Saudi Envoy: Iraq War Was 'Colonial' and About Oil

[maddezmom]

2 hours, 18 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!



DUBLIN (Reuters) - The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) was a colonial war and there were some in the United States who saw it as a means of getting their hands on Iraqi oil, a senior Saudi ambassador was quoted as saying Monday.



Prince Turki al-Faisal, ambassador to Britain and Ireland, told the Irish Independent newspaper Washington's stated aims in going to war in Iraq masked a more cynical reality.


"No matter how exalted the aims of the U.S. in that war, in the final analysis it was a colonial war very similar to the wars conducted by the ex-colonial powers when they went out to conquer the rest of the world ...," Prince Turki said.


"What we have heard from American sources they were there to remove the weapons of mass destruction which Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was supposed to have acquired."


Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. regional ally, opposed the war despite tensions with Iraq since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

~snip~
more:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040524/ts_nm/iraq_saudi_alfaisal_dc

[shaolinmonkey]

1. Did Prince Turki al-Faisal clear his statements with BushCo?

Or are the Saudis finally realizing that their ROI with the Bushies doesn't match the original prospectus?

[bpilgrim]

6. US: More oil from Saudi Arabia (seems Bandar is keeping his promise)

AMSTERDAM (CNN) - Saudi Arabia has agreed to increase its oil output starting next month by 28 percent and is "prepared" to increase output to its capacity of 10.5 million barrels per day, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Sunday after meeting with the Saudi oil minister.

Abraham said the Saudis will boost their production from nearly 7.1 million barrels per day to 9.1 million.

Abraham said Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi agreed to the increase as OPEC ministers were meeting here to discuss rising oil prices and renewed calls from the United States to increase production.

"I had a very constructive meeting today with the Minister Naimi, who indicated to me, consistent with public statements that had been made by other leaders in his government over the last couple of days, that Saudi Arabia is fulfilling all genuine requests for the month of June for a total of 9.1 million barrels a day," Abraham told reporters.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x578383

peace

[maddezmom]

7. it's like good cop, bad cop n/t

[pinto]

2. get me the batphone. a Faisal's gone off the rez.

[BeFree]

3. Big deal

Anyone who has read DU for the past couple of years knew it was a colonial grab for oil.

May God damn all these sorry 'Leaders'. It's time they listened to the People and not their Mommas, and voices in their sick demented heads!

[maddezmom]

4. Yes, but it's nice to see it in a headline

:)

[gratuitous]

5. Nuh uh! Nanny, nanny boo-boo!!!

After I marched in the streets against this ill-considered bit of foreign imperialism, my local newspaper, The Oregonian, told me in no uncertain terms that this war was not, not, not about oil, and that even to think that was naive. So there!

It's not about oil. It's not, it's not, it's no-o-o-o-o-t!

I wonder if the Big O is going to carry this story? Their editorial page has never backed off its stupid assessment from February 2003, so I have to assume it's still the policy of the paper that anyone who thinks it's about oil is naive.

Maybe I'll email them this story, just to shove it up their collective ass.

[drfemoe]

8. you mean ..

all the murder and mayhem wasn't for the sole benefit of bringing our cherished form of Democracy to the poor pitiful ME?
tsk-tsk-- We were so RIGHT, weren't we?

[gratuitous]

9. Right we have been, and right we continue to be

But I find small satisfaction, considering the toll this mistake has taken on the U.S., its standing in the world community, and its relations with its allies.

What I find oddest of all is that when the talking chuckleheads feel they must bring someone on their programs to tell the audience what it can see for itself (that is, that the war was a colossal, bloody, expensive mistake), they only bring on people who originally supported the war. In this weird world the corrupt Bush administration has foisted upon us, being right all along isn't a measure of credibility; someone is only credible if they formerly supported the madness.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Are the wheels fully comming off?