Lindsey Graham, the veteran Republican senator who has been pushing for war against Iran for decades, has issued a dire warning to the Iranian government, saying it was worth spending money to “take this regime down”.

“When this regime goes down, we are going to have a new Middle East, and we are going [to] make a tonne of money,” Graham, a longtime proponent of US military intervention abroad, told Fox News on Sunday.

Graham, who has been one of the Trump administration’s most vocal supporters of Israel and the war against Iran, appeared to suggest that the US abduction of Venezuela’s left-wing leader Nicolas Maduro and the attack on Iran were launched to gain control over each country’s oil supplies.

“Venezuela and Iran have 31 percent of the world’s oil reserves. We’re going to have a partnership with 31 percent of the known reserves. This is China’s nightmare. This is a good investment,” said Graham.

  • Gates9@sh.itjust.works
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    1 hour ago

    Textbook psychopath. A truly immoral, sadistic, bloodthirsty bastard of the sort Hunter Thompson would conjure to represent the foulest archetype of American politics.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    37 minutes ago

    For those not old enough to remember, they said the Iraqi war would pay for itself with all of that oil.

    It did not.

    But, Graham isn’t talking “we” the US people, but “we” as in the club we’re not in, AKA bOtH pArTiEs Super Friends.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Conservatives are so clownishly selfish.

    They’re the hamster that gets mad at the other hamster and shits in the shared food bowl out of spite.

  • Ibisalt@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    meanwhile gas prices just doubled, thanks for that america. get rid of your fascist regime, please? :(

    • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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      35 minutes ago

      Please stop buying from the fascist regime and its allies, and please stop using the US dollar for international trade

  • Man_kind@sh.itjust.works
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    3 hours ago

    I guess that’s ok then. Just go to war for money, loke every fascist regime ever.

    Lots of people made lots of money off the German Nazis.

    That didnt make it right then, and it doesnt make it right now.

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    7 hours ago

    No blood for oil. It was evil and stupid in the 00s, and it’s worse today now that oil is increasingly replaceable

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      4 hours ago

      The hilarious thing is that the American voter is supposed to be thinking of themselves when he says “we”. I would kinda understand the logic of continuing the forever war as a voter if everyone got a fat check once we ended the Iraq war. At least then I could understand that it is pure greed driving people to vote for war mongers.

      In the end “we” is a small group of oil barons who made billions while footing the multi trillion bill to the tax payer. Unfortunately this just means that the average voter is greedy, but to stupid to actually benefit from their own avarice.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    Meanwhile, China has been hard focused on renewables and lowering their need for oil.

    Good plan Lindsey…if it was 2006 not 2026.

    These old fucks are still thinking like it’s 1986.

    • Zetta@mander.xyz
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      6 hours ago

      They have a big focus on nuclear power as well, they have 59 operating nuclear power plants with over 28 under construction. Nuclear is just as important as renewables at this current time in our technological evolution. We need better energy storage technology for pure renewable to work well.

      It would also be sick if nuclear fusion becomes a reality and makes all other power generation obsolete, generally.

      • TrollTrollrolllol@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        It would also be sick if nuclear fusion becomes a reality and makes all other power generation obsolete, generally.

        That will never happen, without scarcity they can’t make obscene profits year over year so Fusion will be patented and shelved.

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    9 hours ago

    Fuck you “we.” “We” who!? When oil companies profit “we” don’t see a fucking dime of that money especially with your corporate “taxation” bullshit where they get loophole after loophole to pay nothing.

    • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
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      44 minutes ago

      He means “the business.”

      People like Graham treat the US like a corporation, and they are a model employee.

    • Signtist@bookwyr.me
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      8 hours ago

      Well, he means himself and his friends, which is what all politicians have always meant when they say “we” are going to benefit from their decisions.

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    9 hours ago

    Profits over people once again.

    Republicans are genuinely traitors to the US. It’s hard to put into words how much I hate them.

  • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Remember when we joked about america invading anything for oil and then we all stopped for a bit because they tried to convince us that there was more to the US than being the state equivelent of a crackhead with a dozen shotguns? And then they launched a self described war to bring about the apocalypse and also steal all the oil… can we stop pretending everything is ok!?

    • Fusselwurm@feddit.org
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      7 hours ago

      This is China’s nightmare

      Forget everything else, this is the essence of it.

      The one thing you want even less than the Near East dominated by US oil interests is a Near East dominated by the Chinese.

      • HakFoo
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        6 hours ago

        Then maybe the West shouldn’t have spent 50 years selling the PRC the rope they’re using to hang them with.

        Even some of the near east is starting to think about what happens when the goo runs out. Only the US is doubking down.

        • Fusselwurm@feddit.org
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          Then maybe the West shouldn’t have spent 50 years selling the PRC the rope they’re using to hang them with.

          Yeah, thats… kinda unfortunate. Everywhere, anything resembling longterm strategic planning went out the window with the fall of the USSR. With the possible exception of France.

    • bassad@jlai.lu
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      1 hour ago

      Way cheaper, healthier, funnier, less pollution, no money given to warmongering oligarchies

      Sounds good

    • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      For the longest time, I only heard about “Kia Stahma” on UK panelshows. The first time I saw his name in print (“Kier Starmer”) I was llke - wait - not one, not two, but THREE r’s??? WTF! lol

      I still feel weird when I head a American broadcaster talk about “Kier Starmer”. It just sounds wrong to me. heh.

      But yeah, as the other person replying mentioned, it’s Al Jazeera, so they heard “tons” and wrote “tonnes”. I’d almost not even call that an error, just an accidental choice. Transcription gets rough. You think “How hard is it to transcribe?” but written and spoken language are VERY different, even before you get into regionalization and accents. :)

      • BillyClark@piefed.social
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        6 hours ago

        “Kier” is not a common name, nor is “Starmer.” So at a certain point, it’s just a bunch of syllables and you have to just do the best you can.

        I knew a Japanese person who, upon hearing former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s name, couldn’t hear anything except a common phrase in cooking recipes, “golden brown.”

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      7 hours ago

      The source is AlJazeera so even tho Graham likely meant tons, the source took it as metric tonnes.

      A simple error.