Abizaid: ‘We’ve Treated The Arab World As A Collection Of Big Gas Stations’

[robertpaulsen]

Abizaid: ‘We’ve Treated The Arab World As A Collection Of Big Gas Stations’

During a round table discussion on “the Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet” at Stanford University on Saturday, Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, said that “of course” the Iraq war is “about oil“:

“Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” Abizaid said of the Iraq campaign early on in the talk.

“We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations,” the retired general said. “Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.”

Abizaid has previously argued that the U.S. would need “to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq” in order to protect “the free flow of goods and resources” such as oil, but his Stanford comments go much further in pinning oil as a prime motivator for the war.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/15/abizaid-middle-east-gas-station/

Wonder if Petraeus will say the same thing when he is "replaced".

[C_U_L8R]

1. except we're not buying

we're sticking them up

[Strelnikov_]

2. Tommy Friedman, in a moment of lucidity, was responsible for that quote

per one of the comments further down the page.

Abizaid responded with the "Our message to them is: . . " quote, which is really the eye-opener.

Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.

Basically, he admitted that we are partly responsible for the conditions that led to 9/11.

Guess he has joined the ranks of the 'phony soldiers'.

[Flabbergasted]

3. Abizaid seems like he's working to get the truth out there.