Greenspan Admits Iraq was About Oil, As Deaths Put at 1.2 Million
The man once regarded as the world’s most powerful banker has bluntly declared that the Iraq war was ‘largely’ about oil.
Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and retired last year after serving four presidents, Alan Greenspan has been the leading Republican economist for a generation and his utterings instantly moved world markets.
In his long-awaited memoir — out tomorrow in the US — Greenspan, 81, who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for almost two decades, writes: ‘I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.’
In The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, he is also crystal clear on his opinion of his last two bosses, harshly criticizing George W Bush for ‘abandoning fiscal constraint’ and praising Bill Clinton’s anti-deficit policies during the Nineties as ‘an act of political courage’. He also speaks of Clinton’s sharp and ‘curious’ mind, and ‘old-fashioned’ caution about the dangers of debt.
Greenspan’s damning comments about the war come as a survey of Iraqis, which was released last week, claims that up to 1.2 million people may have died because of the conflict in Iraq — lending weight to a 2006 survey in the Lancet that reported similarly high levels.
More than one million deaths were already being suggested by anti-war campaigners, but such high counts have consistently been rejected by US and UK officials. The estimates, extrapolated from a sample of 1,461 adults around the country, were collected by a British polling agency, ORB, which asked a random selection of Iraqis how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes.
Previous estimates gave a range between 390,000 and 940,000, the most prominent of which — collected by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and reported in the Lancet in October 2006 — suggested 654,965 deaths.
Although the household survey was carried out by a polling organization, rather than researchers, it has again raised the specter that the 2003 invasion has caused a far more substantial death toll than officially acknowledged.
The ORB survey follows an earlier report by the organization which suggested that one in four Iraqi adults had lost a family member to violence. The latest survey suggests that in Baghdad that number is as high as one in two. If true, these latest figures would suggest the death toll in Iraq now exceeds that of the Rwandan genocide in which about 800,000 died.
The Lancet survey was criticized by some experts and by George Bush and British officials. In private, however, the Ministry of Defense’s chief scientific adviser Sir Roy Anderson described it as ‘close to best practice’.
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Kucinich has had the balls to speak this truth out loud since BEFORE the beginning of the “invasion”–(NOT war).
Still the man is not put into the spotlight for his research, foresight and courage to speak truth to power.
Why is it so hard to rally around a man who has been ahead of the rest of the politicians for YEARS! Oh, that’s right–he’s still connected to the PARTY. So what? Aren’t issues supposed to be more important than “team” affiliation???
I never cared much for Greenspan while he was employed, but he has just now earned a few points with me. Now…will the U.S. media cover this???
Greenspan admits the sky is blue!
Greenspan admits he didn’t consider the effects of housing speculation on the economy.
Greenspan admits he supported Bush tax cuts for wealthy.
To sum it all up: Greenspan admits he’s a politicaly motivated corporate whore.
For a lighter look at Mr. Greenspans effect on America:
http://bananatreehotel.com/ramsay/recession_greenspan_economy/
Ramsay
P.S. Greenspan admits bunnies are cute.
Historical lessons, current events, and rational interpretation of intellegence have normally precluded egotism & theocracy for major decisions in our republic. Unfortunately, this is not the case now.
The current administration is manipulated by ego, the energy cartel,& the radical religious right wing to extents never before experienced in our history. The ill conceived invasion of Iraq, the plans to provide arms to some Middle East Countries, current suggestion to invade Iran, & the dreadful war on our environment are only some examples.
Unless Americans begin reacting to logic rather than rhetoric, and take back our country from this illegally placed administration now, the rights that we have enjoyed for two centuries may evaporate–and Americans we can blame themselves for this
Good for Greenspan. Too bad his words will probably only be heard by those who buy and read his book.
The greed & deception oriented political and economic systems of the USA have no place for an incorruptible honest man like Kucinich. Still I hope like hell he gets into the presidency. It would be like a revolution. The dirty rats would be driven out of washington one by one, and we would find a government for the people.
Regardless of how popular he is, the corporate news media will cut the numbers down to the bone for as long as they can, because they know he will turn their world (where the rich get richer…) upside down!
http://www.dennis4president.com/home/
Now, will reporters step and ask the Presidential candidates from both the Republican, Democratic and Green Parties what they think about Greenspan’s take on the the oil issue?
Why won’t Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid clearly state that this war was largely about oil? What is so politically impossible about speaking that simple truth to the US public?
Will George Bush and Dick Cheney be pressured to respond to Greenspan’s comments, or will our corporate media immediately try and bury this story far beneath the public view?
Why is the truth so unpalatable to politicians? What are they afraid of? Why won’t the corporate press ask them such questions?
At least Nader dared to mention the issue:
http://www.counterpunch.org/nader02172003.html
Pelosi won’t touch this, however:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/8/13382/29307
And the Republicans, of course, say that any such notion is preposterous - Donald Rumsfeld famously announced that this war had “literally nothing to do with oil.”
What is it about this basic, simple truth that causes politicians to slam their mouths shut and stick their heads in the sand?
ike: I REPEAT….
“Kucinich has had the balls to speak this truth out loud since BEFORE the beginning of the “invasion”–(NOT war).
Still the man is not put into the spotlight for his research, foresight and courage to speak truth to power.”
http://www.dennis4president.com/home/
Sadly, no American newspaper has yet to headline this statement by Greenspan. The Washington Post in its Saturday editions buried the quote in the fifth-to-last paragraph of a long story by Bob Woodward, and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal didn’t mention it. Neither the Post or Times mentioned it today (Sunday). I bannered the quote in my blog yesterday, and sent it out in my email distribution. Perhaps that contributed to the AP’s story today, which prominently mentioned the Greenspan war-for-oil quote and resulted in its getting major radio play around the country today..
Everyone with a bit of intelligence knew from the start that the war in Iraq was about oil…except the Americans. There is a high price to pay for arrogance and ignorance. Thanks for fucking up our world.
let’s all sit back and watch the bushco/israeli lobby team eviscerate mr greenspan.
led by fox news who will be asserting in their always professional segue: “some people are saying……”
US GENOCIDE IN IRAQ
Forthcoming in Christian Sherrer, Comparative Genocide Studies, Hiroshima Peace Institute, 2007. (Pdf version available [here])
With the cooperation of Hana Al Bayaty and Abdul Ilah Albayaty
Abstract:
The United States has committed and sponsored the crime of genocide in Iraq. Outlining the legal meaning of genocide and following Jean-Paul Sartre’s analysis of the nature of colonial war, this paper asserts that on the basis of patterns of purposive action a case for intentional genocide can and should be made under the provisions of the Genocide Convention. While the United States has destroyed the state of Iraq, contaminating its environment and creating conditions of mass societal trauma, including the killing of 2,500,000 over 17 years, it has failed and cannot succeed to destroy the nation of Iraq. Being the lynchpin of US attempts to pursue empire by military means, it is the duty of all who struggle for justice to oppose the US genocide wrought on Iraq, move to ensure the prosecution of all those responsible and complicit…
Continues
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_25218.shtml
Crimes of the State Blog
http://crimesofthestate.blogspot.com/
Sorry to say but Dennis Kucinich was not publically speaking war for oil until years after the invasion. I saw Dennis on two occations in the years following the invasion and , yes, oil for blood was in the conversation, but Kucinich wasn’t the one saying it.
He was even cute once at Renissance Unity outside of Detroit by doing somewhat of a call and response with the answer being “oil”, but, as the shrewd and cunning politician he is, he never uttered the word.
No, I wouldn’t even trust the likes of Dennis Kucinich with imperial powers, at one time Hitler himself was a vegetarian espousing populist themes. No, for me my leaders are the Iraqi War Veterans I took pictures of in DC yesterday - at the rally and at the steps of the Capitol getting arrested.
Arrested - not just in the name of ending the immorality of endless war as soon as possible, but arrested in the name of The Call To Impeach.
Greenspans commentary on the precept of the war is an immensly valuable addition to the argument for the Call To Impeach. Daniel Ellsberg, with Amy Goodman and others joining the chorus, have been calling for a new “Pentegon Papers”. It has been my contention that the New Pentagon Papers has been under construction with every key stroke at sites such as this and TruthOut for some time now.
And with practice the litany of lies, distortions and betrayal is gaining a stronger and more determined voice. In conjunction with the raised fists of the Iraqi War Veterans at the front door of the White House - now tempered with the arrest at the Capitol - and now a dignified voice in many conservative circles, one that the likes of Rush Limbaugh cannot belittle - helps to finally put an end to Bush’s last gasping lie repeated how many times last Thursday - “Free Iraq”.
This last futial lie - that in “freedom for Iraq” Bush/Cheney actually mean a form of Colonial Privitisation - becomes clearer and clearer to the General Public, and with it the betrayal to the American Social Contract, the Worlds Humanity, and perhaps most importantly the Troops behind which Bush/Cheney have maintained refuge for so long.
At the rally Ramsey Clark echoed a thought that gets condemed too often: preeching to the choir. I agree with Clark that preeching to the choir is a wonderful way to empower the arguement for the Call To Impeach - Greenspan adds a compelling refrain to what is becoming a thundering litany of lies and betrayal.
Also at the rally Ralph Nader repeated his favorite number: 535 - the number of governmental representatives of The People we need to share our practiced words with.
Thus, practice with your words with your choir, share it with your governmatal representatives (repeatedly), and then share it with me in DC on the 29th.
IMPEACHMENT - RAMP IT UP! End This War Now!
The lies are legion and have been part of this country from our conception. Occasionally, we are thrown a bone of truth. We gnaw on the bone for a bit, but it’s never enough to really sharpen the teeth of a rebellion. TPTB know this and are therefore always a few steps ahead of the masses. It’s up to us to reveal more truth and continue to hone the teeth of rebellion and keep them sharp. These people are evil……impure and simple. Their lack of ethics, morality, integrity and compassion is surpassed only by the ability of these few to keep 300 million American citizens under the power of their continuing deception. This is not a movie, my friends. Evil can and will win if we keep sitting back.
Bu$h the inferior wanted to invade Norway over lutefisk, but Shotgun Dick talked him into Iraq over a secret reason.
Now the hero of our economy breaks through the heavy layers of secrecy and obfuscation and makes the surprise announcement that there is some elaborate plot involving oil.
Leave it to Greenspan to put clarity into a baffling plot twist. This was a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
“at one time Hitler himself was a vegetarian espousing populist themes”
Hitler’s contempt for the masses — the German masses included — was even more strident than his hatred of Jews & Slavs.
Notice that he doesn’t deplore the war –
“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil” –
he only regrets that it’s inexpedient to acknowledge it.
If Nancy Pelosi and/or Harry Reid said to the American people, “this war is largely about oil” the sheeple would be soooooo happy!
They’d think, “thank goodness” — they’d think, “gee, how much would a gallon of gasoline cost if Bush didn’t have the balls to fight this war.”
The sheeple are selfish and not terribly informed.
What in world did anyone THINK Bush & Co. meant by “America’s Strategic Interests” if not oil, including Herr Greenspan.
Like Paul Bremer and George Tenet, Greenspan now has to burnish his ‘legacy’ by some late-inning tongue-clucking, now that it won’t cost them a damn thing for doing it. But had there been any such comment THEN . . .
This war is about Oil Company profits.
All the money and blood so that oil companies can book profits for themselves.
By this fact alone, the US of A ought nationalize these companies to get back the trillion dollars that has been use to help them make money.
Nationalize :
. Alon USA, United States
. Amerada Hess Corporation, United States
. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, United States
. Apache Corporation, United States
. Arbusto Energy, United States
. BP, United Kingdom
. Chevron Corporation, United States
. ConocoPhillips, United States
. Crown Central Petroleum, United States
. Devon Energy, United States
. ENSCO International, United States
. ExxonMobil, United States
. Gulf Oil, United States
. Hess Oil Company, USA
. Insight Energy Corp, United States
. Kerr-McGee, United States
. Koch Industries, United States
. The Louisiana Land & Exploration Company, United States
. Marathon Oil Corporation, United States
. Occidental Petroleum
. Oil & Gas Petroleum Corporation, United States
. Piyush Petroleum Co. Ltd, India
. Pogo Producing, United States
. Shell Oil Company, United States (subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell)
. Sinclair Oil, United States
. Sunoco, United States
. United Refining Company, United States
. Vaalco Energy Inc., United States
. Van Doren Oil, United States
. Wyngate International, Inc. United States
Is this suppose to be some kind of revelation? Is Greenspan telling me, my Presiden, as been lying to me? NOOOOO, couldn’t be.
Greenspan Admits Iraq was About Oil”..Why speak of it in past tenses.
We are still there aren’t we or have I missed something?
But to the point, it seems that now in the sights the targets are Social Security and Medicare will have to be ended.
To use a Clintonism, “to end Social security as we know it.”
It seems to me that the ends are approximately the expectation of the Thatcher-Reagan privatized government that began with the election of Richard Nixon. Little by little the forces of capital have overwhelmed labor in the US of A, and elsewhere.
If Greenspan took all this time to conclude that Bush invaded for the oil and could not see the economic threat of easy credit and all the associated con jobs then I really must question the assumption of his being a financial genius. He cannot be both naive and smart. As an ordinary citizen, I understood what was happening early on. I’m not impressed.
Guess maybe Mr Greenbacks has had a sort of deathbed conversion—if I just confess the sin that everybody already knows, I won’t spend quite as much time burning in hell. What a joke!! I love how these so called brilliant leaders and po;icymakers manage to find the light long after their horrid policies have already done their ghastly damage.
Although most people not completely hoodwinked by BushCo’s ideological chatter and fear mongering knew that the occupation of Iraq by the U.S. armed forces was meant to control its oil and to intimidate and to bully the Middle East and southeast Asia, it is nontheless important that a Greenspan would confirm this suspicion.
However, note how this dirtbag waited until now — namely, after he retired himself from the administration and at such time as his book is coming out — to break this piece of news.
Of course a banker says its about oil. That’s because a banker never wants you to notice that wars are also about all the money the bankers make loaning the money to fight the wars.
Couldn’t Mr Greenspan have said it a little earlier? Like 4 years ago? Fat lot of good it does now. Those of us with 2 ounces of brain knew it was all about oil in 2002 when W and Co. began their drumbeat. So what is this “revelation” for? Does he think it’ll sell his book? He’d be better to put naked ladies in it. And use large print. And small words.
also i wouldn’t be surprised if mr greenback is willing to say the attack on iraq was all about oil so that we forget that a big part of the support for the war came from neocons doing what was good for israel.
I watched him on “60 Minutes” this evening. No hard questions, just meatballs thrown right over the plate. I know it’s to be expected, but still.
The war on Iraq is a war for oil profits for oil companies at the expense of the blood and the money of working people.
Where is Robin Hood?
“In modern versions of the legend, he is famous for robbing the rich to provide for the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny.”
Oh, what else is news. Oil, what has the left been saying all along. Wake up America!
Greenspan clarifies Iraq war, oil link
Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:50am EDT
By JoAnne Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Clarifying a controversial comment in his new memoir, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he told the White House before the Iraq war that removing Saddam Hussein was “essential” to secure world oil supplies, according to an interview published on Monday.
Greenspan, who wrote in his memoir that “the Iraq War is largely about oil,” said in a Washington Post interview that while securing global oil supplies was “not the administration’s motive,” he had presented the White House before the 2003 invasion with the case for why removing the then-Iraqi leader was important for the global economy.
“I was not saying that that’s the administration’s motive,” Greenspan said in the interview conducted on Saturday. “I’m just saying that if somebody asked me, ‘Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?’ I would say it was essential.”
- - -
Alan, Alan, Alan, have you lost your mind?
don’t worry. they’ll take his house away from him and freeze his ass ets……..ha ha ha………………
Ahhh, yes! Friendly father Alan Greenspan speaks. The man whose Social Security “Trust” (how ironic) Fund has been responsible for the greatest single transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealththy in all of recorded history. And the really scary thing is that to this day very, very few people recognize how he robbed the poor by shifting the burden of government from the graduated income tax to the Social Security tax which of course has an income cap above which the tax is not applied. Most people don’t even know the Social Security “Trust” fund was Alan Greenspan’s brainchild.
How sad that so many Americans continue to kiss the feet of those who kick them in the teeth.
Interesting newsclip, dreamertoo @ 4:23 am. Sounds like Greenspan was saying the invasion SHOULD have been about oil, and it would have been had they followed his advice.
If Cheney was the prime mover behind the attack, then maybe oil was the major attraction. But if Bush and Rove were the real impetus behind the war, then I think winning the 2004 election was the big draw.
Respectfully….
Does it REALLY MATTER that Greenspan has ‘admitted’ (the OBVIOUS), in print, that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was largely about oil?
How is this news tidbit going to change anything?
Our emphysemic Earth is gasping from CO-2 emissions.
Disease, famine, global warming are running rampant.
The U.S. is feared and loathed by the collective global population.
The U.$. Military Indu$trial Congre$$ional Complex is playing CHICKEN with Iran…..
And Greenspan is out to make a buck to pad his already over-stuffed, Bu$h-supporting, Ralph Lauren pocket$ by ki$$ing a$$ with the disgusted U.S. voting block.
Whoop-tee-doo.
B.ring
U.S
S.oldiers
H.ome!
IMPEACH!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE_HW76kuAA
Here’s an editorial from the London Times on the Iraq/Oil issue. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article2461241.ece
Congrats to all you out there that figured this out 5 earlier that the head of the fed.(ex)
Today, Greenspan is “clarifying” his remarks about Iraq oil. Ha - he got called onto the carpet.
Notice how they always cloak their vulgar deeds with fair words.
He is indeed “Clarifying” that he is a loyal and corrupt element of the American establishment which is rotten to the core (by spinning his suprisingly truthful remarks about Iraq’s oil). He and all the other chiefs of the American establishment are cold blooded murderers. They have the blood of over a million people (including hundreds of thousands of little children) on their filthy nasty hands.
The should NOT have any power over other people. They should be locked up in steel and concrete cages.
They are a menace to mankind.
Greenspan is no different than Colin Powell or George Tenet, or any of the other suddenly born-again-moralists who, now to find a less shameful place in history, are suddenly critical of Bush’s policies. These sycophants had more than enough time when it really mattered to take a stand, and all were in imensely important positions and could have made a huge difference in where we have ended up today, if only they had decided to not be lackeys for Bush and Cheney. Why didn’t any of them speak up when it could have made a difference? They are even worse than the criminals in charge because they knew better.
Well, there’s one “read” we can come away with here. The unholy coalition of Big Money, Big Oil, Big Fear, Big Guns, Big Pharm & Big Bibles is showing trouble signs. They’re beginning to blame one another.
You can’t please all the plutocrats, oligarchs and autocrats all the time.
Beware.
Like Bush, if Greenspan’s lips are moving he’s lying.
the War was all about oil???
this was a secret to anyone?
EAT GREENSPAN, “CONSERVATIVES”!
EAT GREENSPAN, “CONSERVATIVES”! Just Google the “Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program” and see what THEY said (exact words) when many nations objected to their nukes: “They are only for peaceful purposes.” The point of fomenting an Iran war is nothing more than the naked attempt to crush anybody in the region of “our oil” who might object to The West’s sucking it out of them. Notice the new right-wing Bush Buddy in France sending his Foreign Minister out with omens of war too—to the NeoCons this is called creating legitimacy….The West’s ENTIRE ECONOMY is hooked to the oil-pipe and its wealthy are not going to allow any resource to escape before they go down in post-colonial flames….When “our men and women in uniform” wake up to what they’re doing—CHOOSING TO BE BLIND and carrying out this obscenity with their own bodies—perhaps they’ll choose to do something else instead. Such as helping to arrest the PSYCHOPATHS currently in power
Greenspan did not have to state the fact that Americas avarice motivate it to wage a illegal war on Iraq.
Oh what a pyrrhic victory for the US: just like Vietnam and, to the bitter end, no acquistion of Iraq’s vast oil serves.
It could only take an idiotic president like Bush to get America bogged-down in such a futile and absolute mess.
I know you had fun Alan. I hope it was worth it. You sure left a hell of a mess.
MaxheMust is right on the money.
What dirtbag Greenback has first and foremost clarified for us all with his retraction is that he is such a coward that he had to give some non-sequitur gloss of his claim that the savaging of Iraq was primarily undertaken to get at its oil, and that he did so in order to appease the BushCo fanatics, who might just decide to break his legs for exposing the purpose of their democracy and freedom machinations.
The dirtbag doesn’t even have the courage to stand by his own words.
He doesn’t seem to be retracting anything,EveningLand. He ADVISED Bush/Cheney to focus on the oil, but they got distracted by trivial geopolitical considerations like WMD and dreams of empire. If they had stayed focused on oil, they would have simply turned Iraq over to Exxon-Mobil when they originally declared “Mission Accomplished.”
In other words, a couple trillion dollars and a million lives might have been saved if they had followed Greenspan’s advice.
JohnDoraemi September 16th, 2007 3:35 pm wrote
“The United States has committed and sponsored the crime of genocide in Iraq.”
- - - - - - - - - - -
So very true. Now guess what how many bullets have Bush, Cheney, Rumsfled, Powel Wolfowitz, Rice fired? ZERO
How many bombs, and shells and bullets have our troops fired? MANY.
I don’t support our troops - because they are perpetrators of this genocide. Don’t support our troop who have made this genocide possible.
Sure oil may have been a factor ,but having seen the BBC Panorama documentary “The War Party” it has always seemed to me that those people ie Washingtons Neo Cons interviewed,were all under the impression that Iraq would fall over in days and that with Saddam deposed invading forces would be welcomed like heros .With minimal casualties and along with a 3rd party involvement leaving convenient paper trails for propaganda purposes (IE the Niger Uranium and George Galloway papers) ,the invasion forces would then be quickly in a position in “Using our power to clean up” the middle east..I took this as meaning escalating the invasion to include Syria and Iran whom the neo-cons viewed as the major threat against the USA ’s interest in the middle east IE Israel..
Years later I still stick to my original assessment .. but then again I am an outsider looking in ..
I doubt if the loved ones of any American killed or maimed in Iraq would put a value of a fraction of a cent on the cost of a litre of oil as payback for their loss let alone the Millions of Iraqi casualties.