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Iraq: It was oil all along, says Greenspan

The White House and the Brits have vehemently denied it - as has little sir-echo PM John Howard - but the pundits have being saying for year that the reason the Coalition of the Willing invaded Iraq was oil. Nothing more and nothing less - simply oil! In this context one must wonder and ponder why the US wants to stay on in Iraq post end of the so-called surge. To secure what?

Now, Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman, in a book to be released tomorrow in the US, is reported to claim that, indeed, the reason George Bush went into Iraq as oil. The TimeonLine reports:

"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.

Greenspan, 81, is understood to believe that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the security of oil supplies in the Middle East.

Britain and America have always insisted the war had nothing to do with oil. Bush said the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam’s support for terrorism."

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