Iraqi Oil

[Quark]

Pete ... I have no wish to address your points, you need to calm down and shut up, no one is interested in your childish hawk drivel.

Maybe you have no wish to address his points because you *gasp* don't have a response to them. I find it funny how you seem to be getting ticked at Pete for showing the same exact attitude you show - only he has arguments to go with the opinion.

The first Gulf War was really about Kuwait and Saddam's regime gaining control over much of the oil supply. As Occhi made reference to, oil embargos are dangerous, life threatening things. 'No blood for oil' is an ignorant statement and I'm not attacking you from that angle. (Which is why Pete's tripe annoyed me so much, he seems to forget how he's talking to) However, the then current adminstration did not see the termination of Saddam's regime as all important or, even as a goal. Otherwise they would have supported the rebellions in the north and south and so on.

Alright, let's get something straight here. The Gulf War, as successful as it was, was not even close to being a textbook campaign. Baghdad was left pretty open, and a textbook campaign would have shown troops rushing in, taking over, and demanding peace. Why didn't they do this? At the time, it wasn't a 'not important / not a goal' issue with the regime. They were afraid of the results of Saddam falling from power. There is no clear successor in Iraq. Iran is a nice, hostile country right next door. How many bad scenarios can you get out of that situation? Bush's policy was made to avoid further consequences/problems rather than force fixes on the current ones. Given the state of the inspections/sanctions, we now know this policy failed.

We know that the current Iraqi adminastration is anti-American and has made deals with several other nations to sell their oil. Are you saying I need evidence to prove this? This has been clearly addressed in other threads on this board.

Yes, and yet you conveniently ignore the fact that those exact threads showed how those other nations were financially benefitting from a non-war position. Funny how the US position for war is oil based yet the French position for peace is purely humanitarian.