Why did Iraq not destroy the oil fields?

[John Corn]

Saddam had forever to rig the oil fields to blow up. He blew up almost none. So why not?

[James_F]

I have heard reports on NPR about the Iraqi Oil Company wanting to make sure nothing happened to the fields. They are looking at this long term where they want to make money under US occupation.

[Mike123abc]

Probably the starting fight where they bombed the bunker where the leaders were supposed to be caused the problem. If if they were not killed, it probably caused enough delay and confusion that the US commandos were able to slip in and disarm most of them. I bet they have had them all disarmed by now in the fields we control.

[firephoto]

From the bits and pieces I've seen and heard it seems that special forces have been in Iraq well ahead of the advancing armored divisions. One reporter in the north said (only once he mentioned it) that there were U.S. forces there but they were avoiding all cameras.

My thoughts on the gas seperation system not being rigged is that once the decision to surrender was made, the Iraqis very well could have taken any explosives off the wells/valves. It doesn't matter what side you are on, oil is like gold to everyone and it's a hard decision to destroy it.

[George_F]

I heard on CNN today that initial attack plans were changed for the expressed purpose of preventing the blowing up of oil fields. Does kind of make one wonder about that "it's not about the oil" argument.

[BobMurdoch]

Oh please......

If it were about the oil, why would we do this whole war to begin with? Gas was relatively cheap and we raised it .60 a gallon by beating the war drums. We are spending $100 Billion to make this war AT LEAST. Assuming that we could drop prices by .25 a gallon (a huge amount given the world's output compared to Iraq) we would have to gain 400 BILLION gallons the war to cover our expenses in your scenario. Meanwhile, the #1 and #3 countries gaining monetary proceeds from Iraq before the war were France and Russia. And WE are painted as the morally corrupt ones here??!!!??

Stopping the fires insured that there would be funds to help pay for Iraq's reconstruction after the war. It also prevented an environmental catastrophe for the region equal to the one this yoyo unleashed on the region LAST time.

[James_F]

Bob, its always about oil in the Middle East. We ignore Africa because its not strategic, why? No oil... The Middle East is important for only one reason.

http://www.zeds.no/images/oil_barrel.jpg