Is Iraqi Oil Paying for War?
From the Meet The Press March 16, 2003, interview of Dick Cheney.
MR. RUSSERT: Every analysis said this war itself would cost about $80 billion, recovery of Baghdad, perhaps of Iraq, about $10 billion per year. We should expect as American citizens that this would cost at least $100 billion for a two-year involvement.
VICE PRES. CHENEY: I can’t say that, Tim. There are estimates out there. It’s important, though, to recognize that we’ve got a different set of circumstances than we’ve had in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan you’ve got a nation without significant resources. In Iraq you’ve got a nation that’s got the second-largest oil reserves in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia. It will generate billions of dollars a year in cash flow if they get back to their production of roughly three million barrels of oil a day, in the relatively near future. And that flow of resources, obviously, belongs to the Iraqi people, needs to be put to use by the Iraqi people for the Iraqi people and that will be one of our major objectives.
At this writing, the War has cost over $150 billion, with many billions more appropriated but not yet spent. For an up to the minute ticker of the cost of the War in Iraq, go to:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=171440
As for the oil, Bush Administration testimony to Congress in early 2003, was that Iraq oil revenues would be between $50 to $100 billion over the next two or three years. The actual figure for 2003 was $8 billion, with no more than $15 billion projected for 2004. For a report from the Brookings Institution on the Iraq oil sector one year after liberation, go to:
http://brookings.edu/fp/saban/luftmemo20040617.htm
MR. RUSSERT: Every analysis said this war itself would cost about $80 billion, recovery of Baghdad, perhaps of Iraq, about $10 billion per year. We should expect as American citizens that this would cost at least $100 billion for a two-year involvement.
VICE PRES. CHENEY: I can’t say that, Tim. There are estimates out there. It’s important, though, to recognize that we’ve got a different set of circumstances than we’ve had in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan you’ve got a nation without significant resources. In Iraq you’ve got a nation that’s got the second-largest oil reserves in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia. It will generate billions of dollars a year in cash flow if they get back to their production of roughly three million barrels of oil a day, in the relatively near future. And that flow of resources, obviously, belongs to the Iraqi people, needs to be put to use by the Iraqi people for the Iraqi people and that will be one of our major objectives.
At this writing, the War has cost over $150 billion, with many billions more appropriated but not yet spent. For an up to the minute ticker of the cost of the War in Iraq, go to:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=171440
As for the oil, Bush Administration testimony to Congress in early 2003, was that Iraq oil revenues would be between $50 to $100 billion over the next two or three years. The actual figure for 2003 was $8 billion, with no more than $15 billion projected for 2004. For a report from the Brookings Institution on the Iraq oil sector one year after liberation, go to:
http://brookings.edu/fp/saban/luftmemo20040617.htm
posted by Tom Blake | 2:13 PM
1 Comments:
Since no one else seeems to be commenting, I will add my own followup thought.
With roughly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attack (which was the pretext for launching the so-called War on Terror), the $150 billion spent in Iraq purpotedly as part of the so-called War on Terror works out to $50,000,000 per victim so far - with none of the masterminds of the attack yet brought to justice.
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