[lbo-talk] Wolfowitz Speaks Plainly: Oil Was The Prime Motivation

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 2:14 PM -0400 6/5/03, Barkley Rosser wrote:
>Having now looked at the full text, Woflowitz's reference to "Iraq 
>floating on a sea of oil" was in reference to whether or not Iraq 
>could be coerced using economic methods versus North Korea being 
>coerced by economic methods.  In fact, China has already coerced 
>North Korea by threatening to shut off oil, they did so temporarily 
>recently, triggering the three way talks between the US, China, and 
>North Korea, in Beijing.  Iraq was not subject to such a shutoff.

Moreover, shortly before 9.11, international support for the sanction 
on Iraq was rapidly eroding (e.g., "A Crumbling Sanctions Regime," 
<http://www.flonnet.com/fl1721/17210520.htm>; "Civilian Flights to 
Iraq," 
<http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iraq1/civflight/cvflyidx.htm>). 
Naturally, the USG didn't want to let Iraq get away with a victory.
-- 
Yoshie

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