It's the oil, stupid!

Bush stepped up to the plate on Wednesday August 16th 2006 and finally admitted why we are in Iraq.

"Leaving before we complete our mission would create a terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, a country with huge oil reserves that the terrorist network would be willing to use to extract economic pain from those of us who believe in freedom," Bush said.

I believe that speaks for itself.
The rough translation is "It's the oil, stupid!"

Oddly enough there were few terrorists in Iraq before we got there.

Since then this administration has "brilliantly" executed a plan that

1. Increased ethnic violence in Iraq
   
2. Increased persecution of women, minorities, and Christians
3. Put in place a government that leans towards Iran
4. Started a civil war
5. Wasted half a trillion dollars
6. Padded the pockets of Halliburton
7. Erased the goodwill following 911
8. Caused rifts with our allies
9. Killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians
10. Shut off the flow of oil
11. Did nothing to reduce terrorism
12. Made us look like fools in front of the world

If that was the plan, I have to admit it was brilliant. We succeeded in our every goal. Today was the first admission from Bush as to why we are in Iraq. The only thing is, most of the public knew it already.

Obviously the above 12 points puts to rest the idea that "This war would pay for itself with decreased oil prices". Cynics might suggest the real plan was to drive up the cost of oil while starting a perpetual war that we knew all along could not be won.

The major problem with "Cynic's Choice" is that it assumes that an administration that bungled Katrina by orders of magnitude more than anyone might have thought possible, bungled military intelligence in every way possible, and quite frankly appears incapable of finding its ass with both hands at the same time, could possibly conceive of such a plan and carry it out to perfection. On that basis "sheer stupidity" seems far more likely than what many cynics are suggesting.

Mike Shedlock / Mish
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/