McClellan: Iraq’s Oil ‘Certainly Played Heavily’ In Cheney’s Desire To Launch War
McClellan: Iraq’s Oil ‘Certainly Played Heavily’ In Cheney’s Desire To Launch War
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan appeared on CBC Radio One’s “The Current” this morning to discuss his recent memoir, in which, he asserts that the Bush administration waged a “propaganda” campaign in order to “sell the war” in Iraq to the public.
Inquiring about Vice President Dick Cheney’s motivations to go to war, host Jim Brown noted that Cheney “doesn’t strike me as someone who would be particularly motivated by idealistic visions.” McClellan agreed, adding that Iraq’s oil occupied Cheney’s mind more than anything else:
MCCLELLAN: Certainly you can’t discount the large oil reserves inside Iraq and how much that plays into our national security interests and I don’t think you can discount how much that plays into the vice president’s thinking.
BROWN: Or his portfolio for that matter.
MCCLELLAN: Or his portfolio for that matter, absolutely with that being a former chief executive officer for Halliburton and that certainly played heavily into his thinking more so I think than the idea of transforming the Middle East into a beacon of democracy.
Listen here:
McClellan later added that he believes that Bush never “would have made the decision to go in and invade Iraq” if “he could see what had happened.” But when asked if Cheney “would do it differently a second time around,” McClellan said flatly: “No.”
BROWN: Do you think Dick Cheney would do it differently a second time around?
MCCLELLAN: No. Well he might have done some military things differently but I think he was determined to see Saddam Hussein removed from power and would have continued to encourage that.
During a speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco last month, McClellan suggested some book titles for Cheney should he choose to write a memoir of his own after leaving office: “The Lies I Told,” or “I Upped Halliburton’s Income - So Up Yours.”
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Inquiring about Vice President Dick Cheney’s motivations to go to war, host Jim Brown noted that Cheney “doesn’t strike me as someone who would be particularly motivated by idealistic visions.” McClellan agreed, adding that Iraq’s oil occupied Cheney’s mind more than anything else.
Wealth and power are the only motivators for this snake.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
July 8th, 2008 at 1:20 pmCheney is evil.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:20 pmCue the trolls with their claims that “securing Iraqi oil is the only way we can win”.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pmBut, but, but Saddam had WMD! You libruls are so pre-9/11! 9/11 changed everything!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:26 pmMcClellan later added that he believes that Bush never “would have made the decision to go in and invade Iraq” if “he could see what had happened.”
This is the main problem I have with Scotty — he continues to make excuses for Bush.
Scotty just doesn’t seem to be able to see that George W. Bush is NOT the man he wishes he were.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:27 pm#4 pete,
July 8th, 2008 at 1:28 pmInvite Johnny McSame?
Oh c’mon everybody. It’s obvious that Dick Cheney is a true patriot. He’s wearing his flag pin and clearly has his hand over the spot where his heart should be.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pmThe 10 gallon hat on the 10 gallon head with a suit and tie is a great look for the Face of Evil!
He’s checking his “heart” to see how long he has to live to enjoy those oil profits!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:30 pmCue the trolls smearing Scott McClellan while ignoring the validity of his message in 3, 2, 1…
July 8th, 2008 at 1:30 pmTracy5 Says:
——————————————————————————–
“The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India […]”
If those other counties didn’t offer any support to oust Saddam then you are damn right they shouldn’t be allowed to bid on developing Iraq’s oil fields.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:05 am Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
July 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pmIn other words, Tracy supports over throwing governments for their natural resources. How telling.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pmMcClellan later added that he believes that Bush never “would have made the decision to go in and invade Iraq” if “he could see what had happened.”
McClellan is dead wrong here, and Zooey is absolutely correct: quit providing cover for Bush, Scotty, if you ever hope to reclaim an ounce of credibility or integrity. Your book was not news to anyone here, and you have years of penance ahead before this lefty is willing to consider you a full fledged member of the human race.
And, as a diehard Packer fan, the fact you look like their head coach only makes me nauseous whenever they pan the sidelines. I’ll get Favre to come kick your *ss if you keep making excuses for the war criminal Bush.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pmA Nixon throwback taking a big shit on American values.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:42 pmA Patriot Acting Says:
Oh c’mon everybody. It’s obvious that Dick Cheney is a true patriot. He’s wearing his flag pin and clearly has his hand over the spot where his heart should be.
Yeah, but, why didn’t he take off his hat? Why does Cheney hate America?
July 8th, 2008 at 1:43 pmThe real title for Cheney’s book.
PuppetMaster.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:45 pmWe invaded a soverign nation to take their resources and give those resources to private companies. That is, by definition, a war of spoils. There is no other way to talk about this situation. We bullied and pushed, bribed and bought, threatened and intimidated to get what Halliburton and all Cheneys friends wanted. Why else would Cheney keep his energy policy meetings under wraps - to the point of ordering the Secret Service to shred meeting plans and minutes.
All of this pain and suffereing will not lower your price of gas 1 penny. It will not create any more gas than we have now. It merely diverts the profits to private copmanies, and away from those who actually ‘own’ the oil.
We are thieves, nothing more or less than thieves - and the whole planet knows it now. Got bitter?
July 8th, 2008 at 1:48 pmEven the white hat doesn’t make him look any less evil. Iraq would not have gotten a second thought without the oil. This dick doesn’t give a fck about US citizens, so why in the world would he give a fck about Iraqis? Just like when he dealt with Iran when he was at Hellburnthem, contrary to US law. It’s all about power and money.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:54 pmis THIS for real?
BREAKING…
“To put it plainly, T. Boone Pickens is out to save America.”
- Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club
Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens wants to supplant oil with wind
USA Today
more »
T. Boone Pickens Says Peak Oil Reached, Plans World’s Largest Wind Farm
[…]
IT’S TIME TO STOP AMERICA’S ADDICTION TO FOREIGN OIL
America is in a hole and it’s getting deeper every day. We import 70% of our oil at a cost of $700 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.
I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil.
On January 20, 2009, a new President gets sworn in. If we’re organized, we can convince Congress to make major changes towards cleaner, cheaper and domestic energy resources.
To get this done, I need your help. Check out the plan. If you think it’s worth fighting for, please join our effort.
http://pickensplan.org/
cool…
July 8th, 2008 at 2:00 pmIt’s real katy, he was on NPR this morning… interesting.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:02 pmsorry, OT.
But…
Where’s the thread on the Senate Vote today on FISA immunization for warrantless wiretaps of Americans? You know, the Right THEY(sic) are seeking to undermine because THEY(sic) hate our Freedom to be free from Tyranny.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pmAnd all this has worked out so well for America, well, we were underprivileged anyway.
How’s your gas bill Trolls, are you ready for 6 dollars a gallon by X-mass?
Thought so.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:05 pmWatch out for T. Boone Pickens. He is a very evil man. In the 80’s he was one of the corporate raiders who did untold damage to our country, and helped put millions of Americans out of work.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pmGM to build world’s biggest rooftop solar station: report
http://news.yahoo.com/ s/ afp/ 20080708/ sc_afp/ usspainfranceautocompanygm_080708023355;_ylt=AvMOWeLT5RVpVseCYo8.Cf2s0NUE
LONDON (AFP) - US automobile giant General Motors (GM) will announce on Tuesday that it will build the world’s largest rooftop solar power station at its biggest factory in Europe, the Financial Times reported.
ADVERTISEMENT
Its factory in Zaragoza, northern Spain, will be clad in 183,000 square metres of solar panels in a 50 million euro (78.5 million dollar) project to provide a quarter of the factory’s power at peak times, the paper said.
The carmaker is working with Veolia Environnement of France and Clairvoyant Energy of the US on the project, which is part of a commitment to greater sustainability.
GM is due to install solar panels on its factory in Saint Petersburg next and is looking at whether to roll out the scheme to its other 19 plants across Europe.
But not one in the USA. Probably they don’t want all that Republican opposition and pressures.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pmYeah, I wish we could export Republicans before they export all of our jobs.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:08 pmHmmm…does Cheney looked “drugged: or “foolish” in that picture? Has TP Photoshopped a cowboy-hat on his head?
July 8th, 2008 at 2:09 pmI just seem to remember there was a big discussion about such things recently.
This picture is doctored, no doubt. Cheney looks like an old bastard guarding his wallet.
/snark
July 8th, 2008 at 2:13 pmHow dare they keep ‘our’ oil under ‘their’ sand?
July 8th, 2008 at 2:13 pmDamn you McClellan! Don’t make me start liking you!
July 8th, 2008 at 2:13 pmToo bad Scalia squashed the attempts to see what Cheney was planning in early 2001, in those secret energy meetings. We did see the map that divvied up the oil fields, though.
So our troops were used with the intent to deliver Big Profits to Big Oil? 4500 US troops and millions of innocent Iraqis paid the price so Dick “Scrooge McDuck” Cheney can swim in his underground vault of money?
This picture of Cheney should appear in Webster’s dictionary under the definition of “war profiteer”.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:20 pmMax-1. They are still debating the FISA bill and a vote is not expected until tomorrow.
And 5th? If you find yourself liking Scotty just remember he helped Bush seize and hold the White House. I’m glad he has a teeny tiny conscience but he still has much to atone for.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pmBut pete, scotty looks so cuddly now instead of all sweaty when he had that lying all the time gig. He’d make a great throw-pillow.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:34 pmshoeless says: I wish we could export Republicans
Why do you hate the rest of world to give them these POS.
FTS! Hang all Republicans at once!
July 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pmThe sight of that SOB makes me wanna puke!
July 8th, 2008 at 2:57 pmGoddamn I wish he would drop dead!
The day he dies should be declared a national day of celebration. A federal holiday.
The motherfu(ker is just plain E-V-I-L!
911=Inside Job
Investigate, impeach then convict.
July 8th, 2008 at 3:11 pmhey look! Dickey’s got a flag pin. that must mean He believes in justice for all, eh? saannnaaaark!
July 8th, 2008 at 3:30 pmLividLib...
in the after-murk of July 4, my brother and I were musing; “What if the rest of the world held a global celebration on inauguration day, 2009, when Bush and Cheney get kicked out. Something like the 2000 “Millenium” celebrations?”
July 8th, 2008 at 3:34 pmGosh, I’d like to see something like that!
But 5th…
If Dick-n-Bush have their way we’ll be pouring booze in our gas tanks by then. I suppose that beer and wine will be available but the hard stuff will be too valuable to drink. And I think it will take at least 100 proof to dull the pain caused by Bushco!
July 8th, 2008 at 3:42 pmNobody, and I mean NOBODY looks more asinine in a cowboy hat than the Scowling Dick.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:19 pmStill trying to convince the world that gwb is the idiot that he is. How many headers will it take to convince the people that this turd did what he did?
July 8th, 2008 at 6:06 pmIt’s already been mentioned, but it needs expanding upon:
Dick Cheney is obviously holding his hand over the spot where his heart should be. He’s either reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, or listening to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
But he has his hat on. And as anyone who’s left their baseball hat on at the beginning of a ball game could probably tell you, that’s a big no-no.
But, it’s okay, because he’s a Republican. No endless loops on FOX News. No idiotic commentary from Bill O’Reilly’s radio show. No snide comments or scary asides about how he must be a terrorist. Not for Uncle Dick.
No one could have predicted!
July 9th, 2008 at 12:37 am#30 Pete,
So just ignore the elephant in the room…?
They may have postponed the vote, but it was debated TODAY! Yet, TP does not raise the issue of defending our Fourth Amendment Rights… and not even “filibuster”!
When I posted this a.m., we had 24 or so hours to effect a change… TP could have played a pivotal role in this URGENCY…. COULD HAVE!
I am so, SO disappointed by “progressives” that “claim” to be for civil Rights yet are blind to unconstitutional injustices TO those civil Rights. This isn’t just TP, but heck, look at CONgress… hell, look at the average person on the street. “Lights are on, but NO ONE is awake.”
Americans Fourth Amendment Rights, Freedoms and Liberties are on the auction block, being pimped out to the highest bidder… and Americans aren’t allowed! A vast majority of Americas Representatives in Congress refuse to defend and protect our Rights, Freedoms, and Liberties of Americans, instead giving license to Corporations to violate our own Freedoms, Rights and Liberties. And THEY(sic) do this because the people are being kept ignorant. And THAT surely isn’t a “progressive” stance, IMHO!
July 9th, 2008 at 2:31 am