We Go To War For Oil, Not Because a Despot Supposedly Gasses His Own People

The war drum is being pounded again. A scapegoat has been found in Syria's Assad. Trump gets to throw his weight around with the aid of the world's mightiest fighting forces.

Is it just because he can? What's it all really about?

It's about oil, just like that last invasion we did in Iraq.

Quotes from those who made war happen in the past:

I couldn’t find any quotes from any of our Commanders-in-Chief, but how about one from a second in charge, such as Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, in 2007?

People say we’re not fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about America’s national interest. What the hell do you think they’re talking about? We’re not there for figs.

I wasn’t thinking figs either but I was running out of other options.

How about this one from 4 Star General John Abizaid – the former commander of CENTCOM with responsibility for Iraq:

Of course it’s about oil, it’s very much about oil, and we can’t really deny that.

Alright then. I won’t deny it. And I’m not going to keep quiet about it either.

While former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan wasn’t a military guy he did have his finger on the nation’s economic pulse better than anyone. He said in 2007:

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

John McCain, while running for president and the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, someone privy to a lot of information about our military, had this to say about why we have been sending our kids off to be killed:

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

According to Joshua Rovner, Chair in International Politics and National Security at Southern Methodist University:

the United States has an enduring interest in protecting the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. It has performed that role for nearly forty years.

Well alright, a professor isn't exactly one making it happen but you get the point, right?

Or is Trump rattling his saber because his ratings are low? That's what he said about Pres. Obama:

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