Letter: War for oil argument doesn’t hold water

Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

Jim Riley wrote in his Dec. 5 letter that Bush wanted the United States to stay in Iraq and that we'd be invited to build permanent bases there so that we could look after our oil interests and intimidate the neighbors.

Wow! An affirmation that Bush really is stupid. He chose to mess with a foreign country that ranks only 14th in world oil production. And why would we want to put bases there? We already have bases in Saudi Arabia - but Bush probably doesn't know about the Truman Doctrine, then the Eisenhower Doctrine, the Nixon Doctrine, and the Carter Doctrine - all rooted in the historic, secret meeting of FDR and King Ibn Saud aboard the USS Quincy in Egypt's Great Bitter Lake, back on Feb. 14, 1945.

Why, just as soon, Bush could have invaded Mexico; it has almost twice the oil production of Iraq. Surely, he could have used the argument he was securing our borders. And Mexico is so much closer; it would have been simpler logistically, certainly a lot cheaper, and we could have our troops come home on weekends. Hey, we also could have solved the immigration problem by declaring Mexico a U.S. territory, maybe even give it statehood.

Frank E. Bupp, Las Vegas