Originally posted by RandomThug
@Coot one thing that gets me is the question I gotta ask. Is the US the only people who profit from oil in iraq and kuwait.
In a word, yes. Bush and his cabinet established itself--without the involvement of the allies such as the UK, Australia, Poland or Spain--as the gatekeeper for all international contracts coming out of Iraq. Don't you remember the international diplomatic row that broke out when the US Defense Department announced, under jovial Rumsfeld, that France, Germany, Russia, and even Canada would be prohibited from submitting bids for lucrative international contracts on Iraq? The profit is going to the US.
Then, there's the Haliburton Affair. Haliburton, the oil company formerly headed by VP Dic! Cheney, was immediately awarded contracts totalling $2 billion after the invasion: the largest such contract offered since the end of the war. Now, a Congressional investigation has been launched (and by a Republican Congress, no less) into how the contract was awarded, and how poorly Haliburton has mismanaged matters.
Kuwait was different. The old government was put back into place. However, they very kindly offered oil at an extremely cheap price afterwards to the US in order to defray the costs of their good friend in helping them out. Was it an appropriate action to take? Very likely. But that doesn't remove the fact that the US got a great break out of the Gulf War: first, cheap oil for Kuwait; secondly, free oil vouchers from Iraq which (not coincidentally, IMO) ran out the year Bush invaded Iraq.
