It Is About The Oil

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Democrats Want Iraqis to Use Oil Surplus

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats plan to push legislation this spring that would force the Iraqi government to spend its own surplus in oil revenues to rebuild the country, sparing U.S. dollars.

The legislation follows a recommendation by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, that the Bush administration halt troop withdrawals in July. Petraeus on Wednesday was wrapping up two days of congressional testimony in which he has said security gains in the war zone are too fragile to promise further drawdowns.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said pausing troop reductions would signal to the Iraqis that the United States was committed to the war indefinitely.

"Rather, we need to put continuous and increasing pressure on the Iraqis to settle their political differences, to pay for their own reconstruction with their oil windfalls, and to take the lead in conducting military operations," said Levin, D-Mich.

Iraq has about $30 billion in surplus funds stored in U.S. banks, according to Levin.

Iraq is looking at a potential boon in oil revenue this year, possibly as much as $100 billion in 2007 and 2008. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is having to buy its fuel on the open market, paying on average $3.23 a gallon and spending some $153 million a month in Iraq on fuel alone.

While Iraq pays for fuel for its own troops, it has relied heavily on U.S. dollars to provide people with basic services, including more than $45 billion for reconstruction.

Lacking the votes to order troops home by a certain date, Democrats see fencing off reconstruction money as an alternative to challenging the Bush administration's Iraq policies. And several Republicans have signaled their concerns about burgeoning Iraqi oil revenues at a time when the war is growing increasingly costly.

[Msterbeau]

We've spent FAR too much on this fiasco as it is. I see nothing wrong with using their own material wealth to start paying for their needs. This is a grab for money how?

Personally, I'd like to see Bush, Rummsfeld, Cheney, etc stripped of their own wealth to pay for the reconstruction... but that's another topic entirely.

[ttogreh]

Marc, all that is the material wealth of Bush and company wouldn't amount to a half of a day of Iraq war costs, I would bet.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Oh, I want them to pay too. It's thier country. I think the parts that seems to be vague is how they will pay... We will till be paying for everything that we are paying for... they will be giving us Oil/fuel to offset that cash we spend.

[Msterbeau]

Marc, all that is the material wealth of Bush and company wouldn't amount to a half of a day of Iraq war costs, I would bet.

Oh I know... That's not the point.

[creatureofthenyte]

Well why the hell didn't we make them start payin their own way along time ago!!!???

No, wait.... that would have made sense.......

[Rev.Reverence]

Well why the hell didn't we make them start payin their own way along time ago!!!???

No, wait.... that would have made sense.......

And that wouldn't make sense, for the government to make so much sense!

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Well why the hell didn't we make them start payin their own way along time ago!!!???

No, wait.... that would have made sense.......

Because the war was not started for oil... as so many people have screamed in anger of the years.

I find it rather amusing that people that were accusing President Bush and his people for starting this war to steal Iraq's oil... are now the people making a grab for the oil or trying to justify taking the oil.

[ttogreh]

Well, holistically, oil was at least part of the reason for this war. The vast oil wealth of Saddam Hussein was a threat to the region. Sure, we had him cowed, and he would have tried to get away with whatever he could have, but the over-arching reason the entire international community banded together to kick his ass the first time was because of a threat to international oil supplies.

He didn't have the oil wells blow up because he thought it would look pretty.

Still, "The war is about oil" is a vast oversimplification, but certainly not a false statement.