Civil War In Iraq Options

[Hartmann]

Personally, I am all for this. Let's let the sectarian violence escalate, pull our boys out, let the Iraqis duke it out, and whoever comes out on top, they proved themselves and we just leave it alone.

A civil war does not directly affect this country. It effects the countries in the Middle East and should give them a swift kick in the rear to take part in their surroundings and help.

[Hartmann]

Kim of North Korea has done the exact same thing Saddam has done. He oppresses his people. He refuses weapons inspectors. Even claims to be building nuclear weapons. But what does North Korea not have that much of the middle east does have? Iraq just so happens to be in the center of the middle east. A nice tactical control point. To claim the invasion of Iraq was not motivated at all by oil is pure ignorance. However, do I disagree with the US on this? Not at all. Because I would rather be in the country that will be one of the very few that doesn't suffer from energy needs in the future than in india, china, or europe. Was this selfish policy? Unfortunately, in a world of limited resouces, selfish policy has to be made. And we don't elect people to look out for the world. We elect them to look out for this country.

There is a difference between fighting Saddam and fighting Kim. Not understanding that is ignorance.

Kim will force his people to fight, whether they want to or not. His people have no idea about the outside world and believe that their country is blissful, kind of like the Japanese felt about their country during WWII when in fact it's oppression and brainwashing to the nth degree.

Are you trying to say that Iraq is a foothold in the Middle East? Because if you are, then you need to understand that we already have a couple of those and Iraq wasn't needed. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel, etc. are all places that we have a very strong pull. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are the main oil influence we have. Iraq is not an opportunity for us.

To look at the other oil opportunities in the world and say that Iraq is such a great catch is dumb. Do you think the Chinese would have invaded? Do you think that they would have bought from Saddam? They would have bought, but Saddam was only able to max out Iraqi production at 3.6 million b/d for a short while, even then, he wasn't able to refine it, and this was at the peak of the Saddam era.

As far as selfishness goes, China is at least making moves to get their population to use alternative fuel vehicles while we sit back think about it. Everyone thinks we've reached peak oil, they thought the same thing back in the 80's and look, oil is still being found and technology continues to increase for us to drill in places never thought possible before. Will we ever run out? Yes. Does this mean we invade Iraq because we believe their oil will help us? No.

Please, do some serious reading (credible) on the oil history in Iraq and Iran. Iran sits on an ocean of the stuff. By your logic we should have moved into Iran first and started pumping off of an already established network of wells.