Greenspan clarifies Iraq war, oil link

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC

Says he told White House ousting Saddam was 'essential' to world supplies

WASHINGTON - Clarifying a controversial comment in his new memoir, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he told the White House before the Iraq war that removing Saddam Hussein was “essential” to secure world oil supplies, according to an interview published on Monday.

Greenspan, who wrote in his memoir that “the Iraq War is largely about oil,” said in a Washington Post interview that while securing global oil supplies was “not the administration’s motive,” he had presented the White House before the 2003 invasion with the case for why removing the then-Iraqi leader was important for the global economy.

“I was not saying that that’s the administration’s motive,” Greenspan said in the interview conducted on Saturday. “I’m just saying that if somebody asked me, ’Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?’ I would say it was essential.”

In his new book “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World,” Greenspan wrote: “I’m saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: The Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20817260/

[soothsayer]

1. he totally pussed out

[sabra]

2. yes and no - he is saying that he presented the case of why taking out Saddam

was good for "our" economic interests to the WH...

[modrepub]

14. Really?

Sing to PINK FLOYD'S: PIGS (THREE DIFFERENT KINDS)

Allen you're nearly a laugh,
Allen you're nearly a laugh,
But you're really a cry!

[tanyev]

19. Naw, that's just a clarification.

The war was all about oil--and he doesn't think there's anything wrong with that.

[Lasher]

3. Oh look, somebody's pressing the button on the remote that works Alan's shock collar

It didn't take long for this "lifelong libertarian Republican" to toe the line.

[bdamomma]

4. going by what Greg Palast said

in Armed Madhouse he clearly commented that Saddam was taken out because he was jerking around with the oil prices, my what a web we weave, killing people for their resources. Sickening truly sickening.

[soothsayer]

5. going to the petro-euro instead of the petro-dollar threatened our economy

[Lasher]

8. It was oil but not just oil

I was thinking about Saddam's plan to switch to euros just before I saw your post. Here is an interesting summary of the real reasons we invaded Iraq:

The two fundamental reasons are (1) Oil, and (2) Israel. But the mechanical reasons are (1) the neocon lobby, (2) Cheney as VP, and (3) Bush's desire to prove himself and best his father. The neocons discuss mainly on the needs of Israel (the WMD they were truely concerned about were Scuds aimed at Israel), but Cheney and Rumsfeld may be more focussed on oil.

http://zfacts.com/p/775.html

[arewenotdemo]

20. Oil and Israel.

That should have been clear from the start to anyone with his/her eyes even half-way open.

[bdamomma]

11. oh that petro euro definitely, they (*co) definitely worried about

that euro.

[WCGreen]

17. You got that right,,,,

[Lasher]

22. I need so help with this.

So Bushco was so afraid that Iraq wouold start trading in euros instead of dollars, significantly reducing the value of our currency. But the same junta has been intentionally driving down the value of the US dollar in relation to other currencies.

I don't get it. Help me out.

[WCGreen]

24. It's different.....

They were affraid that the other OPEC countries would switch to Euro's as there Fiat currency which basically means what currency is most accepted...

Now that won't happen anytime soon anyway since the Russian Mob and the Columbian Drug Lords all conduct their business in Dollars...

But it would have been a more serious threat had the other OPEC countries tried to fuck with us by violently devaluing our currency...

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

6. Andrea probably had a little pillow talk with old Alan

& told him they would be kicked out of the cool kid's club if he didn't back down.

[Xipe Totec]

7. Shows how much he knows...

As submitted to Oil & Gas Journal for publication February 3, 2003


The potential for an energy crisis has never been higher. Oil prices have recently exceeded $30 per barrel and they may continue to increase. The disruption of Venezuelan oil supplies has increased the US dependence on Middle Eastern oil and made the US more susceptible to supply interruption. With the crisis in Venezuela, the capacity of OPEC to meet any additional supply interruption is limited and a war with Iraq would put OPEC at its limit. Any energy crisis in the near future will hinder President Bush’s efforts to stimulate the economy through tax cuts and other fiscal measures. An energy crisis could cause a recession, inflation, and higher unemployment.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x77290


removing Saddam Hussein was “essential” to secure world oil supplies?

:rofl:

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. Greenspan's an incoherent douchebag

I saw him preening last night on 60 Minutes, bragging about how he uses inscrutable prose to hide his meaningless drivel from the public. That's his version of democracy - a slim elite of technocrats obfuscating every decision that make in order to retain power. It's amazing that he would declare this so openly now. But it's par for the course for the Ayn Randian assholes, pretending to individualism in the unfettered field, while at the same time doing everything in their power to make sure the field is not at all unfettered. What a fucking dick that guy is.

[gratuitous]

10. I missed 60 Minutes; caught the Today Show

Matt Lauer apparently had had his Wheaties this morning, and was actually asking a few questions of the Maestro. Of course, the nonsensical answers Greenspan gave were ignored by Lauer as he asked his next question. Greenspan now claims that he was forcefully opposing the Bush administration, but (get this) nobody was listening to him. File that under the heading of "You've Gotta Be Shittin' Me."

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. It was amazing on 60 Minutes

Just after he gets done crowing about how he mystifies audiences with deliberately inscrutable prose, he complains that nobody understood his objections to the disastrous Bush tax policies. Here's a fucking hint, asshole: PLAIN ENGLISH!!! Of course, he refuses to speak in plain English precisely because he wants to be able to go back and change the "interpretation" of his nonsenses later down the road. He's a complete asshole, and a revisionist liar to boot. What a disgrace.

[gratuitous]

16. Yeah, he took that dogma out for a walk on Today, too

Lauer, of course, didn't have a handy compendium of Greenspan quotes, so Greenspan was free to yammer on about how resistant he'd been to the Bushonomic policies. He also intimated, though perhaps not quite so explicitly, that us peons just couldn't grasp the deathless wisdom he'd been peddling. Plain English indeed would have been greatly preferable, but Greenspan likes his chicken entrails ambiguous.

I wonder what Ms. Rand would have thought of the gelatinous quality of her acolyte?

[Supersedeas]

12. war plans on the table prior to 9/11--and Bush's buddy in charge of Kurdish oil

naw, not about oil at all

[Bread and Circus]

13. What a fucking creep - it's not "politically inconvenient" to admit

Iraq is about the oil, it's war crimes.

[askeptic]

18. Krugman is not letting Greenspan revise history in his column

today. And Greenspan is just saying what most of us here on DU knew leading up to the invasion. It was a war for oil. No doubt about it with stacks of evidence - and control not going to be in American hands. We may still end up with a "petro-euro" if the dollar continues to sink in value. That will really put the US in a tailspin.

[daleo]

21. A war for oil that didn't work

There is less oil coming from Iraq now than before Saddam was removed. This was a hostile takeover, and the M&A group paid way too much for what they got. Even as an immoral business decision, it didn't pan out.

[Danmel]

23. Why does everyone fall on their swords for this impudent little fuck

Greenspan, Powell, Whitman- all these people have no honor at all- tons of money- it's not like they're doing this to feed their kids or anything. Why do they capitulate to him? How does he inspire such devotion or fear?

What does he have on them?

I really just don't get it at all.