Burgess Owens: “I am a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus, and I agree with most of what has been said. I support the Murtha proposal for…”

“I am a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus, and I agree with most of what has been said. I support the Murtha proposal for an immediate and orderly redeployment. There is one subject I would like to raise which has not been discussed very much here, however, and that is the role of the American oil barons who have contributed greatly to the colossal mess of the war in Iraq. Our troops today are as good as they were when they were labeled the greatest generation and defeated Hitler. But in Iraq, today's counterparts of Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, the Colin Powells, the John Murthas, they were not allowed to take charge. Lust for control of the oil made the oil barons push everyone capable of carrying out a reasonable destruction of Saddam Hussein aside. This administration encouraged the oil barons to overrule the military professionals. Lust for oil is still the problem. Seldom discussed in America, but very much on the minds of the people of Iraq. We cannot succeed as long as the ordinary Iraqi people see us as oil thieves responsible for the terror and their day-to-day misery. We went into Iraq fighting fanatics, fighting Saddam Hussein and his oligarchy of brutal, decadent killers. No great crowds greeted our troops with flowers. But there is good reason to believe that the masses of citizens were hoping for some real improvements. But we guarded only the oil wells, while the water systems and the electricity grids collapsed.…”