Iraq and China: The deal we created!

[3113]

Isn't this nice! Iraq wasn't allowed to make a deal with China when Saddam was in charge, but now that we've gotten rid of him, they can!

Iraq to revive oil deal with China

BAGHDAD - Iraq and China are set to revive a $1.2 billion oil deal that was canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Iraq's oil ministry said Sunday. An initial agreement with China is expected to be signed at the end of August to develop the billion-barrel Ahdab oil field south of Baghdad, the ministry said in a statement. "Iraq and China are keen to show their cooperation by finalizing an agreement on developing the Ahdab oil field," it said.

The announcement came after a meeting between Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani and China's ambassador to Baghdad. No further details were released, but if the deal is signed it will be the first Saddam Hussein-era oil deal to be honored by the new Iraqi regime. In 1997, Saddam's government signed an agreement with the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., despite United Nations sanctions that barred direct dealings with Iraq's oil industry.

Doesn't this make your American heart just thump with pride! We spend billions of our taxes (and thousands of American lives) on a war to destroy Saddam, and then to repair the Iraqi infrastructure (well, I guess we didn't do too good a job at that), and now, thanks to soaring oil prices, they have an $80 billion dollar surplus and a deal with...China!

I have to admit, I thought doing that kinda thing was a bad idea, especially as we'll be paying for it for years and likely so will our kids without seeing a dime in return, but seeing Iraq enriched with a surplus from rising oil prices and making deals with China while telling us to get the hell out...makes it all worth while.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Don't you just love America.

The French still owe us a lot of money from way back in WWII, you would think we would learn our lessons from that experience?

 

[jomar]

1. Who fucked up? Wasn't that oil supposed to go to the US?

2. The US gives China the IOU from France. That should knock a dime off the debt.

 

[3113]

The French still owe us a lot of money from way back in WWII

Yeah, but we never paid them back for helping us win the Revolutionary war so I figure that's even-steven. Besides, we got West Germany out of that war.

 

[3113]

1. Who fucked up? Wasn't that oil supposed to go to the US?

Actually, I'm very proud of the U.S. I was skeptical, I thought it was about the oil, but the Government insisted it wasn't and, lo-and-behold! It wasn't! We're not getting any so it wasn't about the oil! I am so embarrassed for ever doubting those who insisted this wasn't about oil. Mea Culpa. You were right.

It was about making George Bush and his cronies and the companies he was in bed with very rich.

 

[jomar]

Actually, I'm very proud of the U.S. I was skeptical, I thought it was about the oil, but the Government insisted it wasn't and, lo-and-behold! It wasn't! We're not getting any so it wasn't about the oil! I am so embarrassed for ever doubting those who insisted this wasn't about oil. Mea Culpa. You were right.

It was about making George Bush and his cronies and the companies he was in bed with very rich.

Oops. My bad.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

3113

Of course it was about the oil. It was about keeping the oil off the market to keep prices for gas high. Youre very right, we got none of it, but that was Dubya's plan.

 

[Katyusha]

3113

Of course it was about the oil. It was about keeping the oil off the market to keep prices for gas high. Youre very right, we got none of it, but that was Dubya's plan.

*zing*

You got anything that supports that? I'm not trying to start an argument by asking, I'm genuinely curious about this statement.

 

[rgraham666]

Actually oil was an 'as long as we're at it, let's take it' deal. A side issue.

The real reason for the Iraq War was to bring about an end to international law so that the U.S. would become the sole power in the world.

Iraq was chosen not because it was dangerous, but because it wasn't. That made it perfect for the message, "We're in charge and this is what happens to people who get in our way."

Richard Perle bragged about it.

 

[3113]

The real reason for the Iraq War was to bring about an end to international law so that the U.S. would become the sole power in the world.

Rob, Rob, Rob. How can you be so cynical? Look at the evidence. We said we wanted to make Iraq a free and independent nation, and now, here they are, $80 billion surplus, telling us to get out, and making deals with China! Mission accomplished!

It only cost us something like a trillion dollars (Washington Post). Money well spent, I say!

 

[rgraham666]

Rob, Rob, Rob. How can you be so cynical? Look at the evidence. We said we wanted to make Iraq a free and independent nation, and now, here they are, $80 billion surplus, telling us to get out, and making deals with China! Mission accomplished!

It only cost us something like a trillion dollars (Washington Post). Money well spent, I say!

Don't you just hate it when your subs turn on you like that?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Actually oil was an 'as long as we're at it, let's take it' deal. A side issue.

The real reason for the Iraq War was to bring about an end to international law so that the U.S. would become the sole power in the world.

Iraq was chosen not because it was dangerous, but because it wasn't. That made it perfect for the message, "We're in charge and this is what happens to people who get in our way."

Richard Perle bragged about it.

You should really read the article Rob links to. It was written by Perle on March 21, 2003, just after the war was launched, if i remember correctly, and is just dripping with self-righteous hubris and egotism bordering on megalomania. This from one of Rumsfeld's chief advisers.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

=============================
"Saddam Hussein's reign of terror is about to end. He will go quickly, but not alone: in a parting irony, he will take the UN down with him. Well, not the whole UN. The "good works" part will survive, the low-risk peacekeeping bureaucracies will remain, the chatterbox on the Hudson will continue to bleat. What will die is the fantasy of the UN as the foundation of a new world order. As we sift the debris, it will be important to preserve, the better to understand, the intellectual wreckage of the liberal conceit of safety through international law administered by international institutions.

As free Iraqis document the quarter-century nightmare of Saddam's rule, let us not forget who held that the moral authority of the international community was enshrined in a plea for more time for inspectors, and who marched against "regime change". In the spirit of postwar reconciliation that diplomats are always eager to engender, we must not reconcile the timid, blighted notion that world order requires us to recoil before rogue states that terrorise their own citizens and menace ours..."
================

The conceit is all his, in both senses of the word. This is an amazing document; the US manifesto for defying the UN.

The war wasn't just about oil, of course. Bush really believed they had WMD, but he fooled himself into thinking that. He also really thought he could turn Iraq into a democracy with no sweat, a profoundly ignorant and stupid thing to believe. Cheney wanted the war to strengthen the powers of the presidency and the neocons wanted it to show off the United states' new Sole Superpower status and Pax Americana policy. Rove wanted it because he saw it as a way of keeping George and the Republicans in office for 6 more years. Don't underestimate that.

We kicked ass militarily, but there was never any doubt that we would. Politically, though, we're fucked standing.