Will Bush eventually attack Iran? (1 Viewer)

[bop]

Does Iran have oil?

People always say we went to war with Iraq for oil. I think its a load of bs. We are sitting in Iraq right now on top of all that oil and yet I'm still paying 3 bucks a gallon for gas. So when are we gonna stop pushing democracy and nation building and start taking advantage of all this oil we have at our disposal?

 

[d3cyph3r]

Obligatory Ron Paul youtube video =) his prediction.... looks like it's happening now!

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[SaintsFan11]

People always say we went to war with Iraq for oil. I think its a load of bs. We are sitting in Iraq right now on top of all that oil and yet I'm still paying 3 bucks a gallon for gas. So when are we gonna stop pushing democracy and nation building and start taking advantage of all this oil we have at our disposal?

While I am not entirely convinced that the Iraq War was about oil, the idea that the Iraq war would lower our domestic oil prices in the short term, or even the long term, doesn't seem to be prescient.

I'm not an expert, but it doesn't seem like we would have the refining capacity to produce more fuel even with an increased supply of oil on our hands. If there was a desire to get our hands on Iraq's oilfields, it would be a long-term strategy to secure our oil supply against increased demand China and India as well as to give us leverage against the Russians who have a great supply of their own. Rather than to give us lower prices at the pump in the short-term, the strategy would be to give us long-term access to the oil supply in Iraq.

Of course, the intelligent long-term strategy is to invent new ways to fuel our demand and get us off of oil since we have no domestic reserves which will supply us through the long-term and any attempt to secure foreign reserves is wrought with peril.

I think access to Iraqi oil was a reason for the war in Iraq, but not the driving reason. I think the powers that be really want to completely re-engineer the Middle East and create stability through a complete political realignment. Of course, if there was no oil in the Middle East it would completely insignificant.

As for Iran, I think the idea that we can create more democracies in the region and further realign the political powers in the region is an important factor in the neocon philosophy. On the other hand, the political will to go into Iran is not there and the Bush administration is looked upon with such skepticism that I don't think engaging Iran is politically possible.

 

[blackadder]

People always say we went to war with Iraq for oil. I think its a load of bs. We are sitting in Iraq right now on top of all that oil and yet I'm still paying 3 bucks a gallon for gas. So when are we gonna stop pushing democracy and nation building and start taking advantage of all this oil we have at our disposal?

It's not just about Iraqi oil. It's about oil and natural gas in Central Asia. There's a lot of it landlocked in the Caspian and in the former Soviet Central Asian Republics. The U.S. oil industry wants a cut of that, not just the oil itself but exploration, service, development and transportation contracts.

Before Bin Laden decided to sour things we were in negotiations with the Taliban to build a pipeline accross Afgahistan to move this oil out through Pakistan to be shipped from Indian Ocean ports. Bin Laden pooh poohed that.

Iraq is about oil in the sense that it is a forward position for the long term. It's aimed as much at staking a claim to some of that Central Asian oil as it is Iraqi oil, particularly to counter the proximity advantage of China and Russia.

And I second the notion on why we are still paying so much for gasoline. It's not just oil supply, it's refining capacity. We don't really have enough. There's only so much oil we can refine into gasoline at once, regardless of the size of the oil reserves.

It's just gasoline supply and demand. Demand is high and supply is limited, hence high prices. The underlying oil price is important, but you are also being hit by the inability to keep up with gasoline demand.

See the trend since 1990 on gasoline stocks and prices: