Quote:
Originally Posted by cuba
I do believe that oil was definitely a priority (even though this may seem naive to you). Now with all due respect i don't think the War in Iraq was for national security purposes like Afghanistan was. Even though Saddam was a terrible person (of course that's an understatement) I doubt that he posed direct a threat to the US security at the time.
(And i'm only first year econ so give me a chance.)
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Cuba,
You need to place Iraq within the context of the Middle East.
What countries border Iraq?
Are these countries friendly or unfriendly towards the US?
How does the US rhetoric of freedom vs. the policy of supporting Mubarrak and the Saudi royals play?
Would an Iraqi democracy create a domino effect put pressure on the autocrats to better align rhetoric with action?
What would this do to the AQ recruiting if the rhetoric vs. action mismatch went away?
Which country would be easiest for the US to promote a case against?
With an example of swift regime change, what kind of pressure does that put on other Middle Eastern regimes?
I'm not asking you to buy in to all of the answers to the above, but it provides a strategic line of reasoning that is an answer to: Why Iraq?
Lastly, about the oil. If you ask if the US wanted stability in a region that has the world's largest proven reserve of oil and the opportunity for recapitalization of delapidated oil fields (whether US, UK, or some other countries, the point was not necessarily who was doing the recapitalization, but whether it happens), then you'd probably here an enthusiastic chorus of "YES!" from all the members here.
However, if you ask whether it was about BushitlerCheney enriching themselves and their oil buddies, then that's where you're going to catch flak, as the evidence vis a vis oil simply doesn't provide anything to support such a viewpoint. If you wish to dispute this, then talk to me about the Development Fund for Iraq.
Also, if you want to talk oil prices, it doesn't matter whether that Saddam didn't sell Iraqi oil to the US. In a market where you have a homogeneous good (you should have covered this already as one of your assumptions of a perfectly competitive market), if a country buys "Iraqi" oil, then the barrels of oil produced by another country will then be available to the US. In other words, Saddam as an individual country placing an oil embargo on the US has no impact.