ACCESS TO OIL IS BEDROCK OF OUR MIDDLE EAST POLICY

Should the United States invade a foreign country for its oil?

If that question were posed in a poll, the vast majority of Americans would no doubt answer with a resounding “no.” We’re the good guys in the world, spreading democracy, freeing the oppressed, opposing tyrants. We wouldn’t invade a sovereign country strictly out of a selfish lust for its resources, would we?


Of course we would. We’ve already supported coups, sent armies and invaded at least one country to protect our access to petroleum. In his newly published memoirs, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, put that uncomfortable truth front and center with his thoughts on the invasion of Iraq.

“I’m saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows — the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he wrote.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution