On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 11:05:22 +0100, Odd Hedberg
<odd@triumphclub.se> wrote:
<war in Iraq>
>As it seems now this is mainly a campaign to secure
>more overly cheap oil to the US,
If all that was wanted was cheap oil (to burn as gasoline in our
Triumphs), wouldn't it be better to just lift the sanctions and
allow Iraq to sell it to us? This would increase the world
supply, and drive down prices charged by other countries as well,
assuming supply and demand curves work in other countries.
Refineries are fragile. If you conquer a country and build
refineries there, they will be constantly sabotaged (yes, that's
a French word. Sue me.), so securing a reliable supply of
gasoline at the source is right out.
The Straits of Hormuz are narrow, because after all, it's a
strait. Tankers could either be attacked with rockets, or a few
of them could just be sunk, blocking all sea traffic for months.
This would put a big kink in the oil supply for the whole world.
The economic sanctions are still in place because we are
enforcing them. If this were just about oil, it would be a
simple matter for President Bush to get them lifted. He could
even say it was so the Iraqi citizens could enjoy the fruits of
capitalism or something, that they have suffered enough,
something like that. We could then just buy the oil without fear
of having anything attacked or sunk. Nothing would have to be
protected, and it would be a hell of a lot less expensive than
sending in troops.
President Bush is an oil guy, you may safely assume that he knows
all of this. I mean hell, *I* figured it out.
Steve "'73 TR6" Daniels
ps. You don't get to hand us a lecture about our place in the
world and how we should act in relation to it, and end with
"can't we just get back to Triumphs". If you need to have the
last word, send mail to yourself.
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