Iraq: "the oil conspiracy theory"
did you see that story a while back about the bohemian grove lot trying to get an ex page 3 girl to attend? apparently they've had some pic of her up in one of the cabins or something for years - and wanted to get her down in person
just found the link
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1811
well, you'd wanna know what shes like now before you got her down
from the morning star on iraq and ... oil
from the morning star on iraq and ... oil
i haven't seen anything about this in the mainstreamAustralia admits oil motive for Iraq war
OIL is a key factor keeping Australian troops in Iraq, Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said on Thursday, before Prime Minister John Howard sharply contradicted him.
Mr Nelson's citing of global energy security as a reason for keeping troops in Iraq adds weight to war protesters' arguments that the 2003 invasion was more an oil grab than a bid to find Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which proved to be non-existent.
A new defence review has concluded that maintaining "resource security" in the Middle East was a priority, Mr Nelson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"Energy security is extremely important to all nations throughout the world and, of course, in protecting and securing Australia's interests," he said.
"Obviously the Middle East itself, not only Iraq but the entire region, is an important supplier of energy, oil in particular, to the rest of the world.
"Australians and all of us need to think what would happen if there were a premature withdrawal from Iraq," Mr Nelson said.
Mr Howard rushed to limit the damage, claiming that neither Mr Nelson nor himself had said that securing oil supply was a key factor behind his country's involvement in the Iraq war.
"We are not there because of oil and we didn't go there because of oil," he insisted.
"A lot of oil comes from the Middle East, we all know that, but the reason we remain there is that we want to give the people of Iraq a possibility of embracing democracy."
However, he had earlier told a conference in Canberra that energy demand was a key reason for helping to develop a stable Middle East.
Mr Nelson claimed that the foremost reason behind Australia's decision to remain in Iraq was "to make sure a humanitarian crisis does not develop between Sunnis and Shi'ites and driven by al-Qaida if we were to leave prematurely."
He said that other reasons, which the government has previously stated, included supporting key ally the US, ensuring stability in the Middle East and defeating terrorism.
Mr Howard sent 2,000 troops to support US and British forces in the Iraq invasion.
Australia maintains 1,000 troops in Iraq, supported by 600 air force and navy personnel in the region.
The opposition Labour Party has pledged to remove most of Australia's troops from Iraq if it wins elections that are due late this year.
Labour defence spokesman Robert McClelland accused the government of shifting from its denial that oil was a motivation for the war.
"It's taken them four years to acknowledge that fact," Mr McClelland said.
Morning Star 5/7/07