Trump's defense chief, in Iraq, says: We're not here for your oil

[highplainsdem]

Source: Reuters

The U.S. military is not in Iraq "to seize anybody's oil", Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump at the start of a visit to Iraq on Monday.

Mattis, on his first trip to Iraq as Pentagon chief, is hoping to assess the war effort as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launch a new push to evict Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in the city of Mosul.

-snip-

Trump told CIA staff in January: "We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you'll have another chance."

Mattis, however, flatly ruled out any such intent. "We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil," he told reporters traveling with him.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-mattis-idUSKBN15Z0K0

[BeyondGeography]

1. Another leg of the, "Don't worry, it's all bullshit tour."

Mattis probably realizes it's good practice for the next one.

[malthaussen]

2. Sure we're not. n/t

[Tanuki]

4. He's new on the job. Cheney hasn't come back from the crypt yet to give him an orientation.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/

"Before the 2003 invasion, Iraq's domestic oil industry was fully nationalized and closed to Western oil companies. A decade of war later, it is largely privatized and utterly dominated by foreign firms.
From ExxonMobil and Chevron to BP and Shell, the West's largest oil companies have set up shop in Iraq. So have a slew of American oil service companies, including Halliburton, the Texas-based firm Dick Cheney ran before becoming George W. Bush's running mate in 2000.

The war is the one and only reason for this long sought and newly acquired access.
Oil was not the only goal of the Iraq War, but it was certainly the central one, as top U.S. military and political figures have attested to in the years following the invasion.
"Of course it's about oil; we can't really deny that," said Gen. John Abizaid, former head of U.S. Central Command and Military Operations in Iraq, in 2007. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan agreed, writing in his memoir, "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." Then-Sen. and now Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the same in 2007: "People say we're not fighting for oil. Of course we are."
For the first time in about 30 years, Western oil companies are exploring for and producing oil in Iraq from some of the world's largest oil fields and reaping enormous profit. And while the U.S. has also maintained a fairly consistent level of Iraq oil imports since the invasion, the benefits are not finding their way through Iraq's economy or society.".........

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Darth already pre-endorsed him

http://ksam1017.com/2016/news/dick-cheney-comments-on-trump-nominee-general-james-mattis/

[malthaussen]

6. The key word is "seize."

There are more subtle ways to go about it. The US has "never" been an imperialist country because economic imperialism has never been acknowledged.

-- Mal

[Javaman]

3. Here's the full quote...

"We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil...but we are".