Or so the neocons would like to spin it.
However, in truth:
I drew exactly the opposed conclusion from your line of arguments: the war for oil idea does hold up. But you have to add in Peak Oil into the picture: you want the control of oil sources on a market where demand will soon outstrip supply. You don't want to compete on such a market. You also forget about expressed US concerns about suppliers manipulating prices by reducing their production levels. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
China's Missile Imports and Assistance From Israel
Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) -- In addition to the alleged Patriot technology transfer, Israel has allegedly supplied China with cruise missile technology, including sensitive US technology. Specifically, Israel is allegedly assisting China with the development of its YF-12A, YJ-62, and YJ-92 cruise missiles.
In September 1992, responding to US accusations that Israel sold China Patriot missile secrets, Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen denied "that there had been any kind of military cooperation between Israel and China prior to the establishment of diplomatic relations."
Under U.S. pressure, Israel backed out of a deal with China, potentially valued at $1 billion, in July of 2000. Under the deal, Israel would have outfitted three Chinese Il-76 planes with Phalcon radars. In the spring of 2002, Israel agreed to pay a reported $300 million to put an end to the dispute over the order cancellation.
Since the cancellation of the Phalcon radar deal, Israel has assisted China in other areas including the development of the HQ-9/FT-2000, a surface-to-air missile, which would possibly use U.S. seeker technology. It has also assisted China in the area of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). In July 2002, China deployed Israeli "Harpy" anti-radar drones in military exercises in Fujian Province.
Jane's Intelligence & Insight
In another case of China-Israel military cooperation, a classified Defense Intelligence Agency report stated in 1999 that Israel was suspected of sharing restricted US weapons technology with China related to a battlefield laser gun. Israeli agents attempted to obtain embargoed weapons know-how from US defense contractors on the Tactical High-Energy Laser, known as THEL, the report said. The DIA also stated Israeli officials, from the government-run Rafael arms company, obtained restricted technology from US defense contractor TRW in 1996.
See also next comment in my diary - TRW link to Marco Greenberg at Burson-Marsteller.
"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
That's the most rational theory for oil, because all others simply do not make sense. No oil company is going to invest a cent in Iraq for as long as the Americans are there, because any contract will be renegotiated with whoever will capture power once they're gone - and because it won't be safe until they're gone. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
In other words, if soft political control of oil producers is not possible, the US would move to direct political pressure and, failing that, military control, but populer resuistance and the fragility of oil infrastructure would result in not being able to gain control of the resources anyway.
But if the goal is not so much to gain control of more oil but to deny access to others, then the Iraq war is not so much of a failure.
What it is is a criminal scorched-earth approach to managing the global economy and resources. tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
