[Vision2020] Parade magazine -10 Worst Living Dictators

[Dale Courtney]

Ted wrote:
> Does anyone really think that if Iraq had zero oil, Israel 
> was removed from 
> the equation, and Iraq really represented a military force that could 
> inflict mass causalities against US forces, instead of this 
> pending "war" 
> being more like shooting fish in a barrel, that we would be 
> so eager to 
> invade rather than adopt a strategy of containment?

I'll preface my remarks by saying that I'm no fan of this war. However, I
really don't believe that this is about oil. 

At present, oil companies from France, Russia, and China have contracts to
help develop Iraqi oil fields. Europe depends far more upon oil from Iraq
than America (only about 6% of U.S. oil comes from Iraq). Oil from Iraq,
indeed oil from the entire Middle East, ranks higher among European national
interests than American. 

For some years, the United States has been moving to draw the preponderance
of its oil from our own hemisphere, mostly from Canada, Mexico, and
Venezuela, and to cut back steadily on its use of Middle Eastern oil, to the
level now of 26 percent of its annual. Europe is far more dependent on Iraqi
oil, and far more involved with the Iraqi oil industry. 

Dale Courtney
Moscow, Idaho