What benefit did Bu$h get from Iraq venture?

[SHRED]

Aside from Halliburton and his oil buddies what the hell was he pushing so hard for, to go into Iraq?

I think he could have benefited himself greatly, politically, if he sent hundreds of thousands of troops into Afghanistan and spent hundreds of billions to get Osama and rebuild that country instead of Iraq.

This Iraq venture is blowing up on W big time now and just might lose him the election.

[mstrsplinter326]

1. I think they are really bad at their own game

If they were really doing this right, they would just have planted weapons in Iraq. They're bad people, but they don't have any competition, or so they think. They aren't really thinking, and rather acting on whims. The Halliburton was just one example of such. The repukkks are better spin-artists and liars than planners.

[MichaelHarris]

2. He got

his daddy's oil contracts back. Ever wonder why the first building secured in Bushdad was the Oil Ministry? Hospitals ransacked, museums looted, Universities destroyed while the Oil Ministry was put under Marine guard.

[SHRED]

3. Yes

Good point!

[mulethree]

13. Possibly

Possibly the oil ministry was to get the latest on other countries
who were after Iraqi oil contracts. Then you call them up and
explain how if they join the coalition, they could very likely salvage - say - half of the deal they had been planning pre-war.

[jab105]

4. It had to do with cheap oil...if we could get cheap oil

out of it, it would have a greater "benefit" then any of the crazy tax cuts of the last three years...

He thought thatit would be very easy to control Iraq, and so did all the PNAC masters who pull his stings...he thought that Iraq did have WMDs...and he thought that we'd be greeted by flowers...

From there, we would have a foothold in one of the most oil rich places in the entire world, and a huge space for ourselves in the mideast...

Of course, he ignored all the warnings about a quagmire...he was so bold to go in alone, pissing off more than half of the world...and he overlooked all the intelligence that stated clearly that Iraq didn't have WMDs...

Maybe getting all your news from Condi and the Washington Times has its drawbacks when you are president of the US...who'da thunk it??

[Toby109]

8. It's not even about cheap oil

It is about the big oil companies and their ability to manipulate the price of oil and thus their profits without OPEC intervention. Another factor was that Saddam was going to change from dollars to euros.

[galadrium]

5. He got even with Saddam for trying to kill Papa Bush

[RC]

6. Well for one thing, the Saudis

wanted the US to vacate the military bases in Saudi Arabia.

We now have five bases in Iraq. We 'need' the bases to control 'our' oil over there.

Saudi Arabia is letting Russia partial usage of our old bases in return for maintaining them.

[ScrewyRabbit]

7. He wanted control of Iraq

in order to establish a model secular state in the Middle East and use it to project power into the region, whenever needed. It was assumed that it would be an easy victory, control would be easy to establish...

[TankLV]

9. So he could be a "wartime pResident" where opposition is treason?

and thereby help insure his reselection.

[PurityOfEssence]

10. He proved himself to his cold, aloof Daddy

Who was it in this administration who said that we're all just Junior's oysters? Beware the son who's an embarrassment to his powerful parents: he does ugly, ugly things.

Then there's the oil, and while we're at it, the need to show everybody who's boss and the need for bases in the heart of oil-heaven. Hell, you hardly even need the vigorous prodding by the Israel-no-matter-what supporters to get something like this happening.

The big problem with the lazy privileged types is that they've never really encountered true opposition; these clowns still think they can buy off fundamentalists, and the joke's on them: they're beset with problems abroad from the Muslim fundies and at home from their Christian brothers.

Daddy, do you love me now?

Mommy?

I'm not a loser, I'm not, I'm really not.

These are the people who kill.

[never cry wolf]

11. It was step one in the PNAC agenda

They are following the PNAC plan to the letter, except of course all their assumptions were wrong. In a nutshell, The PNAC paper "Rebuilding America's Defenses" states that the US is in a unique position as the only super power on the planet and that we should not waste this opportunity to project and extend this power and dominance into the indefinite future. They want to create an American empire, a Pax Americana.

The first step is to ensure control over the energy resources. By having their hand on the gas nozzle of the world they can throttle any potential rivals such as a united europe, russia or china by being able to cut off their energy supplies. in theory we can also exert our political influence globally for our hegemony with that same threat.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

[grasswire]

12. They...

....

1. stopped the Russian-French contracts for oil that were about to be consummated.

2. got a toe-hold in the Middle East by building military bases.

3. earned untold billions of dollars for family and cronies, including the Bush family's own trust fund (through Carlyle Group).

4. diverted enough of America's treasury for generations to come that social programs will be rolled back or cancelled. (the dream of the right wing to return to the entitlement-free 1920s.)

So even if he loses the election, the transfer of wealth and securing of natural resources will have been accomplished.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. They aced the 2002 elections by beating the Iraq drum --