McCLELLAN BLOWS THE 'CONQUER IRAQ FOR OIL' THEORY OUT OF THE WATER

[Cyberella]

Directly from the book:

McClellan says bush's reason for war always was "an ambitious and idealistic post-9/11 vision of transforming the middle East through the spread of freedom". But Bush and his advisers made "a marketing choice" to downplay this rationale in favor of one focused on increasingly trumped-up portayals of the threat posed by the weapons of mass destruction.

So Bush's reason for going to war with Iraq was "an ambitious and idealistic post-9/11 vision of transforming the middle East through the spread of freedom". I guess this knocks the wind out of the sails of the Bush haters, and blows the 'conquer Iraq for oil' theory, doesn't it?

I'm not a Bush fan, but I think he was treated unfairly about the Iraq issue.

McClellan states: "History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided - that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder."

History is poised to do no such thing. Al-Qaida is on the run, a brutal, murderous dictator has been toppled, and the U.S. appears to be near  victory in Iraq.  Years from now Americans will see this as a turning point in history, a time when an American leader stood up to protect Western Civilization following the barbarous attacks of 9/11..

Yes, he expressed concern Saddam would get a nuclear weapon with which to blackmail both his neighbors and the West.

But Bush also wanted to halt the spread of terror, deny a possible haven for al-Qaida, and promote democracy in the Mideast, among other things. Bush delivered 24 major speeches on Iraq from Sept. 2002 to Sept. 2004. In them, he made a wide-ranging case for getting rid of Saddam. It wasn't only about WMD.

McClellan states Bush was shading the truth. He was shading the truth about WMD?  The CIA assessment of Iraq that Bush used was made during President Clinton's final year in office. It said that Saddam had a WMD program and possibly a nuclear weapon. Every major intelligence agency - Britain's, France's, Russia's, Germany's, Israel's, even the U.N.'s - agreed.

As it turns out, some of that intelligence was wrong. Even so, reasons for getting rid of Saddam were too numerous to ignore. In  2002, Congress cited  23 reasons when it overwhelmingly gave Bush the right to remove Saddam.

Bush was clear and honest from the start- this was about defending our nation from the insane radical Islamists who had declared war on us from their safe havens in the Mideast.
McClellan, blinded by his anger and desire to cash in on his insider position,  can't see this. I think one day the American people will see this.

[briann]

To tell you the truth... people wouldnt be mad if we DID take their oil. 

Personally.. I wouldnt be mad if we set up a puppet government and did some sort of oil profit sharing with them. wed have much better control of the situation.. and we could systematically remove all the Islamic institutions.  Its not as thought the Muzzies would be any more mad at us than they already are.

[Cyberella]

Right. LOL  It wouldn't bother me if we worked out a 'deal' for their oil.
Islamists and most of the world (thanks to the libs) already hate us.

I'm just sayin' that kinda blows the Bush haters chief complaint against him out of the water.
With all that dang oil- and thus money, I think Iraq should use it to help themselves, and not keep relying on us to keep pouring in billions.
But of course, the good 'ol USA will pour billions into Iraq for reconstruction, et al, as usual.

[briann]

Right. LOL  It wouldn't bother me if we worked out a 'deal' for their oil.
Islamists and most of the world (thanks to the libs) already hate us.

I'm just sayin' that kinda blows the Bush haters chief complaint against him out of the water.
With all that dang oil- and thus money, I think Iraq should use it to help themselves, and not keep relying on us to keep pouring in billions.
But of course, the good 'ol USA will pour billions into Iraq for reconstruction, et al, as usual.

The people who say....   'No war for oil'... just dont have a concept of reality.  They arent worth debating... since they have a child's intellect.   But if you must speak to them... just ask them why we havent taken one penny of oil from them since the war began.   However... they might suggest that we have secret oil wells or something... so its just a pointless aregument.

[Cyberella]

That's right. Hadn't thought of that.

[Ben Yehuda]

The oil companies and the other contractors seem to have done alright for themselves.

[JTFFan]

The oil companies and the other contractors seem to have done alright for themselves.

Correct, for the most part.