So what Was The Point Of Iraq?

[Elvis]

Was it all really about the oil? While some US companies are benefiting, most the oil seems to have gone to Russia, China, Arab countries and Europe.

I think some very misleading numbers have made it look as if the big Western oil companies have lost out in Iraq. While the largest number of Iraq oil contracts may have gone to Chinese and other companies, those are mostly lower-yielding and undeleveloped fields; the largest and most lucrative fields have largely gone to Exxon-Mobil, shell, BP etc.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5765cc30-2a5c ... z1wHg56Ssp

December 21, 2011 2:56 am
US will be a powerful force in Iraq for many years to come

[...]
While it is widely understood that Iraq possesses vast oil and natural gas reserves, it is less often noted that the current primacy of American and British oil companies in Iraq contrasts markedly with the situation in 2003 when Saddam Hussein was promising lucrative contracts to French, Chinese, and Russian companies. Most of these companies are operating in Iraq today, but in a subordinate position. Iraq’s largest oilfields are controlled by Exxon-Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell. Exxon-Mobil has been granted the lion’s share of the “technical service contract” governing the second largest producing field, West Qurna 1. BP holds the largest stake in the largest producing field at present, Rumaila, with China’s CNPC in a marginally narrower second position. Shell has recently signed a $17bn agreement to develop natural gas at the Rumaila, Zubair, and West Qurna fields. Exxon-Mobil’s singular position of current and future dominance has, moreover, recently been improved as it has been designated control over the development of the massive water injection system for pressurising and managing the reservoirs of the three leading fields.
[....]

"Mission accomplished."

I have no doubt that other interests were working to get a war on, e.g. Likudniks, Saudis, Kuwaitis, Britain and so on. And along with oil dominance, the aims of the "PNAC plan" included a foothold for further Mideast action, surrounding and threatening China (bad idea), and there are stink-tank papers proposing Western-devised regional central banks (with "drawing rights" oh boy!) for the Mideast and Central Asia. And of course there's big money is in "reconstruction" and re-arming; see the latest US weapons deals for Iraq.

To me, it looks like oil was the primary reason, intermixed, inevitably, with (mainly US/neocon) strategic goals and a big trough for the hogs. I don't outright dismiss the Occult motivations suggested by some writers, but that area's a huge Unknown.

[JackRiddler]

To renew my favored metaphor, does the poacher care about six tons of dead elephant? No, the poacher kills the elephant just to get a few pounds of ivory from the tusk. The point of Iraq, from the perspective of the identifiable perpetrators who planned and executed the invasion from 2001-2003, can be seen in the balance sheets of Halliburton and KBR and the PMCs, in the career boosts to the geostrategist wankers and think-tankers who fronted the WMD lies (and later pretended to have turned against the war), in the profits extracted from the resulting added volatility to oil prices -- all peanuts in the big scheme of ultra-trillions and global crashes, but who cares? Someone profited. And they live well, they feel no threat to their persons.

There was also the demonstration to other unruly nations of what the empire is capable of doing. So what if the gamble didn't pay off in getting most of the oil concessions for US companies? Some of the guys pushing it back in 2001, like the Enron boys, ended up convicted for high-stakes gambling in other spheres. The question with these kinds of personalities is not, "why have a war," but "why not." They ask, "What's in it for me?" They don't give a shit. Plan A (neocons strewn with flowers) failed, Plan B (get them in a civil war and watch them kill each other off) brought on a new genocide and eventually gave the game to Iran. So? That's not Paul Bremer's problem. That's not Peter Galbraith's problem. The imperialist paradigm remains invincible. The same people and their proteges and associates are currently trying to pull the same trick with Iran and Syria. They just did a job on Libya. The movers already cashed in their first chips, so they're happy, and who cares if Libya eventually becomes a new Afghanistan, full of new Taliban? Where will the Cheneys and Rumsfelds and Wolfowitzes and Perles be then? Living in comfort and raking in low-tax guaranteed proceeds from accumulated wealth. Poachers start the killing for a piece of tusk. If the rotting elephant becomes a problem, it's not their problem.

Plus: What Elvis said, above.

PS - I think some of your are out-smarting yourselves again looking for a hidden history when it's been right in front of us all along. The ones who did it are the fuckers you saw do it, the ones on the record aching to do it already years earlier, e.g., the signatories of the PNAC letters to Clinton. They were in a position to do it, so they did it. Don't mystify them, it's a way of diminishing their responsibility. (Does it matter that the whole thing went clusterfuck? No! The question is: What's in my wallet?) Being in their position, they had many influences and associations and backers, but these are also no big mystery: More fuckers looking to profit (Kurdish oil concessions, PMC contracts, military logistics, etc.) or to aggrandize their particular Christianist or Zionist visions (redraw the map of the Middle East, security for Israel, fulfill personal vendetta against Saddam, etc.) While, naturally, profiting.

[Simulist]

What's the point of any single strategic move in a larger chessgame?

[JackRiddler]

What's the point of any single strategic move in a larger chessgame?

What's the point of any single house, or country, pillaged and burned by a gang of marauders in suits? They pay some lettered mercenaries to sing songs about realpolitik and civilization, and advertise chess as an apt metaphor, but the real motivations come from the irresistible profit margins available in the industries of plunder, murder and rape, and protection rackets.

[Simulist]

A bit reductionistic, Jack.

I don't disagree with your earlier analysis, but there seems to be a long term plan for the region in play here -- beyond short term motivations -- and that's what I'm pointing to.

[8bitagent]

Yeah, the powers that be don't always have to be American. Control, resources, psyops, esoteric ritual, imperialism, "trampling Babylon," exotic weapons testing, smokescreen, message management...it's probably a great many things.

I do think it's like someone said on the vets thread: it had been too long since we'd had a war, and the ways in which culture had shifted by the late 90's (the "dream of the 90's") was spontaneous and heading in a direction of non-control. I think it was mostly a way of oppressing the poorest people in this country and in the target countries, to affect a few future generations, and to manage messaging.

Then there was the seizure of priceless Sumerian artifacts that perhaps could have revealed so much to us about our history and future...

Yeah, the seizing of the Babylonian/Sumer artifacts(and from what I read, archeological sites itself) was rather...curious. As was the pretty much creating sectarian chaos. P20G indeed

[JackRiddler]

A bit reductionistic, Jack.

I'm happy to point to the substrate - the drives, in psychoanalytic terms. Or in metaphor.

I don't disagree with your earlier analysis, but there seems to be a long term plan for the region in play here -- beyond short term motivations -- and that's what I'm pointing to.

There always is. What the ambitious dreamers among the marauders do with the froth, I will not deny its power to shape the wave; but the propulsion is more fundamental. This is a war-making animal; it will always hit something; the poetry follows.

(apologies for the mix of metaphors, but I think you get it even if you aren't in harmony with the analysis)

[Wombaticus Rex]

An answer from the excellent Haywire:

"Paul, the motive is money. The motive is always money."

[82_28]

Yeah, the powers that be don't always have to be American. Control, resources, psyops, esoteric ritual, imperialism, "trampling Babylon," exotic weapons testing, smokescreen, message management...it's probably a great many things.

I do think it's like someone said on the vets thread: it had been too long since we'd had a war, and the ways in which culture had shifted by the late 90's (the "dream of the 90's") was spontaneous and heading in a direction of non-control. I think it was mostly a way of oppressing the poorest people in this country and in the target countries, to affect a few future generations, and to manage messaging.

Then there was the seizure of priceless Sumerian artifacts that perhaps could have revealed so much to us about our history and future...

Yeah, the seizing of the Babylonian/Sumer artifacts(and from what I read, archeological sites itself) was rather...curious. As was the pretty much creating sectarian chaos. P20G indeed

It tends to agree with the conception that we're dealing with ancient orders of the occult -- hidden by capitalism as their method of control. I see all the ideas provided here by members as also very likely scenarios. However, the looting of ancientness on an Earth run by rich, fascist techocrats, to me, says something goes way back. I have no idea what or how. How subconscious is it? Is it the thrill of power? The thrill of oppression? Is it not even a thrill, as it were? Is it just what when you come of age, it just becomes your job when you're an "elite" and it gets handed down?

[8bitagent]

Yeah, the powers that be don't always have to be American. Control, resources, psyops, esoteric ritual, imperialism, "trampling Babylon," exotic weapons testing, smokescreen, message management...it's probably a great many things.

I do think it's like someone said on the vets thread: it had been too long since we'd had a war, and the ways in which culture had shifted by the late 90's (the "dream of the 90's") was spontaneous and heading in a direction of non-control. I think it was mostly a way of oppressing the poorest people in this country and in the target countries, to affect a few future generations, and to manage messaging.

Then there was the seizure of priceless Sumerian artifacts that perhaps could have revealed so much to us about our history and future...

Yeah, the seizing of the Babylonian/Sumer artifacts(and from what I read, archeological sites itself) was rather...curious. As was the pretty much creating sectarian chaos. P20G indeed

It tends to agree with the conception that we're dealing with ancient orders of the occult -- hidden by capitalism as their method of control. I see all the ideas provided here by members as also very likely scenarios. However, the looting of ancientness on an Earth run by rich, fascist techocrats, to me, says something goes way back. I have no idea what or how. How subconscious is it? Is it the thrill of power? The thrill of oppression? Is it not even a thrill, as it were? Is it just what when you come of age, it just becomes your job when you're an "elite" and it gets handed down?

Again I sadly have to agree. After awhile it has to be more of the orgasmic worship of chaos and death. To most, it will be mere power. greed. pax amer'kaba. but there's always the wink and the nod, the gang sign tag shoutout to those who can see. ▲▲▲▲▲†††117793175†††▲▲▲▲▲ and all that shit.

Afterall...it's all

[Luther Blissett]

I thought we weren't aware who conducted the trampling of Babylon.