Novak

""Military victory (against Iraq) is anticipated inside the Bush administration as the tonic that will prompt corporation officers and private investors to unleash the American economy's dormant power. Although it is impolitic to say so, the fact that the United States will be sitting on a new major oil supply will stimulate the domestic economy. That puts a high premium on quickly gaining control of Iraq's oil wells before they can be torched--a major uncertainty in an otherwise strictly scripted scenario."

Novak may be a hardcore conservative on some issues, but in many ways he's more akin to a Pat Buchanan than any modern neoconservative (like Bush.)  In many ways, he's also an idiot - I remember reading some column where he basically called our attempt to free Iraq another example of America just doing Israel's bidding: ie, if we weren't ridden with Jews, then we'd be ignoring Iraq.

Alright, I have to go to class, so I can't really go in depth with this, but, here are a couple of reasons why this isn't a war for oil.

1.)  If we wanted Iraq's oil, we wouldn't be sanctioning them.  It's almost self-evident (isn't it) that the optimal situation for the US (oil-economically) would be to have a preferential agreement with Iraq and Hussein.  Hussein, being a dictator, could do whatever he needed to do to get us the best oil prices possible - the hassle of having to get oil from a democratic country wouldn't be there.  In fact, since we're the largest oil market in the world, we'd be able to push France and Russia (who do have preferential trade agreements with Iraq) out of the way, and basically have Iraq to ourselves.

If we were principally interested in oil, we wouldn't be sanctioning Iraq.

2.) Well, maybe we want to turn Iraq into some sort of fiefdom for our oil companies.  That's stupid.  Even if we could somehow pull the wool over France and Russia's eyes (pre-existing agreements), our American oil companies WOULD NOT benefit from having more oil.  We have enough oil to sell as is - Iraq's oil being restricted keeps the worldwide oil price artificially high.  Freeing open Iraq's oil markets will drop the value of oil worldwide, which will hurt American companies by devaluing their own oil resources.

3.) We know the oil wells are going to get fucked up as we move in - there's nothing that will stop Saddam from wrecking the wells as soon as he knows that we're going to depose him.  It's a fact.   (Remember who is profiting from those soon-to-be-destroyed oil wells - France and Russia)

What we have right now is France and Russia involved in a peace-for-oil - making peace with Saddam to get Iraqi resources.  That's what we would be doing if we really needed Iraq's oil, and if we were as culturally and morally bankrupt as the frogs.  People should be protesting about No Blood for Oil in France - France is the one profiteering from Saddam's regime as Saddam sheds the blood of his citizens, women, children.

Anyways, the War for Oil argument is still idiotic, and it'll stay idiotic even if a couple stupid Paleoconservatives (like Novak) decide to support it.

Stone