IF Gore had won in 2000

[clownboy]

Originally Posted by Gilles de Rais

To me, that seems totally out there as a scenario. Why the UN would have been unable to move again? We had far more deals before Gulf War 1. It didn't stop it from happening under UN guidance, with French and probably German troops in there...

No, actually the French and German oil interests didn't have contracts with Iraq before the Gulf War. Remember that pic of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam, that should give you a hint as to who held the contracts. The contracts were conditional upon the sanctions being lifted. The UNSC would then have three of it's members with interest, who could easily vote down sanctions in the future.

And of course, in the situation of Iraq vs Iran, even the US wouldn't be voting for sanctions against Iraq. They'd all do their best to go along with Iran being the bad guy.

[potter]

Originally Posted by clownboy

No, actually the French and German oil interests didn't have contracts with Iraq before the Gulf War. Remember that pic of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam, that should give you a hint as to who held the contracts. The contracts were conditional upon the sanctions being lifted. The UNSC would then have three of it's members with interest, who could easily vote down sanctions in the future.

And of course, in the situation of Iraq vs Iran, even the US wouldn't be voting for sanctions against Iraq. They'd all do their best to go along with Iran being the bad guy.

Hmmm..... this is a misconception then. Did they have contracts before shock N' awe? Then is it true Saddam was preparing to drop the petrodollar?

[clownboy]

Originally Posted by potter

Hmmm..... this is a misconception then. Did they have contracts before shock N' awe? Then is it true Saddam was preparing to drop the petrodollar?

I'm not sure if he intended to drop the dollar as the petro standard. But yes, the contracts were in place before the shock and awe. Here's a little mentioned here:

Before the war, companies from France, Russia, China and other countries have lined up development deals with the Iraqi government worth as much as $20 billion.

French oil giant TotalFinaElf, which has contracts worth up to $4 billion to develop Iraq's Majnoon oil field, has said it expects that contract to be honored.

Other French companies -- such as telecommunications giant Alcatel, engineering group Alstom, and carmakers Renault and Peugeot -- are also anxious to pick up the business they lost during the war.