Promised Spoils of U.S. War in Iraq—Its Oil—Go to China [View all]

[The Straight Story]

The United States fought the war in Iraq, but China got the spoils—oil that is.

After the George W. Bush administration launched the 2003 invasion, officials promised that access to Iraq’s oil supplies would result in the war paying for itself.

That hasn’t happened, in large part because most of the Iraqi petroleum is flowing east—to China.

Almost half of the country’s oil supply is bought by Chinese companies, which intend to purchase even more in the near future. They currently have their eyes on one of Iraq’s largest oil fields, which is owned by Exxon Mobil.

“We lost out. The Chinese had nothing to do with the war, but from an economic standpoint they are benefiting from it,” former Pentagon official Michael Makovsky, who worked on Iraqi oil policy during the Bush administration, told The New York Times.

http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/promised-spoils-of-us-war-in-iraqits-oilgo-to-china-130605?news=850214