They're just cutting out the middle-men...

If they sold it in Euros, they could make even more money.

cltbuilder: If they sold it in Euros, they could make even more money.

FTFY.

/Rials?
//Lira?
///Certainly not shekalim.

Rebuild which country?

Damn. They're stealing their own oil?

We should invade!!

And bring them democracy!!

FTA: "It's the money pit of the insurgency," said Capt. Joe Da Silva

So the oil money *is* going to rebuild the country. First the money will finance the war against the US backed Iraqi government. Then it will be used to finance the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure. This is exactly how Bush white-boarded the reconstruction effort 6 years ago.

Mission Accomplished.

YES! The Seattle Times just picked this gem of a story up! They'll save our country! We can be sure of it!

But Wolfy told us the war would pay for itself.

12 Billion a month and counting.

Heck of a job Wolfy!

nogames2k4: But Wolfy told us the war would pay for itself.

12 Billion a month and counting.

Heck of a job Wolfy!

What I love about Wolfy is that he got a job set up for him so that he could be removed from the Pentagon, and he totally farked that up by giving the chick he was farking too much salary.

How did this dumbass get any sort of political position, other than the fact he gives neo-con power grabs the thinnest intellectual veneer?

Jacobin: Damn. They're stealing their own oil?

We should invade!!

And bring them democracy!!

We'll be greeted as liberators.

Boy do we feel stupid.

/ right? right??? right??????

nobozo: Boy do we feel stupid.

/ right? right??? right??????

Yep... and angry. Especially angry at the a-holes who want McCain so as to continue this festering abortion of a military operation.

Let's send some more troops over, you know, to guard the oil.

Support our Oops?

(Stole that)

"I don't think our troops should be used for what's called nation building."
- George W. Bush, 2000

No nation no economy. No economy no profits.

Well, I hardly think you can blame the U.S. government for not knowing that there was a thriving black market in oil when we invaded.

Tallgordon: Well, I hardly think you can blame the U.S. government for not knowing that there was a thriving black market in oil when we invaded.

It wasn't thriving at all, Hussein had real control over the country. We have no control and the Black market was created. (Geesh.)
-----------
The article rearranged...
Loyalties can be traded. For now, at least 91,000 Iraqis, many of them former enemies of the U.S. forces, receive a regular American-paid salary for serving in neighborhood militias. But at least one-third, and possibly much more, of the fuel from Iraq's largest refinery in Baiji is diverted to the black market, according to U.S. military officials. Tankers are hijacked, drivers are bribed, papers are forged and meters are manipulated; some of the earnings go to insurgents who are killing more than 100 Iraqis a week. It is among the schemes that feed money to the black marketeers. Most tanker trucks intended for Sharqat never make it there. "It's all a bluff," said Taha Mahmoud Ahmed.

Barham Salih, the Iraqi deputy prime minister, said Iraqi security analysts estimated al-Qaida in Iraq received $50,000 to $100,000 a day from swindles related to the Baiji refinery. A U.S. report estimated insurgents generated up to $200 million a year.
---------

Totally farked the whole thing. Took a man in control out of power, and allowed Al-qaida a couple of ways of financing their cause. American dollars and Iraqi oil.

This reminds me of C&C generals where you can capture the oil rigs to get more money but I didn't think it'd be quite this literal.

Well... take this for what you will, but the truth of that matter should be known.

The oil industry actively lobbied against the Iraq war. The "NeoCons" such as wolfowitz in the president's adminstration had idealistic plans for Iraq following the invasion. One of which was a immediate privatization of much of Iraq's oilfields to Oil companies around the world, including to Iraqi owned businesses. The idea was along the lines of the "free market will correct everything" but also it would raise a significant amount of capital for reconstruction, and numerous powerful interests would have a vested interest in reconstructing and maintaining security in Iraq.

The oil companies however made it known that they would have nothing to do with a plan that would end their artificially held supply while global demand increases, by dumping the number one holder, yet one of the smaller suppliers, of oil onto the market.

So while Iraqi oil nationalization was allowed to continue, it also led to the stagnation of Iraq's oil economy. And only now are we talking optimistically about getting to pre-invasion levels.

And the "big oil" companies have been fighting every step of the way any plan that would give them control of Iraq's oil economy.

"It has a great deal more to do with the economy than with ideology," said one senior U.S. military official, who added that studies of detainees in U.S. custody found that about three-quarters were not committed to the jihadist ideology.

If we print enough money, we can just give it directly to them and we won't have an insurgency to deal with any more!

FTA: '"It's the money pit of the insurgency," said Capt. Joe Da Silva, who commands several platoons stationed at the refinery, 125 miles north of Baghdad.'

I don't think Mr. Da Silva understands what a money pit is.

/he should rent the movie.

Our enemies using our own tactics against us? Unpossible!