Is there any evidence for the Iraq War being about oil?

[mrstickball]

famousringo said:

mrstickball said:

famousringo said:

 

Not easy info to find. This information is a little old, from 2006, but it shows the US getting nearly half of Iraq's exports, and Iraq's exports are 84% oil and another 8% petroleum products:

http://internationaltrade.suite101.com/article.cfm/iraqs_trade_buddies

It's worth noting that Iraq's three next-biggest customers are NATO allies, not rival powers like China or Russia.

That has changed notably, as the US has dropped quite a bit:

http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/iraq/iraq_economy.html

Notice that #2 is not a NATO country. If we were there for oil, why would the numbers be dropping against our favor? You'd think that obtaining oil from Iraq would be a long term conspiracy, and not a flash-in-the-pan of actual data that suggests that other countries are becoming more invested in Iraq than we are.

It's funny how much can change in a few years.

But really, I agree with many other posters in this thread saying that it was a "war for oil" is a gross oversimplification. Securing energy resources was one factor, but then there was the distractionary theory of war (Iraq gave Bush a good spike in approval ratings leading up to re-election), belief in a 'reverse-domino effect,' and searching for a geopolitical ally in the region other than inflammatory Israel.

There were lots of reasons why Iraq was invaded. I just don't think for second that the presence of WMDs was anything but a pretext.

That could very well be the case. On one end, I tend to agree, because the WMD argument shouldn't really be the grand reason you'd go into a country and do what was done. On the other end...Its hard to say there'd be a specific one grand reason, because the result of the Iraq war has been so varied in its succuesses and failures, that no real 'desired' outcome has been achieved that I can tell....Unless the goal was to make Bush hated around the world, or depose of Saddam.