Friday, July 13, 2007

Mythbusters (2 Cents Style): Into Iraq for Oil

In a previous blog I said I wanted to dispel some of the most common myths surrounding the War on Terror and the War in Iraq, so here's the first in a series of mythbusters. I hope you'll find them illuminating as background information for the war effort and future discussions on radical Islamic jihad.

Anyone who truly believes we went into Iraq for oil is either completely misinformed or completely nuts. We're not going to take over production of Iraqi oil - we fixed up their refineries so Iraq could begin their own oil production to get on their feet as a viable nation again. Is a free, democratic, and U.S.-friendly Iraq in our best interest? Of course. Any stabilizing presence in the Middle East is a good thing. Iraq is one of the world's largest oil producers, so a stable Iraq is good for the entire world. But does it help the U.S. specifically? No, not at all.

What about Halliburton? What about them? Part of the deal when Cheney became Vice President was that he was forced to sell of all his interests in Halliburton. He no longer gains by Halliburton's financial success. Furthermore, can you name one company that does the same kind of mass-scale infrastructure construction work that Halliburton does? I didn't think so.

There's my two cents.

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