[iJohnDoe]

The Bush/Cheney wars were peak evil of modern times of sending our children off to die just to make Cheney’s cronies at Halliburton rich. Bush and Cheney should be considered mass murders. Not to mention your point about all the funds that could have been spent elsewhere.

[astrange]

Noone made any money or got any oil from the Iraq War. The US is an oil exporter and doesn't have any oil contracts in Iraq. In fact, no one makes money from any wars, and defense contractors profit less during wartime than peacetime.

One universal principle about US politics is that many people try to sound savvy by claiming X thing is obviously about the money, or that some secret evil competent person did something and successfully profited from it, and then if you look their explanation is always wrong. In fact there are no competent evil people and bad ideas are simply just bad for everyone.

…Also, Bush's PEPFAR program was so good that I think he's clearly saved more lives than any other president even if you count the wars against him.

[kamranjon]

“Noone made any money or got any oil from the Iraq War.”

This seems wrong?

Halliburton secured a 7billion dollar contract where they were the only allowed bidders, their subsidiary Kellog Brown & Root (KBR) was estimated to receive at least 39.5billion dollars in federal contracts.

Halliburton experienced a 80% increase in revenue by the first quarter of 2004…

Most of these contracts were “cost-plus” which meant they were guaranteed reimbursement for their costs + a guaranteed profit on top of that.

As a result of the war many oil companies including BP were awarded access and development contracts to the oil fields, with BP extracting well over 15billion dollars worth of oil.

Over 150billion dollars in oil money apparently just went missing or was “stolen”.

Also the US has maintained control over Iraqi oil revenue since the beginning of the war in 2003.

It would seem to be almost rewriting history to make such a statement…

[add-sub-mul-div]

Yes, Erik Prince famously donated his company's time during that era.

[astrange]

No, we didn't do a war so that Blackwater could secretly profit from it. We did it because Cheney felt like doing one for emotional and ideological reasons.

[mnky9800n]

like preventing sadam hussein from selling oil in euros.

[raw_anon_1111]

This is not an unpopular opinion. No one on the right or left defends the second Iraq War anymore and few defend the war in Afghanistan.