Rumsfeld Unveils New Justification For Iraq War: High Gas Prices

[CatWoman]

Prior to the war, the administration stressed that the United States needed to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs and had connections to al-Qaeda. None of that turned out to be true.

Now, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has introduced a new rationale for the invasion of Iraq, high gas prices. From a radio interview last week:

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: The fact of the matter is - if Saddam Hussein were still in power in Iraq, he would be rolling in petrol dollars. Think of the price of oil today. He would have so much money. And he would be seeing the Iranians interested in a nuclear program, he would be seeing the North Koreans developing a nuclear program, and he’d say well why shouldn’t he - and he would. So we’re fortunate that he’s gone.

Of course, one of the reason gas prices are high is instability in the Middle East — created, in part, by the invasion of Iraq.

Digg It!

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/17/rumsfeld-gas-prices/

[Ignacio Upton]

1. Ok, so why didn't gas prices fall back in 2003?

:crazy:

[matcom]

2. and THANK GOD our Vice President isn't "rolling in petrol dollars"

:eyes:

[Gman]

3. From a supply side perspecive

one of the reasons gas prices were lower prior to March 03 was the fact that Iraqi oil was being pumped and shipped. Now, they can't keep the pipelines open for long before they're blown back up. And, oil is still being pumped unmetered by Halliburton. This doesn't explain why gas prices are lower now. Its not like Iraqi oil all of a sudden came back online.

[Nickster]

10. Exactly what I was going to say. Prior to the invasion, they were pumping

up to 2.5 million barrels of oil a day and there was up to 6 million barrels per day of spare capacity from OPEC, that 2.5 million got knocked offline and the prices shot up. If Saddam was still in power and pumping oil, he wouldn't have the same amount of petrol dollars as, oh let's say the Saudis have right now because of the lack of spare capacity.

[dipsydoodle]

4. "he would be rolling in petrol dollars"

Hardly likely given the fact he was selling his oil for Euros. That was suspected as being one of the unlying reasons for the war.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,896344,00.html

Hence similar concerns about Iran although they seem to abated for now : http://www.energybulletin.net/7707.html

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Thank goodness he saved us. Now go jump out in front of a speeding bus.

You miserable wretched little man

[Disturbed]

6. Rumsfailed is a freakin' War Criminal.

Now he has finally stated why an Illegal Invasion was launched. Hey, it was about Blood For Oil afterall.

[madmusic]

7. Great pic. In contrast...

Scholars asked for protection of Iraq's relics
Pentagon says military never agreed to defend antiquities

(04-16) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Last week's plunder of Iraq's national museum, one of the Middle East's most important archaeological repositories, occurred despite repeated requests to the Pentagon by experts and scholars that the site be protected when U.S. troops entered Baghdad.

A senior Pentagon official said the military had never promised that the buildings would be safeguarded.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/16/MN166192.DTL

EDIT: dumb typo

[subterranean]

8. Of course Rumsfeld has the ability to see into the future

and he's never been wrong about anything before. :sarcasm:

[Disturbed]

9. Iraq's national museum

Busholini's Military couldn't spare about 20 Troops to stand in front of Iraq's national museum? Bushit! They didn't even think about it.