Bush gives new reason for Iraq war, Boston Globe, August 31, 2005

[Coastie for Truth]

President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

The president, standing against a backdrop of the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists would be denied their goal of making Iraq a base from which to recruit followers, train them, and finance attacks.

''We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. ''We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary."

<edit>...

"If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. "They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."

[zbdent]

1. So, again, it is back to the oil

as we "lefties" have always pointed out . . . guard the oil offices, let the banks and the museums and the cultural things (plus the hospitals, I believe) fall prey to the looters . . .

[Coastie for Truth]

2. Mental exercise - go to the PNAC web site

and when you get past William Kristol's mumbings - it's all about OIL. (I went through that exercise -- all 120+ documents - such Right wing, facist, Straussian bull)

[Uncle Joe]

3. I thought he would say we need their sand

to fill the bags to plug the levees in New Orleans.

[beltanefauve]

4. We needed to get the oil

before the Chinese got it and before Saddam could sell it in Euros instead of dollars. Who's he kidding???

[gulliver]

5. Innoculating himself. He has in fact given the oil over to ...

... Zarqawi and bin Laden. When the money starts to flow in Iraq, guys like that will be getting their tithe out of it -- unlike before the war. Bush is trying to frame the issue his way. Zarqawi and bin Laden would not have even had a chance to "seize" the oil fields if Bush hadn't stampeded us into war. Now, oil money will be flowing freely in that unstable country.

Bush lost territory and oil resources to radical Islam. That's a definition of failure even the neocons can understand. And it is only one of the ways Bush failed in Iraq.