Downer: Iraq war is about oil

The Aussie government ping-pong championships are on:

clipped from www.smh.com.au THE Foreign Minister has contradicted the Prime Minister, saying that the mission in Iraq is linked to safeguarding the war-torn nation's oil reserves. A day after John Howard said oil was neither a motivation for invading Iraq nor for staying there, Alexander Downer said allowing al-Qaeda to prevail would affect Iraq's oil industry and cripple the country economically. "They have to be able to generate some income in Iraq," he said. "The suggestion that the Iraqis shouldn't be able to export oil and generate any income to sustain an economy which has already been attacked by terrorists is pretty absurd." Global Warning Climate Change Energy