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Related: About this forumFake Withdrawal? 'US won't leave Iraq oil to Iran'
Despite the US's declared withdrawal of its military personnel and contractors out of Iraq, Washington has prepared to control the country's rich oil reserves in any case, shared Ranjit Singh Kalha, former India's ambassador to Iraq in the 1990s. Having spent $3 trillion in Iraq, a country with harsh weather conditions (+50 C most of the time) and absolutely nothing valuable but oil reserves, the Americans simply cannot give up the plentiful and very high quality oil they went there for.
"It takes $1.50 to take out this oil that's just below the surface. Anybody who has access to this oil can be a game changer -- as far as the politics of oil is concerned," Ranjit Singh Kalha concluded. The problem Americans encountered in Iraq is that once given "some symbols" of democracy, the Iraqi voted for a Shia-led government. The headache is that the Shia traditionally have close links with Iran, the core territory of this affiliation. "That is the present dilemma. If you withdraw from Iraq completely, you leave this vast oil wealth of Iraq in the hands of Shia (Iran-oriented) government. And therefore it upsets the political balance in the Middle East," Ranjit Singh Kalha explained.
He said that to counter such adverse developments the US will have almost 20,000-strong embassy in Baghdad (the largest US embassy in the world) and consulates in Basra, Kerkuk and in northern Kurd-inhabited territory, each consulate 1,000-strong. "Americans cannot afford to be completely absent from Iraq," the former ambassador argued, adding he does not see any lessening of American influence in Iraq. Iraq is a multi-confessional country and to curb religious extremism all previous country's rulers had to be very tough with the population, the diplomat stressed. In Saddam's Iraq most of the military and law enforcement was Sunni and the rule of law was first of all a rule of military power preventing sectarian violence.
Today's Iraq is ruled by Shia government which does not have the necessary experience of ruling with an iron fist, so the country risks a full fledged civil war to start at any time given. American troops will not go far from Iraq -- they will be re-deployed to next door Kuwait.
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cliffordu
(30,994 posts)oil is fungible, it will be sold to the highest bidder, regardless of nation of origin or the nation of the buyer.
No one keeps all their oil for domestic use.
Drill baby drill is about market price, not national security.
Everything else on this canard of invasion for oil is just that.
A canard.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)It's about the POWER the oil gives those who control it.
ixion
(29,528 posts)When * illegally invaded Iraq in 2003 the FIRST WORDS OUT OF HIS (smirkin') MOUTH were about oil. It was a thinly-veiled threat, and it showed one of the real reasons the illegal invasion took place. There was the oil, and the strategic significance of Iraq. It had nothing whatsoever to do with 'liberation'.
I'm afraid you've hoisted yourself on your own canard, as it were.
teknomanzer
(1,868 posts)If you truly believe that the invasion for oil argument is a canard perhaps you could enlighten us with the real reasons for the invasion. Of course you won't be able to (because it will all be bullshit) but I would be greatly entertained by your attempt to do so.
The fact that the oil will end up on world the market does not matter. What matters is who gets to control the extraction and take the profits from the sale in addition to which currency it the oil will continue to be sold in.
You are not going to convince anyone here that the war in Iraq was about anything other than oil just because you think you have found the one hole in the argument. Go do some more research.
tblue
(16,350 posts)It's sick what the US has done to that country. The Almighty Dollar rules and the people just have to accept it.
Know what though? They won't. They haven't taken this lying down and they won't nor should they. The natural resources of that country belong to the people, not American "interests."
A lot of what we have called "terrorist attacks" over there have been by people who are angry that we've taken their oil and their livelihoods as contractors take their jobs and defend the thieves. Oy.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)leveymg
(36,418 posts)and creating uncertainty about the supply and control of the rest.
Guess who benefits from the risk premiums (and higher oil prices) created by such a strategy of permanent engineered chaos?

The same ones who started the Iraq war, who are also the same ones who've been in control of our government since post-WWII. And who are the same ones we must purge if we're to ever reclaim our freedom.
- And everyday we wait will only make this harder and harder to accomplish......
ixion
(29,528 posts)just like everything else.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...and works almost every time. Divide and conquer -- with a smattering of greed on the side to turn us against each other. Which is why, after all these years, the formula will never be changed.
- And why would it be changed when it works so well???
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