# Oil companies returning to Iraq. or No war for oil ~ redux **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 22, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795 "2008-06-22T16:04:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/41 "2008-06-26T22:49:16Z")
It’s certainly not rare for a country to enlist foreign oil companies to help them produce oil. Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, Colombia, Russia, and Norway all do it, to name a few. Mexico is screwed if they don’t get some help. Saddam wasn’t exactly very good at running the oil sector; production peaked in the late 70s ahead of the Iran-Iraq war. Bringing in Western companies with experience and technology is probably the best way to maximize resource value. Of course, terms of the agreements should be carefully thought through, and the bidding process should be competitive, but there are a number of consulting companies that could help Iraq set up the system relatively cheaply. In the acorn analogy, suppose the son could pick up 100 acorns a day, but Confederated Acorns has a machine that will pick up a 1000, and is willing to do it if the profits are split. The acorn tree owner is better off. That’s hardly stealing. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/42 "2008-06-26T22:56:01Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] When you make this kind of statement I stopped reading the rest of your bullshit. These people risked their life to vote and they have a legitimate government for the first time. [/QUOTE] But it’s not what they got. If you are to believe **them** instead of your own propaganda sources that is: [Iraq numbers tell grim story](http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/06/27/news0709.htm) > [@](#): > > All the Iraqi expatriates or exiles with whom I spoke emphasized that Washington’s repeated assertion that civil war will break out as soon as American and coalition troops leave, is a big propaganda lie. They were unanimous in their belief that Iraqa’s own political authorities are capable of peacefully resolving their differences and that nothing would do more for national reconciliation than for the entire country to be free of America’s “liberation” forces. > > In fact, the prevailing informed opinion of Iraqis both inside and outside their country is that the presence of occupation forces is the greatest single factor contributing to the incitement and proliferation of factional and sectarian violence. **More than 80 per cent of Iraqis want the occupation to end, sooner rather than later; they are tired of seeing their country divided and shattered under an ineffectual puppet government.** Among the remaining 20 percent are politicians exploiting the American occupation to enlarge their own wealth and power. – Highlights mine, more at source. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/43 "2008-06-26T23:07:15Z")
[QUOTE=RedFury] But it’s not what they got. If you are to believe **them** instead of your own propaganda sources that is: [Iraq numbers tell grim story](http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/06/27/news0709.htm) – Highlights mine, more at source. [/QUOTE] Yah, that’s why they risk their lives to vote :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/44 "2008-06-27T02:16:13Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] These people risked their life to vote and they have a legitimate government for the first time. [/QUOTE] I recall the reports at the time how they were told that they’d vote or we’d cut off their food and water. It was a show designed to make us feel better about our conquest, that’s all. And no government created under our guns can be legitimate. They’re just a bunch of collaborators. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/45 "2008-06-27T02:33:34Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] And no government created under our guns can be legitimate. They’re just a bunch of collaborators. [/QUOTE] That’s a complete load. Japan and Germany are the most politically solid countries on the planet because of the United States. Should we abandon the Dayton Accord and withdraw troops from Bosnia? How about South Korea? Kosovo? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/46 "2008-06-27T02:42:41Z")
[QUOTE=Magiver] That’s a complete load. Japan and Germany are the most politically solid countries on the planet because of the United States. [/QUOTE] THEY attacked US, or declared war on us. They weren’t attacked without cause, despite repeated attempts to placate us. The two situations aren’t the same at all. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/47 "2008-06-27T02:44:55Z")
A government may attain legitimacy even under the worse condtions of birth, that is true. (Your example of South Korea buggers the question, the military dicatatorship of Rhee Syngman was hardly an advance in human rights). But please remember, Germany and Japan were at war with us before the “regime change” that brought about their liberation. Had they been permitted to do so, the Japanese would almost certainly have voted to restore the Emperor to his position _ante bellum_, the same cannot be said of the German people, if we hadn’t hanged so many Nazis, they probably would have. And our invasion was an act of war, a war imposed upon us, not a war we undertook at the leadership of a nitwit. If Congress had voted against being at war with Japan, Japan would still have been at war with us! As far as their voting as a means to express how much they simply love us half to pieces…well, didn’t we say we would leave just as soon as they had a functioning government? How better to express such a determination than to vote? There’s no reason to believe they voted because they wanted us to stay. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795/48 "2008-06-27T08:46:50Z")
> [@](#): > > …the military dicatatorship of Rhee Syngman… Something stirring from childhood nightmares tells me that that was _Syngman Rhee_. I may be mistaken. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-returning-to-iraq-or-no-war-for-oil-redux/453795.md?page=2)