Before Bush invaded Iraq oil was $25-$30 a barrel

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE17Ak01.html

Iraq's oil: A neo-con dream gone bust
By Peter Kiernan

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

Crude-oil prices hit a record US$75 per barrel in late April, a level nearly three times the prices seen just prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Although oil prices have slipped a few dollars since then, the bullish price environment is not something the Bush administration banked on when it launched the military campaign to oust Saddam Hussein from power three years ago.

Indeed, there was an expectation that after Saddam's ouster Iraq would pump more oil, not just so it could finance its own reconstruction, but also to keep oil prices stable and preferably lower. A US-friendly post-Saddam Iraq realizing its potential as a major oil producer would, it was also hoped, strengthen US leverage in the Middle East. But the story of Iraq's oil over the

past three years has not been quite what was expected by the administration of President George W Bush and neo-conservative advocates for Saddam Hussein's removal.

The Bush administration hardly mentioned oil in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, obviously wary of the claim that the case for ousting Saddam was motivated by the desire to gain access to Iraq's oilfields for US oil companies. In fact the US oil lobby was not behind the push for regime change in Baghdad, but oil in the geostrategic sense was factored in by the Bush administration in the decision to invade.

[paparush]

1. Yep, and the oil Co's recorded the highest profits ever recorded by

American Companies.

[PublicWrath]

11. During one recent quarter since the war, Exxon made more money

than any other company in the history......of the world.

[Roland99]

2. And gas was $1.46/gal.

[Metta]

3. Yeah, he made a point of telling Clinton about that.

:donut:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

5. it's not just Iraq. stirring crap in IRAN and Venezuela also push oil up

[Metta]

9. Yeah, it's whatever they can do to keep the price boosted.

No concern for collateral damage where that's concerned yet no support for using tissues to make stem cells. We don't even need to go into corporate welfare. :donut:

[TexasLawyer]

4. A "war for oil"

Even though we're not getting much oil out of Iraq, the oil companies world wide have profited handsomely off the war.

Tension over continued hostilities drives up the price. Taking Iraqi gas out of the market decreases supply and drives up the price.

Two thirds of the US oil supply is produced domestically. But because the international price has skyrocketed, US producers get to piggy-back off that international benchmark price.

They are making a killing.

[SmokingJacket]

6. Mission accomplished!! nt

[underpants]

7. Let's see now you invade a country with the 2d biggest reserve

but yet the supply of oil seems to be less. Oh there are security and uncertainty issues (which you would think would be alleved by a US military presence in the area...right?) but for the most part it seems that the little oil that was coming out of Iraq is now basically nill. Maybe these oh so bright stewards of the oil controlling companies are holding it back so as to preserve it you know to save it until after their buddy sells all his.

Hmm having not read the article yet I am picking my brain to see if there was any other example of those who control the supply perhaps restricting this said supply while the demand necessarily remains constant or even increases.....

Thinking....

Don't Blame Prices On Environmentalists
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&%09s=1045855935005&c=MGArticle&cid=1137836417326&path=%21editorials%21letters

;-)

[Virginia Dare]

8. Wow, anybody out there think there's a connection?

even my Repub mother-in-law thinks Bush is behind the rise in gas prices.

[lonestarnot]

10. bwwwwaaaaa!

:rofl: