil companies. It's a lot like suggesting American manufacturing companies were behind the outsourcing to China; not only is there a lack of evidence, but it would actually hurt their own self-interests, so why would they even do it? There's not a single shred of evidence to actually suggest the invasion was motivated by a desire to obtain oil, other than people's words that the other side was thinking about it.
When something could have been done and people chose not to do it, it's usually good evidence they didn't want to do those things. The most powerful military in the world and the region just decided, without any external pressures, to allow it to go to other countries. They had all the ability to get the oil, and then decided "Nah, after taking over the world and leading them to think we needed to invade Iraq, let's not do the thing we spent trillions of dollars to do." A bank robber doesn't stop mid bank robbery when being called out; he keeps going until someone stops him. It's still possible some people are guilty of thought crimes, but even if they are evil, they likely wouldn't have wanted oil from Iraq. So, what about the other conspiracy theories associated with the war?
Well WMD's were actually found in 2006, Pakistan made the Taliban and then hid Osama Bin Laden over 6 years after the soviet-Afghanistan war with Russia was over, meaning we uh, did not create them. The Nigerian uranium forgeries were by the Italian government, and was one small part of the justification for the rest of the war which largely focused around humanitarian purposes and the other WMD's.
Nearly 500,000 or more people died before the Americans ever showed up, and some 200,000 are believed to have died after. But contrary to uh, some belief the Americans did not go back in time and cause Saddam to start massacring his own people, prior to their invasion. It isn't reasonable to say that America or the other two dozen+ countries involved in the war were responsible for the massive death toll given that A- they didn't commit the massacres themselves and B- Saddam was in the process of trying to annihilate the entire Kurdish population as well as millions others long before the U.S. or the allied coalition got involved. It makes about as much sense to blame emergency services for deaths after a hurricane or American troops for the death of the Jews by the Germans, it wasn't done by them and the mass murders were taking place long before we even got involved. As for "well, why wen're you involved in this other war?!" the short answer is we likely were, and the long answer is that we can't donate to every charity we want to. I.E. we aren't monsters just because we donated to cancer charities instead of AID's. Over 90% of Iraq's military equipment came from Chinese, Russian and French origin, somewhat strangely the three countries benefiting the most from the Iraq oil.
Now, many of you might be thinking "why did people believe these things for over 15 years if a 10 minute google search could have revealed they were false?". Well, that's a very good question. A lot of comes from the "listen-and-believe" mentality where you just basically believe whatever it is someone says without question, and then don't ever question it. It's a pretty effective strategy that's worked for politicians for decades.
But what do you think, Mythweavers?