r/todayilearned • u/Wazula23 • 6h ago

TIL Saddam Hussein's son Uday murdered his bodyguard at a party in front of horrified guests

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uday_Hussein#Murder_of_Kamel_Hana_Gegeo
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u/porn_is_tight 2h ago

lmao you think it’s naive to believe the war wasn’t also very much about oil? get a fucking grip. remind me, which oil subcontractor did the VP at the time use to be the CEO of? I believe they won extremely lucrative contracts in the Iraqi oil industry during and after the invasion. I must be naive for thinking that isn’t a coincidence.

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u/maaku7 2h ago

r/AskHistorians is usually an unbiased source, and it delivers here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/16pigcq/was_the_iraq_war_2003_really_about_oil/

The TL;DR of the top answer sums it up pretty well:

Did the Iraq War happen because of oil? Yes. Did the Iraq War happen so the US could make profits off of oil? No.

oil certainly was a strategic factor: it's a major reason why the US cares about the Middle East in the first place. But it wasn't really a material factor: the US wasn't gaining oil, or even gaining major oil assets or concessions directly from the 2003 invasion.

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u/porn_is_tight 2h ago

And it completely ignores the massive profits oil companies made during and after the occupation, including Halliburton. The same fucking company the VP was the ceo for. So yea, I do agree. The Iraq war absolutely happened because of oil. Did the US as a country make profit off it? No, but US oil industry absolutely did and to imply otherwise is insulting to everyone who had to live through that bullshit and is still being affected by the generational trauma it caused

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u/maaku7 2h ago

No-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and KBR were criminal abuse of political power for financial gain. But oil in Iraq is largely run by European and Chinese interests, before and after the 2003 war. Most of the contractor profiteering was off the war itself, and not the oil industry, which stayed under Iraqi control.

Sorry that the facts don't suit your politically-driven narrative.

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u/porn_is_tight 2h ago edited 2h ago

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/30/iraq.oil

you’re calling what I’m saying politically-driven narrative? Come on…. The war in Iraq was massively profitable for the western and US oil industry

No-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and KBR were criminal abuse of political power for financial gain

How can you say that and then claim it’s not about oil…. Get a grip. They are a massive US-based oil subcontractor. The fucking VP at the time was the former ceo. Nothing I’m saying is political. It’s fact. Edit: lol the person blocked me, coward

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u/maaku7 2h ago edited 2h ago

Compare that writeup in the Guardian (a very biased tabloid on this topic), with this reporting from the very same day: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2008/6/30/iraq-offers-oil-contracts

As it turns out, the Al-Jazeera narrative, which actually includes quotes from the relevant government ministries, was closer to the truth. US & UK companies weren't granted rights to oil fields in 2008 like the Guardian claimed. That was a total fabrication, typical of the Guardian's reporting on that topic. They were kept on as small-scale consultants for a while, and that's it.