[Peakoil] British ex-Minister: Iraq war was for oil

[Alex P]

Why is it so few public figures state the obvious?

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Subject: [roeoz] Fw: [NOWAR_Announcements] British MP: Iraq war was for oil
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 14:34:40 +0930
From: Meteorite Debris <epicurus1 at optusnet.com.au>
To: roeoz at yahoogroups.com

 Subject: [NOWAR_Announcements] British MP: Iraq war was for oil
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British MP: Iraq war was for oil
By Adam Porter in Lisbon

Saturday 21 May 2005, 1:37 Makka Time, 22:37 GMT

Meacher believed the Iraq war was fought to control
oil supplies

Labour MP and former UK environment minister Michael
Meacher slammed Prime Minister Tony Blair and US
President George Bush for starting a war he said was
to secure oil interests.

"The reason they [US and UK] attacked Iraq is nothing
to do with weapons of mass destruction, it was nothing
to do with democracy in Iraq, it was nothing to do
with the human rights abuses of Saddam Hussein," he
said on Friday at the sidelines of the Fourth
International Workshop on Oil & Gas Depletion in
Lisbon, Portugal.

When asked by Aljazeera.net whether the war in Iraq
was about oil he said "the connection is 100%. It is
absolutely overwhelming".

Meacher connected the wars in Iraq with a desire by US
and UK interests to dominate oil supplies in times of
increasing market volatility. He also thought the war
was designed to pressure Saudi Arabia, the world's
biggest oil supplier.


Middle East control?


Meacher criticised Bush and Blair for going to war for
oil interests

"It was principally, totally and comprehensively to do
with oil," Meacher continued. "This [war] was about
assuming control over the Middle East and over Iraq,
the second largest producer and also over Saudi Arabia
next door."

"It was about securing as much as possible of the
remaining supplies of oil and also over the Caspian
basin, which of course is Afghanistan."

Meacher also said the US had poor environmental
standards.

"American power plants waste more energy than is
needed to run the whole Japanese economy," he said.
"They have set their face against the Kyoto protocol."

He then went on to talk of "apocalyptic" energy
problems facing the world, including the possibilities
of serious shortages in the world oil supply due to
ongoing field depletion.

Meacher painted a picture of spiralling oil costs as
high as "$100 or $150 a barrel" creating massive
social dislocation. These difficulties could cause
"war, revolutions and migration on a scale we have
never before seen", he said.

© 2003 - 2005 Aljazeera.Net

<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AC9B68BD-9853-494D-AB7D-A5EF74C46694.
htm>