If the war isn't directly about oil--meaning direct control of the Iraqi oil fields, cronyism in dispensing Iraqi oil leases, naked blackmail of the EU--what about Iraq as the US's new military outpost in the Gulf, and therefore the US as guarantor of a stable and increasing (due to redevelopment of Iraqi reserves) oil supply? The region's oil would be a means for the US to have hegemony (in an ordinary sense; I don't speak Gramscian) over the rest of the industrialized nations.
Now I'm not saying this will work or that I endorse it; just wondering if this might be part of the actual rationale behind war on Iraq.
Curtiss
> How will the US have Europe by the balls? By forbidding Europe from buying
> Iraqi oil? Can't do that - it's a global oil market. By shutting out the
> European on Iraqi oil contracts? So what? - right now those are mostly just
> service contracts, not worth much compared to, say, France's GDP. By
> privatizing the oil and giving it to US companies? I'd like to see them try.
> Even wiser Washington hawks are telling them that would lead to a nasty
> Iraqi revolt. I really don't think this is a war about oil. At least not
> directly.
>