Greenspan has lost his mind.

[Liberty]

Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil


AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.


However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

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Sure, oil does play a part. The world's economy is based on the free flow of oil. But, to suggest that it was the core reason for the war is absurd.


And it looks like somebody gets it............

Power, not oil, Mr Greenspan

Alan Greenspan's announcement that the Iraq war is about oil will cheer the anti-war left and confound the Whitehouse

The Iraq war was fought for oil. Who says so? This time the charge is not levelled by the usual Bush/Blair haters but by Alan Greenspan, the lauded and cautious former chairman of the US Federal Reserve. Once famous for his gnomic economic statements, this time Greenspan is loud and clear. The former high priest of capitalism writes in his new memoirs: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” Mr Greenspan’s pronouncement will cheer the anti-war left and confound his old friends in the Bush administration.


Yet surprise should be tempered. The US right is not monolithic. Its vitality stems from its variety. Many US conservatives opposed the war. Ironically, many so-called realists disliked fighting because it was not about oil alone - they were suspicious of democracy building and upsetting once-friendly local dictators. Still more US conservatives are isolationists who believe, like any British blimp, that abroad is bloody. Another tendency, to which Mr Greenspan leans, is libertarian which opposes big government - and war is the worst big government activity of all. Many free market economists, like their Marxist opponents, fall into the fallacy of believing that everything in politics hinges on financial self-interest. True, oil has always been an important factor in Middle Eastern strategy but even countries opposed to the war believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The real reason for the war was Saddam’s defiance and the projection of US power after 9/11.

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Precisely.





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[RandomNY]

Greenspan has also said that GW's economic policies were driven by politics...

ummm Alan you are RETIRED, please shut up and go away...

He Greenspan is the reason for this subprime mess, his Fed decisions are what causes these problems...

Heck he even said in 2003 that SUBPRIME mortgages are a very good thing, now he is saying they are bad...

[Fuzzball]

Dude...he's been a government employee for 13 years...he forgot what it was like out here in the real world and he needs a hook to sell a lot of books to bankroll the last couple of years of his life...

He's no different than Algore or Willie Jeff.....he want's the cash.....

No better way to get it than to uset the apple cart.

[fjccommish]

Greenspan did make the claim, the Iraq war was all about oil, just to sell books. On Monday he back tracked, saying he didn't say oil was the primary motive for the war, but that it is fortunate Saddam is gone.

His new explanation makes no sense, except as a nonsense statement of "I didn't say what I said." He wanted to sell books, he made the statement, but now he doesn't want to take that political position.

He didn't mean what he said, or maybe he doesn't mean what he's saying to retract it. The bottom line is he put book sales above U.S. security, because you can bet our enemies will use those statements to further bolster morale.

Greenspan is a guy who is accustomed to the lives revolving around his word. If he said the economy was slowing, the stock market would fall. He could change an economic lifetime for a young family, increasing or decreasing their mortgage payment, saving or costing them 10's of thousands of dollars over the life of their home loan, with a change of interest rates or a mere utterance.

He's still doing it, but now with U.S. lives on the line.

[fjccommish]

I posted this reply as a test. The folks on this forum failed. Nobody challenged it, nobody challenged the idea that Greenspan had floated this quote to sell books.

The reality is that his comments were taken out of context. He told Bush that protecting oil was a valid reason for war, while Bush denied that, rejected it, in favor of other reasons.

Regarding the economy Greenspan indicated he was disappointed Bush didn't veto some questionable measures.

Nobody questioned an incorrect post, nobody corrected an innacurate post. The grade for this test is an F.

[Liberty]

It had only been 3 hours. Some of us are still working.

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