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150 comments on Chavez vs ExxonMobil war escalates

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CrystalRadio on February 10, 2008 - 10:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

River, about insuring the flow of oil from Venezuela, I imagine someone here will be able to quote chapter and verse as to how much oil flowed from Iraq before the US invasion and how much is flowing in 2008, five years later.

But from this:

Oil - production:
2.11 million bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - consumption:
295,000 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - exports:
1.67 million bbl/day (2007 est.)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/iz.html

Greenspan said it was clear to him that Saddam Hussein had wanted to control the Straits of Hormuz and so control Middle East oil shipments through the vital route out of the Gulf. He said that had Saddam been able to do that it would have been "devastating to the west" as the former Iraqi president could have just shut off 5m barrels a day and brought "the industrial world to its knees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Iraq

If Greenspan was correct about 5 million barrels a day in that statement then Bush should be given a medal for reducing the amount that could be shut off from 5 million barrels a day to a mere 1.6 million a day.

Will he be even more successful in Venezuela? Good question!

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karlof1 on February 11, 2008 - 2:39am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hussein NEVER had a navy to give him even a method of controling the Staits of Hormuz, thereby revealing Greenspan's level of knowledge of such things.

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CrystalRadio on February 11, 2008 - 10:56am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Point well missed karlov1 :)

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karlof1 on February 11, 2008 - 8:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I was not commenting on your main point; rather, it was Greenspan's ignorance, which I made clear enough.

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Zadok_the_Priest on February 11, 2008 - 8:28pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

karlof1, I think CrystalRadio was agreeing with you - saying Greenspan missed the main point too. The happy face at the end gives it away.

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CrystalRadio on February 11, 2008 - 9:35pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks Zadok, but sorry, I'm not that deep, karlov was right about Greenspan but I just wanted to say to him that Greenspan was immaterial to the point I wished to make which was about the effect an invasion of Venezuela would have on oil exported to the US. But that was a right good interpretation of yours I wish I had thought of it, anyway here we all are, being right ... neat!:)

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Alfred on February 11, 2008 - 11:21am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

If Sadam were a Bismark, he would have not stopped at Kuwait but continued across another 400 miles of undefended desert and occupied Ghawar. That would have made much more sense than trying to control the Straits of Hormuz which is the other side of Iran.

Obviously, if he had done that, we would all be eating out of his hand right now and he would have been sanctified by the Pope himself.

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150 comments on Chavez vs ExxonMobil war escalates

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