The Oil Factor

"The world's biggest oil bonanza in recent memory may be just around the corner, giving U.S. oil companies huge profits and American consumers cheap gasoline for decades to come. And it all may come courtesy of a war with Iraq," writes Robert Collier. But the Bush administration and U.S. oil firms have stayed quiet on the subject of Iraqi oil. "The administration doesn't want oil to be part of the war discussion because it undercuts the reasoning that the rush to war is because of an imminent (Iraqi) military threat," says Michael Klare, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. "If the real motives were made clear -- that this is a grab for oil and an attempt to break the back of OPEC -- it would make our motives look more predatory than exemplary."