Reply #13: Greg Palast's theory on Iraq was that Saddam was bad for business [View All]

[Nevernose]

As long as he was just a murderous thug, we were okay with it. But when he became erratic, so did the oil market, and that was bad for business. In one of his books he provides a great deal of support (if you remember, Palast was the main journalist who blew the lid off of all the behind the scenes BS during Florida 2000).

Under this theory, it would be in the best interests of big business to see Kadaffi go now. We didn't like dealing with him to begin with, and during a potentially protracted civil war the oil markets would be even less predictable, especially given that Libya is one of the major suppliers of Western Europe's oil. Also, this gives oil companies a potentially better deal when negotiating with the victors.

We were fine dealing with a madman, as long as he was a predictable madman.

If it doesn't directly affect European/American business interests, we don't seem to be interested in military intervention, do we?