Turns Out, You Can Get Oil For Blood

Or at least, they can die trying.

...[W]hen President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protesters claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.

In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists".

"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.
...
The industry-favoured plan was pushed aside by a secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan was crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas.

To beat on the same drum again and again, it's worth saying that even if they'd gotten their wish, there isn't much the neocons could have done to lower oil prices. First off, most oil in the world is now produced by non-OPEC states. Adding one more to the pot probably wouldn't have changed the fundamental dynamic too much.

Secondly, and more importantly, we can see now that, only two years after the war, world oil production is pretty much maxed out. Bringing Iraq up to full production would have brought prices down slightly, but it would hardly have "destroyed" OPEC. Or, even if it did, it wouldn't have mattered.

Neocon fantasies: 0.
Reality: Counting is really irrelevant at this point, isn't it?

(Link via Suburban Guerilla)