Reply #11: With only 5% of global population, we use a quarter of its oil

[IDemo]

Bush and Cheney, former oil men, are both well aware that Saudi Arabia and other countries will not be able to sustain their present output, much less increase it as demand from India and China grow. This hasn't been a sudden revelation here for anyone that I'm aware of. To suggest that anyone here is "relieved" either to just have discovered that oil was the major reason for invasion, or to have known it all along, is flatly ridiculous.

Invasion of a sovereign nation which does not directly threaten us, for any reason, is a war crime.

Mar. 1994
Paul Wolfowitz
“The United States and the entire industrialized world have an enormous stake in the security of the Persian Gulf, not primarily in order to save a few dollars per gallon of gasoline but rather because a hostile regime in control of those resources could wreak untold damage on the world's economy, and could apply that wealth to purposes that would endanger peace globally.” Wolfowitz concludes, “Given this permanent stake in the security of the Persian Gulf, the Gulf War provided an opportunity to base security on a foundation of credible commitment by the United States and its coalition partners.” (more)

For the next few decades, Iraq is our oil station in the Middle East.
Feb. 2004
U.S. General Jay Garner
"Look back on the Philippines around the turn of the 20th century: they were a coaling station for the navy, and that allowed us to keep a great presence in the Pacific. That's what Iraq is for the next few decades: our coaling station that gives us great presence in the Middle East"

04, 2006
four-star General Barry McCaffrey
Still, McCaffrey says the nation must persevere, because the battle is dead in the middle of the national energy supplies for the U.S., the Europeans, the Japanese and others. If the U.S. does not prevail, the nation will be in hot water in that region of the world for 15 years. He says there are no other options.

Chalabi on U.S Oil Companies in Post-Conflict Iraq
May 2, 2003
Ahmad Chalabi, formerly of the Iraqi National Congress
"American companies will have a big shot at Iraqi oil."

Dick Cheney to Senate Armed Services Committe, 1990:
"We obviously also have a significant interest because of the energy that is at stake in the gulf. ... Once acquired Kuwait and deployed an army ... that gave him a stranglehold on our economy and on that of most of the other nations of the world."