QUOTES ABOUT U.S. INTEREST IN IRAQ'S OIL

QUOTES ABOUT U.S. INTEREST IN IRAQ'S OIL
By James A. Lucas
5/3/05

Below are some quotes I have assembled that indicate our government’s interest in Iraq’s oil.

President Jimmy Carter, in his famous “Carter Doctrine” speech on January 23, 1980 declared that any threat to the free flow of oil from the Gulf would be regarded “as an assault of the vital interests of the USA” and would be “repelled by any means necessary, including military force.” (Source: Progressive Media Project 2/20/03, www.progressive.org/mediaproject03/mpkf2003.html )

Ahmed Chalabi, currently a member of the Iraqi government, said that “The future democratic government in Iraq will be grateful to the U.S. for helping the Iraqi people liberate themselves and getting rid of Saddam,” and he added that “American companies, we expect, will play an important and leading role in the future oil situation in Iraq.” (Source: “Post-Saddam Iraq: Linchpin of a New Oil Order,” by Michael Renner, www.fgif.org/papers/oil.html)

Richard Cheney in 1990 said that “Whoever controls the flow of Persian Gulf Oil has a stranglehold not only on our economy but also on the other countries of the world as well.” (Source: Google “USA - Iraq Quotes”)

Vice President Richard Cheney, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on August 26, 2002, warned that Saddam Hussein sits “atop 10 percent of the world’s oil supplies,” and he added that with an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, he could “take control of a great portion of the world’s energy supplies.” (Source: Google “USA - Iraq Quotes”)

Fadel Gheit, a leading oil analyst for the Wall Street firm Oppenheimer and Co, said “Think of Iraq as virgin territory …This is bigger than anything that Exxon is involved in currently…It is the superstar of the future. That’s why Iraq becomes the most sought after real estate on the face of the earth….” (Source: “Invasion Motives,” Monthly Review, January 10, 2005, quoting Linda McQuaig in her article in the September 20, 2004 Toronto Star,
www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=6996§ionID=1)

Henry Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State during the 1980s, said that “Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs.” (quoted in the “Hostage Nation” (2001) (Source: Google “USA – Iraq Quotes”)

General William Looney in the Washington Post on January 24,1996: commented “We dictate the way they live and talk…It’s a good thing, especially when there’s a lot of oil out there we need.” (Source: Google “Quotes on the American Interest in Iraqi Oil”)

Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa: “…All that (the U.S.) wants is Iraqi oil.” (Source: Google “USA – Iraq Quotes”)

President Ronald Reagan, in defending American oil interest in the Gulf, said on November 11,1983 “…we should assign the highest priority to access arrangements which would facilitate the rapid deployment of those forces necessary to defend the critical oil facilities…” (Source: Google “Quotes on the American Interest in Iraqi Oil”)

Paul Wolfowitz, former member of the George W. Bush’s inner circle and who will soon become head of the World Bank, said, referring to difference in treatment by the U.S. , that “the most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil.” (Source: “Wolfowitz: Iraq War Was about Oil”: by George Wright in The Guardian, June 4, 2003, www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,970331,00.html)

General Anthony C. Zinni, at that time Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command, testified to Congress in 1999 that the Gulf region, with its huge oil reserves, is a “vital interest “ of “long standing” for the U.S. and that the U.S. “must have free access to the region’s military resources (Source: “Iraq: The Struggle for Oil” by James Paul , August, 2002: www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2002/08/jim.htm )