Porter Ties U.S. Withdrawal From Iraq To $9 Gasoline (Republican Congressman)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

Porter ties U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to $9 gasoline

Lawmaker reports on his trip to country

By TONY BATT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Gasoline prices could rise to about $9 per gallon if the United States withdraws troops from Iraq prematurely, Rep. Jon Porter said he was told on a trip to Iraq that ended this week.

The Nevada Republican, who returned Tuesday from his fourth trip to Iraq, met with U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Iraqi Deputy President Tariq al-Hashimi and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh.

"To a person, they said there would be genocide, gas prices in the U.S. would rise to eight or nine dollars a gallon, al-Qaida would continue its expansion, and Iran would take over that portion of the world if we leave," Porter said Wednesday in a phone interview from Las Vegas.

Porter did not elaborate on the assessment that gasoline prices could spike. His spokesman, Matt Leffingwell, said afterward that the scenario "makes sense if Iran moves into Iraq."

Read more: http://www.lvrj.com/news/9466252.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Blackmail. Fear of terror, fear of guilt resulting from Iraqi genocide, and now

fear of economic collapse, all to keep us willing to keep feeding our soldiers into the grinder and our dollars into the toilet. Shameless fucks.

[tridim]

2. So, to maintain our current gas prices (which have already doubled BTW)..

We have to stay in Iraq forever and bankrupt our country? Gee, thanks Bush and Porter. You Republics are so smart!

[Buzz Clik]

3. be afraid ... yawn .... be very afraid.

[lonestarnot]

22. Knap! now! Knap alert!

God I need a knap...:snore::boring:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. People will blame it on President Bush

fool

[Serial Mom]

5. So, it WAS about the oil....

but if the auto industry developed cars that could get 45-50 mpg, that could reduce the demand and in the oil industry's own words, the supply would increase, reducing the price.

OR

If the auto industry developed a TOTALLY new way to power vehicles without the combustible engine, what could that do to oil prices and what could Iran, controlling a large portion of that part of the world supposedly, hold over us anymore?

HYPOCRITES and GREED - all of them!

[PurityOfEssence]

8. Shhhhh.

Subversive.

[Newsjock]

6. Read this as a GOP threat of extortion

Don't doubt them for a second. If we pull out of Iraq, gas may indeed rise to $9 a gallon ... because the neocons and the oil companies will make it happen. Why? To punish us. Just the same way they punished the people of California in 2001 with blackouts and soaring electricity bills.

Rep. Porter speaks the truth, but not in the way we may think. And how do we fight these criminal thugs?

[EVDebs]

7. However, in order to prevent a war with Iran gas prices should DROP DRAMATICALLY

and thus further instability inside Iran and foment more gasoline rioting inside the Islamic Republic itself. Iran has very little domestic refining capability which some see as a further rationale for why they want to go nuclear in the first place.

Maybe another No Korea deal is possible if enough pressure is applied via Saudi flooding the market with Russian assistance ?

A case where diplomacy and the 'foggy bottom boys' could pre-empt the 'crazies in the (WH) basement', as I've heard them called during the Reagan heyday.

[mainegreen]

9. What a load of horse shit. The oil will flow no matter what.

The amount of oil on the market wont change all that much if we pull out, and gas sure as hell won't spike to $9. Hell, with our military pulled out, won't that mean that global oil consumption will drop, as our military will be consuming vastly less oil? (They sure do use a lot of the stuff when we're at .... war( if that's what this is))

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Too bad, Porter. Iraq is supposed to be a sovereign country. It should be able to

control its own oil assets, make 'friends' with whichever countries it wants, and provide for its own security.

[AllyCat]

13. They no longer have any oil assets. Bremer sold them all off to

private interests. But it sure would put a wrench in their plans if Iraqis were controlling the flow since we weren't there to keep watch, eh?

[Hestia]

14. Ya'll really really need to read Greg Palast's "Armed Madhouse"

Iraq hasn't had control of their oil since 1927, when Winston Churchill magically created the country of Iraq. All the Big Oil companies agreed back then NOT to pump any oil out of Iraq - period. It was a gentleman's agreement, signed on a red line, that continues to this day.

The major reason Big Oil went after Saddam is, he kept jerking around with the price of oil. One day he'd have the spiggot on full blast - price would drop; then he'd get pissed about something, turn off the spiggot - price would rise. Big Oil and OPEC couldn't allow a country like Iraq have that much control over the price of oil.

Another point of interest is that the Neo-cons/Pentagon are fighting the State Dept/Big Oil. That is why you keep seeing conflicting stories coming out on the MSM.

Who really scares Big Oil and OPEC? Venezula - as long as the price of oil stays above $40 per barrel, Chavez is raking in the money, but keeping it in Venezula, instead of going to New York and London, via IMF and World Bank. Venezula has 90% of the oil reserves, which would make Saudi Arabia number 2 on reserves.

Lots of great information in this book.

[AllyCat]

30. It's a great book, huh? Saddam was messing with everything

Bremer signed his 100 new orders to make sure the Iraqis would never control their own oil again. But it all started with Churchill...what a guy!

[Bitwit1234]

11. We or no one else, as far as we have been told

are getting our gas from Iraq. I do know if we are the oil companies are cleaning up.

[AllyCat]

12. Hmmm.. I predict the opposite. Prices will fall as soon as Iraqis run their

own oil fields. And Big Oil sure doesn't want that! And the neo-cons dream of busting OPEC will be all but gone.

Oh the terror of it all!

$8-9/gallon...no THAT might get people to press for higher fuel efficiency standards, less driving, and smaller vehicles. That sounds like terror too!

[DCKit]

21. "Neocon dreams of busting OPEC"?

I thought the House of Saud ran OPEC and owned the neocons. What did I miss?

Saddam was a loose cannon and subverted OPEC to his personal gain. If there's any good explanation for this invasion, that's it.

[AllyCat]

29. This is from Greg Palast's book

He talks about the neocons and Big Oil being at odds. They both wanted to control Iraq's oil, but Big Oil wanted to squelch it and the neocons wanted to increase production to 12M barrels/day so that they could outproduce Saudi Arabia and take a modicum of control over OPEC. According to Palast, this is all on the PNAC website (I've not had the guts or desire to go looking there).The Saudis, of course, didn't want this, nor did Big Oil. They stopped Bremer in his tracks.

Oil production from Iraq was at an all time low in 2005 of 1.4 million barrels a day (below Saddam's OPEC-imposed quota of 2 or 3M--I forget which). And of course, gas has been at record prices from that time on.

[Bandit]

15. They have been so very accurate on their other predictions that

they have to be completely correct on this one as well. :shrug:

[donkeyotay]

16. All good GOP freemarketeers BELIEVE in the market

I believe in the market they chanted through Reagan and Bush and Clinton. Supply and demand. Lost your job? Too bad - competition is good. So if they want to be consistent, then Iraq has the absolute right - without fear of invasion by anti-capitalists - to set its price at $9/barrel and get it if they can. We have the right to drive smaller cars or come up with new industries besides war all the time.

[chill_wind]

24. Well said! n/t

[DrDan]

17. next will be the cancellation of American Idol

Then Big Macs to $7.50 . . . .

These bastards have no shame . . . they will threaten anything to sell this debacle to the twenty-niners . . .

[rodeodance]

18. r

[gratuitous]

19. You don't pay for your own gas, Mr. Porter

So what the fuck do you care if gas is 9 bucks a gallon?

[AntiFascist]

20. So Republicans are admitting it is about the oil n/t

[jamesinca]

23. makes me wonder how dirty the US was

The oil for food program must have been a cash cow/ gravy train for the oil companies if getting out will make it $9 a gallon. Sen. Norm Coleman dropped that investigation real quick when he found out the US was over 50% of the problem.

[Fovea]

25. Ah, at last they tell us.

That it was, is, and will continue to be about oil.

Not about democracy in the middle east. Not about the pottery barn rule. Not about fighting them over there so they won't run for president over here.

It's all about the price of oil.

And some rich fucks getting fatter than Jabba, the Exxon CEO.

Let me say it for the umteenth time...

Want America back?

Nationalize Oil, Coal, and Natural gas.
Keep the profits. Eat the oligarchs.

[minnesota_liberal]

26. Mushroom clouds, another 9/11 and $9 gas: Oh My!

It's just more fearmongering from the same Kool-Aid drinkers who were trying to scare us in 2004.

You want predictions? Look back 5 years when the Repubs were predicting an easy victory in Iraq, a war that would "pay for itself," crowds that would greet our troops with flowers and candy.

[Javaman]

27. Pffft! it's going to be that price eventually, so might as well pull them out now

while we can still get them home while fuel is "cheap".

[TankLV]

28. this asswipe is my congress asshole...

in his 3rd fucking term thanks to the fucking mormons and other repuke idiots here...