LIMA, Ohio (CNN) – John McCain offered a new justification for the Iraq war Thursday, arguing that if Saddam Hussein were still in power, he’d be a petro-dictator intent on using today's sky-high oil revenues to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
A voter at an Ohio town hall meeting Thursday asked McCain how he would vote on the 2002 war resolution if he had to do it again, given the advantage of hindsight.
“What do you think that Saddam Hussein would be doing with oil at $120, $125, $130 a barrel?,” McCain asked. “What do you think he’d be doing? I’ll tell you what he’d be doing. He’d be doing what he said he was committed to doing. And that’s acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction, which he did twice before.”
The Arizona senator elaborated on his other reasons for supporting the war resolution, including Iraq’s noncompliance with the U.N. mandated cease fire, as well as Saddam’s “brutal” human rights record.
Ultimately, McCain concluded, “If he were still in power, I believe that the world would be far worse off, especially with all the money he’d be making off of oil.”
From CNN Politics
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So...are you saying the war really WAS about oil after all?
"Trust me, my friends."
New day..new message...a desperate man/
Using this pretzel logic, it would be in the interest of the US to invade Saudi Arabia, as the majority of the hijackers during 9/11 were Saudi. Blowing up mecca might turn the whole Arab world against us, but that's the cowboy mentality, isn't it?
Grandpa McCain forgot the the price of oil is higher because we went to war in Iraq in the first place.
At least Saddam kept the oil flowing. Is it always fear, fear, fear with this guy?
How many times does this man have to tell us the truth about his Iraq war stance, and we just turn our heads?
We need sanity and peace.
Obama '08
What? Isn't that the justification Bush used?
So it is okay to stage preemptive war against countries that have oil or something we want? Isn't that called Imperialism?
Tell me McCain misspoke.
This is exactly why we dont need him as president, he will lead us to another dumb war, they said Oil will be cheaper after the war, well it is now more expensive. Where are the WMD's, why have you killed 4000 of our brave soldiers for nothing?
So he and his goons got rid of him and yet oil more then doubled this year. Way to go.
And imagine the horrible state of America if McCain was in power. Point made.
Without the Iraq war, oil wouldn't BE at $120 a barrel.
And we wouldn't have spent so much of our tax dollars, and worse, American blood.
John my friend, the reason gas prices are crazy is because supplies are tight (war in the middle east), the dollar is weak (Thanks George for your un-funded, un-ending war) and demand is going up (no convervation and alternatives based energy plan)
Invading Iraq and GWB CAUSED these problems!!!
You vote war coz you are a warmonger,,,,obviously you are not watching the news about the new book of Ron Suskind.
So, McCain is now officially insane, right?
It's nice to know that John McCain could read the future the back in 2002–he knew oil prices would get this high, and was determined to get rid of Saddam before he could take advantage. Who knows what vision of the future McCain will have next that might drive the U.S. into it's next ill-conceived war?!
Well, McCain must have lost his Magic 8-Ball, because these days it would be telling him to drop out of the race before he's humiliated in November.
With that Justification then we may as well bomb bomb everyone making money off oil.
"cause & effect" was never analogous to "chicken & egg", mr. mccain. you can't just put one before the other at your convenience.
If Hussein were still in power, at least IRan would have a balance in the region. We took out Hussein, leaving Iran with the strength in the region. If we had spent these 700 billion dollars on alternative energies 8 years ago, we would be almost completely energy independent by now.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? It's pretty obvious that one reason oil is so expensive is BECAUSE we invaded Iraq!! Wow, and I used to have a bit of respect for McCain. How far he has fallen...
So the war was for oil?
This is specious reasoning at it's finest/worst.
What an idiot...
Wow! I can't beleive he said that. I hope Obama is all over this ridiculous statement. The Iraq war is justified because Saddam would have obtained WMDs with all the money he made off exploiting the oil market. That's crazy talk old man!
Oh my gosh! Prices wouldn't be so high if we hadn't invaded Iraq! This argument is VERY weak.
Probably the same thing our president has been doing with our money...destroying the planet and our nations image all at the same time.