What is the consumption of fuel by the Military? How does it compare to the consumption of the entire civilian population of America?
How much oil is being used to fuel Humvees, F-16s, M1A1s and Destroyers?
Basically I am trying to get an idea of a cost benefit analysis for this war. I want to see if it’s even a good idea based upon purely economic terms.
Erek
According to the CIA world factbook, Iraq’s proven reserves = 112 billion barrels of oil. The US in total uses about 19 million barrels a day, equalling 7 billion barrels of oil a year. Will check back when I can find specific figures for just the military.
Remember to add in that we’re going to have to pay for the oil anyway.
Perhaps you might also consider that it just might not be being fought for oil.
Outstanding. Also, see if you can go back and figure the numbers for 1945 and figure out if it was “cost-efficient” to get rid of Hitler. :rolleyes:
Godwinized in 4 posts! Is that some kind of record? Maybe the guy would like a real answer to his real question before he gets shut down for being unamerican in GQ.
I wonder if in 2010 it will be cost-efficient to get rid of Bush.
Erek
Actually yes it was quite cost-efficient to get rid of Hitler. American companies sold goods to both sides. You know Fanta? That’s the brand Coca Cola created to sell Coke to Nazi Germany.
Also with the Marshall Plan, we were able to rebuild both Europe and Japan to be more amiable to the American economic system. So that’s a lot of profit.
Then there is the ideological idea, that having Hitler lead the world is just a really bad idea. On the other hand, Saddam Hussein was kind of shoved in his little hole and that was never actually a danger. Then after that, we actually won the hearts and minds of Europe in WWII instead of making them madder and madder at us like we are doing now.
So to put it in simple terms that you might be able to understand, getting rid of Hitler had many pros that getting rid of Saddam did not, before economics even enters the picture. The war in Iraq is a complete waste of time and resources, I’m just wondering if it’s worth it economically at all, or if it’s just a bad idea all around that did nothing but detriment to the United States. The price of gas per barrel is almost three times what it was in 2001.
The further I go along, the more convinced I am that supporters of the war are purely ignorant. That it’s not even a difference of opinion, it’s that they are stupid uneducated hicks, every last one of them.
Erek
I guess I should have said “defeat Germany and Japan”. The thing is, fighting to win a war isn’t like going to the store and buying something, then saying “Well, let’s see if this was worth it.” If you figured the cost of the Revolutionary War you might decide it would have saved us money to stay under the Crown, too. Oh, and there is no need to worry about Bush in 2010 since that will be 2 years after he leaves office.
That is your opinion, which for one Bill Clinton seems to disagree with:
From:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1051684/posts
And from that same cite, the other clinton speaks:
I assume we can agree that Bush also warned us about WMD’s
Thanks for the insult, but I really can’t understand why people can’t see the turn around of the democratic party (in general) is clearly ONLY poliltically motivated. Basically the world knew Sadam had WMD (quotes from some world leaders at the above cite also). Perhaps Sadam fooled everyone, just like a criminal running from the cops fooling the cops into believing he has a gun. What did the criminal expect to happen?
So this war is not about oil and recovery efficiencies, but it is a factor. Oil makes important to the free world, and more so for the lower classes, who really can’t afford high energy prices. It also allows S.H. a revenue stream to research WMD’s.
If you want to see it as it costs us 1 gallon in tank fuel to liberate 100 gal of oil, feel free, but I contend your time may be better spend comparing apples to oranges.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
<mod>
OK, folks. Let me gas up this thread and motor it on over to Great Debates where you can have at it without the GQ constraints.
It’s headed that way anyway.
</mod>
Hi, Kanicbird! I am sort of surprised to see you pedaling more or less the same line that got ripped to itty-bitty shreds in the recent thread that you started but failed to even come back to defend.
Many of us actually had the foresight not to believe all the lies that were being thrown at us. See the thread that I referenced in the last post.
kanicbird What do Democrats have to do with it? I didn’t single out republicans, I singled out supporters of the war.
This country created Saddam Hussein, this country sold Saddam Hussein his weapons of mass destruction. This country overthrew a democratically elected Iranian government back in the 50s. This country paid Saddam Hussein to assassinate the Prime Minister of Iraq around the same time.
Basically, all the reasons to go to war besides economic factors are bullshit IMO. I am trying to run a cost benefit analysis of the economic factors, to see if it’s a total and complete failure or not, because gas prices have risen.
Arabs hate us more than they ever have, we’ve alienated a lot of countries, including Canada, who is going to start selling their oil to China. This war in Iraq I think fucked us over in the long run more than most people can even imagine right now. I am trying to see if there is anything good at all to come from it, something I highly doubt.
We’ve already lost politically and ethically, I am trying to figure out whether or not we are going to come out behind economically as well.
Erek
Well, leaving aside the ridiculous question of whether or not the war was cost effective (what possible difference does it make?), to answer the question of the OP is not a GD but a GQ…i.e. how much fuel does the US military use. A sub question is how much has the military used in Iraq.
This requires registration, but:
Bottom line (from the article): ‘The US military now uses about 1.7 million gallons of fuel a day in Iraq’.
Does that help? If we make more fuel available world wide does that make the war ok? If not, does that somehow make it wrong just because we lost money on it? 
-XT
Now, com on. You do understand that wasn’t all that popular back then. And who can say that all of th money will not ultimately profit the US with more amiable economic systems and security from the Mid-East countries.
Say that in about ten more years and people may think you have a clue what you are talking about.
Rhetorical bullshit. This country alone didn’t create Saddam. Nor did this country, alone, sell him weapons…especially weapons of mass destruction. This country alone didn’t overthrow a ‘democratically elected Iranian government’ either. Perhaps if you want to get to the bottom of ‘who is to blame’ you should look up what those vaunted Europeans had to do with the Middle East and how things got started there…or do you suppose history started only 50-60 years ago?
If you disagree then lets see some cites to back some of that bullshit up.
Even assuming you CAN…wtf does any of this have to do with your own OP? Is this just a general anti-American/anti-Iraqi war rant disguised as a question about fuel consumption?
Again, rhetorical bullshit. Cite that Arabs hate us more today than they hated us in the past. As for alienating our close allies (including Canada) I’d say…well, we have to a certain extent but don’t go ape shit here. Canada sells oil on the world market…just like everyone else. If China buys it…who the fuck cares really? Canada isn’t going to stop selling oil to the US…nor is anyone else.
As for whether or not this war in Iraq has fucked us over…well, time will tell. You are speculating what you THINK is going to happen. You don’t KNOW…no one does. I’m not a huge fan of the invasion, but I try and keep my raw speculations as just that…WAG’s. When you state something as fact about the future I have to ask how you know…and what the lotto numbers are going to be here in New Mexico next week. Tell me that and maybe I’ll take your WAG about the future a bit more seriously.
Did you actually want to discuss fuel consumption of the US military?
-XT
jshore Actually No, just some political hacks. They have offered no proof that Clinton, Kerry were under durress when they claimed that S.H. had WMD. Just claiming they did does not change the past. If you want to beleive it, go ahead.
Emotion.
I am pissed off as how dems turned on this war for purely political reasons.
Well, Kanicbird, then you ought to have had no trouble destroying the arguments that those people actually made in the thread. Instead, you turned tail and fled.
xtisme I wanted an answer which I got.
I am of the opinion that this war is a complete wash. I’ve explained my position, I think that politically and ethically we are losing. We aren’t spreading democracy, that’s just propaganda.
No one is trying to take Europe off the hook, but we played that game. We definitely created Saddam Hussein. If you want to see cites here’s a whole bunch of them: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6713204&postcount=32
I just wanted to know what the fuel consumption of the military was. It seems pretty fucking pointless to me, and I wanted to see just how ridiculous the whole mess was. This war is HURTING America, it’s not helping us in any way as far as I can tell. We could have brokered a deal with Iraq not to invade Kuwait back in the day, we could have not pushed Iraq and Iran into war. We didn’t choose any of those methods. This war is patently ridiculous, it’s unecessary, and we created the monster ourselves. I’m tired of people trying to weasel out of it.
I’m not anti-American, as far as I am concerned anyone who is FOR this war is Anti-American. People who say we need to accept that some of our liberties will be curtailed while we fight the war for ‘freedom’ are Anti-American. I’m pro-American. I am pro free speech, pro freedom of religion, I am anti people being arrested for choosing to do a recreational drug. In short I am pro-liberty, anyone that stops short of that is anti-American as far as I’m concerned.
Of course you’ll get the idiot who only understands force who will think I’d like to force my views upon someone, and that’s certainly not true, because forcing your will on another human being is anti-liberty. We are the oppressor in this war, pure and simple, and America isn’t benefitting from it in any way other than the gestalt of fear, rage and jingoism.
Erek