If Iran becomes a nuclear power?

[NJ5]

Bursche said:

NJ5 said:

@Bursche: Just because USA's efforts with Iraq went horribly wrong, that doesn't mean that American companies won't profit from USA being there. Using the oil price as "proof" that USA didn't benefit from that doesn't make any sense. Please clarify if you mean something else.

By the way, here are the approximate oil reserve sizes:

Venezuela: 80-100 billion barrels
Iraq: 80-110 billion barrels

Iraq is only topped by Iran and Saudi Arabia (and Canada if you count non-conventional oil). Does your argument still seem valid after seeing this data?

 

I didnt say American companies didnt profit, I said that we did not go in for oil. If you argue we went in to just start a war for our military contracters and the sort, I would disagree, but that has more merit than the oil argument.

Having oil reserves, and annual oil production, are different. We have spent billions of dollars in the war effort, which if it was for oil, would be the most idiotic quest in the history of man. We could have spent those dollars buying or drilling for our own oil.

Most people start calling out theories to blame the US government for Iraq because they feel dooped. While you dont want to believe that there were WMD's, during the start of the war, the US public, the UN, the President and most of Washington believed there were.

 

You are very naive if you think drilling in USA will amount to much. The easy USA oil is mostly gone, production peaked decades ago. It's about securing supplies for the future, which the USA government can do much better if they have wide military presence in the Middle East.. Oil reserves are very important even if you want to ignore them, oil production can be increased as soon as the country is more stable. Iraq has loads of oil.

Another reason is, of course, the importance of military presence in the middle east, which allows for easier control of some bad regimes there.

For example, why do you think China is investing more and more in Africa? Securing resources for the future... Securing oil supplies was definitely one of the reasons for going to Iraq, even if it backfired (at least in the short/medium term).

Even John McCain has admitted so:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/02/mccain-implies-iraq-war-i_n_99866.html