{"id":3763,"date":"2003-04-01T10:33:18","date_gmt":"2003-04-01T15:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2003-04-01T10:33:18","modified_gmt":"2003-04-01T15:33:18","slug":"belaboring_the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/01\/belaboring_the.html","title":{"rendered":"Belaboring the obvious"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s all <\/a>about oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Economic interests, as well as jealousy of power, color the picture. According to the International Herald Tribune, French interests have signed with Iraq drilling contracts worth as much as $50 billion. The contracts are so lopsidedly favorable to the French firms that no successor regime to Saddam will be able to respect them.
\nThe French fan dance with Iraq dates to the 1970s, when Chirac was the point man in selling nuclear reactors to Iraq, including the Osirak plant bombed by Israel in 1981. (The plant, incidentally, was known as the O’Chirac reactor.) It was Chirac who signed the treaty with Iraq allowing for the transfer of French nuclear technology and specialists. It was this same Chirac who lavished praise on Saddam as a “personal friend,” a “great statesman,” and who invited him to his home. And, yes, it was the very same Chirac who has led the French efforts to sell arms to Iraq, some $20 billion worth. Today, France remains Iraq’s biggest European trading partner. Those who believe the United States went to war against Iraq inspired by oil are looking in the wrong direction. Try Paris.<\/p>\n

(via InstaPundit<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s all about oil. Economic interests, as well as jealousy of power, color the picture. According to the International Herald Tribune, French interests have signed with Iraq drilling contracts worth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3994,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/02\/any_club_that_w.html","url_meta":{"origin":3763,"position":0},"title":"Any club that would have me as a member","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Mar-03 6:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm surprised this didn't get more play when it happened a few weeks ago. Or maybe it did, and I just missed it while in the UK. Jacques Chirac, feeling...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"Who knows Jacques?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.cnn.net\/cnn\/2003\/WORLD\/europe\/02\/18\/sprj.irq.chirac\/story.chirac.ap.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4877,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/15\/contract_law.html","url_meta":{"origin":3763,"position":1},"title":"Contract law","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Dec-03 9:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"Much brouhaha about the DoD excluding from Iraq rebuilding contracts companies from countries that did not support -- or even opposed -- the war. A few thoughts, in part from...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3145,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/01\/im_sure_this_de.html","url_meta":{"origin":3763,"position":2},"title":"I’m sure this demonstrates some point or another","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Aug-02 7:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"During a meeting between French President Chirac and Israeli Foreign Minister Peres, Chirac complained about how France is being unfairly labeled as anti-Semitic. Chirac complained to Peres about what he...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8910,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/24\/war_of_words.html","url_meta":{"origin":3763,"position":3},"title":"War of Words","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Mar-06 10:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"A war has been brewing in Europe -- in the EU, in particular. And it's beginning to come into the open ... A trade war? A military war? Nah, those...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3955,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/06\/same_song_next.html","url_meta":{"origin":3763,"position":4},"title":"Same song, next verse","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Mar-03 10:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"So here's my obligatory daily \"Hey, I agree with what this guy says about Iraq\" article which will make folks who agree with me nod and folks who disagree with...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/10\/wmds.html","url_meta":{"origin":3763,"position":5},"title":"WMDs","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Jun-03 6:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As Stanley Kurtz points out, not only did Iraq have WMDs, the New York Times has reported on them. The United States has discovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq....","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}