Greenspan: Ouster Of Hussein Crucial For Oil Security

[cal04]

Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said in an interview that the removal of Saddam Hussein had been "essential" to secure world oil supplies, a point he emphasized to the White House in private conversations before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Greenspan, who was the country's top voice on monetary policy at the time Bush decided to go to war in Iraq, has refrained from extensive public comment on it until now, but he made the striking comment in a new memoir out today that "the Iraq War is largely about oil." In the interview, he clarified that sentence in his 531-page book, saying that while securing global oil supplies was "not the administration's motive," he had presented the White House with the case for why removing Hussein was important for the global economy.

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

He said that in his discussions with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, "I have never heard them basically say, 'We've got to protect the oil supplies of the world,' but that would have been my motive." Greenspan said that he made his economic argument to White House officials and that one lower-level official, whom he declined to identify, told him, "Well, unfortunately, we can't talk about oil." Asked if he had made his point to Cheney specifically, Greenspan said yes, then added, "I talked to everybody about that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601287.html

[Disturbed]

1. When it was posted that he said it was mainly about oil I

I commented, "Did he say that was a bad thing?" Many were praising him for truth telling. Now we know that he pushed for the Illegal Invasion mainly to over throw Saddam regarding the oil. I knew this before the Illegal Invasion. I posted it many time on several Net places & was rebuffed, mainly by RWingers. Saddam was close to getting the UN Sanctions lifted & was going to sell the Iraqi oil via Euros. Therefore he had to be thrown out.

[ljm2002]

4. Don't you just hate being right about stuff like this?

I mean, knowing that it will have no effect, and that the disaster that should have been preventable will happen anyway.

We get to be Cassandras, trying to tell people the truth about things they need to know the truth about, and we are shouted down. Then later, everyone finds out we were right all along. But they don't love us for it...

[Just-plain-Kathy]

2. IMO...this war isn't about oil, it's about the defense industry.

The Bush family have been profiting from war since WWI.

[Kagemusha]

3. Shorter Greenspan: Removing Saddam was about oil TO ME.

That puts it in context.