And so the White House is trying to say something to the effect of, ‘We don’t want the oil. Honest.’ Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice..how does that go, George?
White House: U.S. Doesn’t Plan to Control Iraq’s Oil:
“The only interest the United States has in the region is furthering the cause of peace and stability … not his country’s ability to generate oil,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Iraq has oil reserves of 112 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
When asked if the United States would take over Iraq’s oil fields if the U.S. attacked Iraq, Fleischer responded: “No. The purpose of any plan the United States has is to make certain that Saddam Hussein complies with all U.N. resolutions.” …
When asked, Fleischer refused to say whether the U.S. military might administer Iraq’s oil fields.
“I think that it’s impossible for anybody to speculate about anything and everything that could possibly happen under any military scenario. And I wouldn’t even try to start guessing what the military may or may not do,” he said.
And then there’s this, despite the White House’s outright lies and deceptions. US sets meeting on exploiting Iraqi oil after Hussein:
(10/30/2002 – OGI: Washington) The US State Department has pushed back its planned meeting with Iraqi opposition leaders on exploiting Iraq’s oil and gas reserves after a US military offensive removes Saddam Hussein from power to early December. According to a source at the State Department, all the desired participants are not yet available.
The Bush administration wants to have a working group of 12 to 20 people focused on Iraqi oil and gas to be able to recommend to an interim government ways of restoring the petroleum sector following a military attack in order to increase oil exports to partially pay for a possible US military occupation government – further fueling the view that controlling Iraqi oil is at the heart of the Bush campaign to replace Hussein with a more compliant regime.
As the current chestnut goes, regime change starts at home. Down with the Bush military junta.