FORGOTTEN BUSH 2000 CAMPAIGN DOCUMENT REVEALS OBSESSION WITH IRAQI OIL
Unnoted during the 2000 campaign, and forgotten since, is a remarkable document the Bush campaign released on September 29 of that year in Saginaw, Michigan: "A Comprehensive National Energy Policy." In the context of the campaign it was just another report, but in retrospect it was a canary in the mine shift, warning of Bush's obsession with Iraq and its importance in the country's oil supply. The document lends support to those who argue that the Iraq war was mainly about oil. Some excerpts:
- "To promote the development of U.S. oil and gas resources, and to meet the electricity needs of the new economy, Governor Bush will open only 8 percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to environmentally responsible exploration, which could replace the oil that the U.S. now imports from Iraq."
- "Internationally [the Clinton-Gore Administration] has squandered U.S. credibility with oil-producing nations in the Persian Gulf that can influence OPEC policies. This leadership failure has increased Iraqi leverage over the U.S. and international economies."
- "Increasing OPEC and Iraqi Influence. . . When the Clinton-Gore Administration took office in January of 1993, the Gulf War coalition was intact, economic sanctions were in place against Iraq, UN weapons inspectors were operating in Iraq, there was an active Iraqi opposition, and U.S. influence in the Gulf was at an all-time high. Almost eight years later, due to the failed leadership of the Administration: the international coalition assembled during the Gulf War has come apart; UN inspectors have not set foot in Iraq for almost two years, failing to monitor any attempts to produce weapons of mass destruction; the Administration has spent only a negligible amount of the $97 million appropriated by Congress under the Iraq Liberation Act to support the Iraqi resistance; U.S credibility in the Gulf is so low that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain-once critical members of the Gulf War coalition-recently restored full diplomatic relations with Iraq."
- "As U.S. influence in the Gulf has waned, Iraq's relative influence as an oil supplier to U.S. and world markets has increased: Iraq is now the fastest growing oil supplier to the United States, selling 850,000 barrels of crude oil a day to the United states in June or over seven percent of total imports. . . As spare production capacity becomes tighter, Iraq is moving into a position to become an important "swing producer," with an ability to single handedly impact and manipulate global markets. . . "Perhaps most ominously, Saddam Hussein is threatening to cut back production is again claiming that Kuwait is stealing Iraq's oil--the same claim Iraq made in 1990."
BUSHS ENERGY PROGRAM http://www.bcse.org/climateact2.htm