Iraq debate: Stan Goff vs Dr Patrick Clawson

An excerpt from Stan Goff’s opening remarks in a debate held at Winthrop University, South Carolina, on November 8, 2004. The forum was titled, “What Next in Iraq? A Post-Election Perspective.”

Global capitalism runs on fossil energy, but the United States does not have to take oil from anyone. Every oil producing nation, including Iraq, has been perfectly willing to sell oil to the United States. It is cheaper to buy oil that it is to steal it with military action. The issue of oil is an issue not of production but of increasing demand between competitors in a period when we have nearly reached the peak of production output

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