Pickens urged Bush to take Iraq’s oil

[sabra]

Source: aspen daily news

As the last American combat troops left Iraq last week, oil-tycoon-turned-clean-energy-innovator T. Boone Pickens was at the American Renewable Energy Day conference in Aspen, lamenting that the U.S. didn’t take hold of the rich oil fields in the war-torn Middle Eastern nation before they left.

Pickens at first elicited laughs from an audience at the Paepcke Auditorium on Saturday night, as he bluntly made the case for America’s right to Iraq’s oil. Those laughs subsided as he recalled how he personally lobbied Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to seize Iraq’s natural resources.

“I’ve heard people accuse President Bush of going to Iraq for their oil,” he began, in a public conversation with CNN founder Ted Turner and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. “That didn’t happen. We didn’t get the oil.”

Pickens argued that the American blood shed in the war was reason enough to take the oil. But, he said, Bush was too concerned about his image and appearing as if the war were a ploy to get the oil to follow Pickens’ plan.

...

The 82-year-old Texan recalled a conversation with President Bush as his days in office waned, in which Bush asked about how they could bring the oil to market and battle the public perception that Operation Iraqi Freedom was a war for oil.

“He said, ‘People will think we’re there for the oil.’ And I said, ‘That was eight years ago, a lot’s happened since then — a lot of money spent, a lot of lives lost.’ And he said, ‘How would you price it?’ I said, ‘Price it on the market every day.’”


Read more: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/142128

[joeybee12]

1. There's a lot of money to be made from wars...

...that's why there always have been wars.

[Thor_MN]

35. It should be a firing offense for any Federal employee to own stock in the "Defense" industry

All employees, contractors and advisors. Especially the Executive Branch or "Intelligence" agencies. We need to stop creating war for profit's sake. Messing with foreign policy while holding stock in companies that produce military equipment is conflict of interest and needs to be banned.

[LiberalFighter]

2. The sooner Pickens leaves the earth the better.

[madokie]

24. no doubt about that

he can kiss this old okie 'Nam Vets ass, the sob. Life means nothing to these rich people, they're the scum of the the human pool

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Aspen is a great bellweather.

Am I wrong? :shrug:

[closeupready]

4. If he really pushed that, what an awful man he is.

:mad:

[indepat]

5. What a bleeping f*cking mother-fc*cker: how's this different from Hitler-types, you bleeping

mother-f*cking sob? :grr: :mad:

[Kolesar]

10. Or Imperial Japan moving on the oil rich nations in SE Asia?...eom

[harun]

6. Not many men can see cash shooting out of the ground and not

sell their soul for it.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Criminally insane. Typical Republican. Jesus. n/t

[GliderGuider]

8. Jesus Haploid Christ

There's sumthin' not quite right about that boy. I just can't put my finger on it...

[catzies]

22. ...so that's what the "H" stands for.

End threadjack.

[Recursion]

9. Pickens is an odd one

He funded the swift boaters, but now he's helping Kerry with his energy bill.

[karynnj]

15. Actually his help is fueled simply by his own vested interests

Kerry is willing to work with him because in the very short term, some of what Pickens wants to do is also the quickest way to get a genuine reduction in emissions. Kerry won't reject something that helps cut emissions out of personal dislike - another reason he is a far bigger, better man than almost anyone - much less slime like Pickens.

[YvonneCa]

32. Exactly. This is just a mess. n/t

[DeSwiss]

11. K&R

Damn. What an evil piece of shit he is.....

[Wilms]

12. Was he ever NOT a thief?

:shrug:

[louis-t]

13. Will all of the oil go to China?

Or just the money? bush: "How can we get the oil without looking like we were just in it for the oil?" Dimwit.

[karynnj]

14. Well - among other reasons, this likely explains why he was willing to

fund a character assassination of a much better person than he will ever be. The fact that he believed that Bush DID invade for oil and would think that our costs in attacking them should justify claiming their oil shows what his values are.

[The Wizard]

16. Bush was too concerned about his image?

If he was he wouldn't have been such an asshole his entire life. He was raised as a child of privilege, and his actions proved that he could give a shit less what others thought.

[Recursion]

17. McClellan said the 2005-2008 were the result of W using all his might to restrain Cheney

That is, it could actually have been a whole lot worse if Bush hadn't cared about his image. Though that may not have been McClellan. Some former-insider talking head.

[Javaman]

20. somehow moron* and the concept of retraining dickhead chaney

as being cloaked as a Heroic action seems to be nothing more than revisionist bullshit.

they all wanted their little piece of the ego pie, they were all wrapped so tightly together in this passion play of stupidity.

They banked so hard on using the WMD faint as an excuse for going after the oil that when none turned up, they all had to dance as fast as they can to morph the message to meet reality.

he didn't restrain chaney in the least, if anything, he gave him more freedom to come up with countless excuses why we started the war and continue its escalation.

it was and had always been about oil and them getting their shares.

We will be witness to these types of revisionist stories dripping out little by little over the years to try and polish the turd of morons* presidency.

[Recursion]

21. Well, somebody restrained Cheney after 2004

Everybody seems to agree he was basically out of the loop for most of the second term.

[Uncle Joe]

18. Make no mistake about it, this was always about the oil, Cheney knew it, Bush knew it and

Halliburton knew it. The U.S. didn't have to literally take over or seize the oil fields for the oil corporations to make mega bucks.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4509468

This "conversation;" if it took place, didn't mean Bush believed the war wasn't for oil, it just means he was concerned about perception.

Thanks for the thread, sabra.

[YvonneCa]

33. On this, we agree. n/t

[Javaman]

19. Why do I get the sick feeling that this piece is nothing more than

a little revisionist history?

t-bone head pickens is nothing more than a self serving prick.

by him coming out with this info, all it does is try to make moron* less a moron and more along the lines of hapless ego driven jerk at the expense of the soldiers blood.

You have to remember one thing about t-bone head pickens, he never ever says anything for free. He's coming out with this information for some self serving reason.

I have followed this bastards career for a long time, never believe a word he says.

[newspeak]

27. remember when Little Boots publicly said that the Iraqi parliament

better get it together, that they were stalling in parliament. I believe we had a thread about it. The stall was because some of the parliament would not vote on allowing the oil corporations carte blanche to the oil fields. So, I don't know what he's talking about. The global oil corporations are there--it is no longer nationalized.

[Javaman]

29. That was the mission all along...

If we were really there to help the Iraqi people we would have upgraded all their antiquated oil field equipment and allow them to share the profits.

Instead, via a little "diplomatic" hocus pocus, the fields are now privatized as the "only way to upgrade them".

No doubt there is more to it than that, but never doubt that the oil corps were the rulers of these "diplomatic efforts".

If we could only get the meeting minutes from chaney's energy task force, that would end all speculation.

[R Hickey]

23. In Picken's defense, he has some good ideas.

I know, the Swiftboat thing really got my goat, but here's what I like about the man. This is probably why Kerry likes him too.

Pickens says that we can run our cars on natural gas. We have a two hundred year supply of natural gas right here in the US. If we switched our cars to make them run on natural gas, we would not need to import the oil to make the gasoline that our cars use now. Our trucks would still need disel, but we would no longer be paying Opec to fuel our cars.

This one thing would flip America's trade balance on its ear. America would be instantly quite prosperous again. The oil cartel wouldn't make as much money, but the people of the US would be much better off.

Oil companies would rather keep us using gasoline, it makes them more money than natural gas powered cars would.

[karynnj]

25. I doubt it is true that Kerry "likes" him, I think Kerry is willing to consider a

good idea - no matter the source. Supposedly his entire staff was against his meeting Pickens - and I can understand that. However, I can see why Kerry, being who he is, would never have considered NOT pulling in an idea that could help in a big away. That is what being a true leader is - even if it doesn't play politically. Reading Lindsey Graham's comments on this were interesting - as Kerry's actions on this clearly both amazed and impressed him.

[Matariki]

42. People here, myself included, *liked* him too a while back

when he was pushing hard for renewable energy. obviously didn't know much about the asshole.

[YvonneCa]

34. Kerry likes him? I seriously doubt...

...that.

[karynnj]

39. It is amazing that some see being willing to work with people you

dislike or whom you have major problems with is not credited as being a diplomat or as genuinely working for consensus. This is likely related to the preference for people who don't even try to be diplomatic or work together. That exists on both sides.

Now, there are some issues where principles are at stake - standing up for them is very very important. John Kerry is one of the people who has shown he is willing to stand on the unpopular side when it is important. But, on the energy bill, there were things that both could support - Kerry, who is motivated by averting (or at this point - softening) the impending climate change disaster, and Pickens, because he has bought up a lot of the natural gas resources and he will make a killing. (The fact that Pickens' motives are so obvious likely is why there is no real to distrust him on this --- and no reason to trust him on anything else unless his self interest is involved.

[YvonneCa]

40. I absolutely agree, karynnj. n/t

[hatrack]

26. Gosh, it's like that whole green wind plan thing was a . . . a FRONT or somethin'!!

:eyes:

[Romulox]

28. I kind of agree with him. What's the point of what we did to Iraq???

At least if we took the oil, the fucking "war" would've made some sense. Nobody likes a thief, but they understand him. So by not seizing the oil, we prove that we're not thieves (oh no!)--we're merely homicidal psychopaths (out to avenge the first daddy, no less!) Hooray for us? :shrug:

[Jack_DeLeon]

31. pretty much...

We didnt steal the oil, our government was just merely incompetent and got alot of people killed for little good reason.

[Jack_DeLeon]

30. I dont think the Iraq war was fought for oil...

If it were all about the oil all long I think it honestly would have been planned out whole hell of a lot better.

The fact that it wasnt fought for the oil though doesnt make all the mistakes that happened there any better.

[Nihil]

36. Of course it was - the elimination of Saddam was just a bonus.

Didn't want any more of those embarrassing pictures & accounts of how
Saddam got all of his weapons of mass destruction (chemical type) from
the USA - specifically from the people who were now at the top of the
heap as far as political power went.

Maybe you've forgotten about how the oil-fields and the oil ministry
were urgently (heavily) guarded whilst the arms dumps and the museums
of priceless artifacts were left free for pillaging?

It was planned just as well as it could ever have been.

[JI7]

37. i always knew he was a piece of shit, he doesn't give a shit about the environment

[annabanana]

38. heh.. mission not accomplished. . . .n/t

D'ya think Pickens had a hand in that carved up iraq map?

[Matariki]

41. Why not 'rape their women' while we're at it?

He's talking about what's owed for 'the blood of our soldiers' - from an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation? Seriously?

[Zorra]

43. Oh, Bu*h went to war to get Iraq's oil for sure. But the oil wasn't for us.

It was for multinational oil companies.

Iraq Oil Field Goes to Royal Dutch Shell and Petronas
By REUTERS
Published: December 11, 2009
Royal Dutch Shell and Petronas of Malaysia won the rights Friday to develop one of the world’s largest remaining untapped oil fields, as Iraq held its second auction of oil contracts since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.

The companies proposed that a fee that Iraq would pay them to develop the Majnoon oil field be set at $1.39 per barrel and they pledged to increase output from the field to 1.8 million barrels per day, more than twice what Iraq had expected.

“The fee is less than the Oil Ministry specified,” the Iraqi oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, said at the auction, which took place under heavy security in Baghdad.
snip--
Iraq is offering 10 oil fields over two days in a rare opportunity for oil companies, from Western majors to Chinese and Indian state-owned giants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/business/global/12iht-oil.html