Thanks to Greenspan Tim Russert now owes Kucinich apology

[lovuian]

Alan Greenspan's new book, The Age of Turbulence, has one terse sentence that is shaking Washington:


I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows. The Iraq war is largely about oil.


On CNN’s Late Edition, Wolf Blitzer was shocked by the simple truth. But House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA), largely agrees:


LANTOS: To a very large extent I agree with him, and I think it is very remarkable that it took Alan Greenspan all these many years and being out of office for stating the obvious. It is self-evident that this administration would not have taken the position it has had it not been for the oil issue.


Before the invasion of Iraq, many of us insisted Bush's motive for invading Iraq was for its oil. And one Democrat actually dared to say this on TV on Feb 23, 2003, three weeks before the invasion - Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Transcript

MR. RUSSERT: Congressman, you made a very strong charge against the administration and let me show you what you said on January 19. “Why is the Administration targeting Iraq? Oil.” What do you base that on?

REP. KUCINICH: I base that on the fact that there is $5 trillion worth of oil above and in the ground in Iraq, that individuals involved in the administration have been involved in the oil industry, that the oil industry certainly would benefit from having the administration control Iraq, and that the fact is that, since no other case has been made to go to war against Iraq, for this nation to go to war against Iraq, oil represents the strongest incentive.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe the president of the United States would risk the lives of American men and women for oil?

REP. KUCINICH: I think that to answer that question would be to put a focus on a person, and I think the policy is what we have to talk about, that this policy to go against Iraq was promulgated even before 9/11, and the day after 9/11, the secretary of Defense in a meeting of the National Security Council said we could use this moment to go after Iraq, even though there was no connection. I think that when a president commits the young men and women of this country to battle, that it should only be when there is an imminent threat to this country, and that—I believe most sincerely that one of the motivating factors involved in this effort to strike against Iraq is the desire on the part of some to be able to control the oil interests in Iraq. I believe that.


Russert was shocked and outraged that Kucinich would dare suggest such a thing.

But look who said it - not only the man regarded as The Oracle, The Knower Of All Known Things - but also the husband of Russert's own NBC News colleague Andrea Mitchell!

I think Dennis needs apology too don't you
this research was done by blogger
by Bob Fertik on September 16, 2007