I disagree and disagreed with going to war with Iraq, but it wasn’t about oil per se. There were geopolitical reasons behind the decision, rather than to “rob Iraq of its oil.”

Here are some facts you might be interested in:

There is only one company in charge of Iraq’s oil. It is called the Iraqi National Oil Company, and it is state-owned, just like RECOPE here.

The Iraqi National Oil Company does, however, contract with international oil companies to drill wells, and get the oil out of the ground.

Out of 23 oil fields in Iraq, US companies were only awarded contracts to extract oil from 2 of them – and that contract was awarded to the US companies by Iraqis, they didn’t force themselves there.

The remaining 21 oil fields are being extracted by companies from the Netherlands, Malaysia, China, France, UK, Italy, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Angola, and Japan.

None of the companies, including the US ones, however, “own” the oil. They are paid a very small fee per barrel that they extract… about $2 per barrel. The oil itself is owned, controlled, and sold by the Iraqi National Oil Company.

If the U.S. wanted/needed Iraqi oil that bad, it sure didn’t work out well. The U.S. wouldn’t have invaded Iraq for its oil, it could have simply lifted its embargo against Iraq and PURCHASED oil from them. Saddam would have GLADLY sold oil to the U.S. The U.S. has no problems buying oil from countries with which it isn’t friendly – Venezuela, for example. I think the facts make it pretty clear the motive behind the war was more motivated by geopolitics than oil.