Oil. Oil oil oil oil oil. That’s why we’re in Iraq and that’s why so many people are getting killed. Greed – pure and simple. I used to think…well, at least hope…that maybe it was something bigger than that. Something more noble. But no…it is what we always thought – the massive supplies of oil. And now we don’t even seem to have the need to cover our slimy tracks.
This New York Times Op Ed piece by Antonia Juhasz says it better than I ever could. Here’s some of what she says:
Whose Oil Is It Anway?
San Francisco
Illustration by: Jacob Magraw-Mickelson
“TODAY more than three-quarters of the world’s oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn’t always this way.
Until about 35 years ago, the world’s oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. They are among the world’s largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back.
Iraq’s oil reserves — thought to be the second largest in the world — have always been high on the corporate wish list. In 1998, Kenneth Derr, then chief executive of Chevron, told a San Francisco audience, “Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas — reserves I’d love Chevron to have access to.”
A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal. The Iraq hydrocarbon law would take the majority of Iraq’s oil out of the exclusive hands of the Iraqi government and open it to international oil companies for a generation or more.
In March 2001, the National Energy Policy Development Group (better known as Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force), which included executives of America’s largest energy companies, recommended that the United States government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries “to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment.” One invasion and a great deal of political engineering by the Bush administration later, this is exactly what the proposed Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.
Since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law toward passage. It is one of the president’s benchmarks for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fact that Mr. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen. William Casey, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and other administration officials are publicly emphasizing with increasing urgency.”
To read the entire article go to: NY Times: Whose Oil Is It Anyway?
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Antonia Juhasz is an analyst with the watchdog group Oil Change International.
Great post. Interesting trends, no?
I’d like to suggest people also read another unique perspective on why we invaded Iraq. Oil? Yes. But perhaps the bigger yes was to prop up the US Dollar and its ties to the Saudi’s and … yes, Oil.
I read about this abomination a few weeks ago in a tiny little piece in the news—really frosts my cookies that the bastards who got us into this mess denied for 4 years that it was about the oil—-the chickens are coming home to roost—-so terribly tragic that lives are being lost over what amounts to Bush (a failed oil man to the nth degree) & Cheney trying to grab the whole oil pie for themselves. Tragic, stupid, f***ed up.
Also makes you think about the Halliburton corporate HQ move to Dubai – although they swear it will remain registered as a U.S. corporation (at least for now). While we are all guessing it’s about the tax-advantages they may try to claim (http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/dubai.html), I can’t believe this isn’t also tied to the huge exploration and processing dollars the new Iraqi policy would bring. How much freer they would be in Dubai to claim a lion’s share of the pie.
If oil was our top concern, war in the Middle East would be the last thing we would want to do. The reality is the best thing that we could do for our oil supply, would be to sell out Israel and retreat from the region. It’s important to remember that terrorists aren’t after us because we import their oil. We are at war because the terrorists see us as infidels who need to die.
-Knight
I certainly respect your opinion and lord knows I am not always right about everything. But that said…we had the plan waiting. The attack was just a horrible horrible reason to justify the plan. Look where our attention is…in Iraq. NOT the country that attacked us and Bin Laden is still on the loose. We quickly turned to Iraq because it was where we wanted to be and we had to convince the American people that it was the biggest threat. And we did that with lies and deception. Reserves in the Western hemisphere are not what they once were. The oil in the Middle East is certainly what the war is about. Antonia Juhasz explains it well. We had no other way of opening up ownership
“NOT the country that attacked us”
No country attacked us. That is what makes this war so difficult to fight. You have countries who want bad thins to happen to us, but they don’t have the means to make it happen. It is so much easier to give the fanatics weapons and look the other way… No accountability, at least, until they pushed it too far.
We went into Iraq with this concept in mind. That if there is the slightest chance Saddam had weapons, he would be more then happy to hand them over to people that would use them.
I’m not trying to say things are going great in Iraq. Clearly there were no weapons of mass destruction. But this is not about oil.
Yes. I misspoke when I said “country”. I was short-handing it and shouldn’t have. We went into Afghanistan and deposed their ruling powers in an effort to weaken and punish Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban that supported them. And we all know what happened after that. Underneath it all – no matter what else is said and what other goals are part of it (and I will grant that there may be) – I believe we would never be there if it weren’t for the oil. We wouldn’t even have bothered making all those alliances if the oil and control of it weren’t assessed to be critical to our survival as an economic power. But beyond that, there is also rampant greed. And that’s just human nature. But I don’t condone it.
And now knighthospitaller, while this this exchange could go on forever, I am ready to let it stand as you and I having different explanations and beliefs – and I hope we can respectfully agree to disagree. I see that you are sincere and that is something I respect.
I respect your opinion as well. Thank you for bearing with me and my comments, I just feel strongly about this issues being interpreted correctly.
Thank you for the respectful feedback.
God bless,
-Knight
Thank you, Knight. I know there are good, caring people on both sides of issues. You have shown that to be the case. I wish you all the best. I wish all of us that. May we come to some policies that we can all agree with – or at least stand. (-;
If only there were people like you in Congress Ronnie, our country would probably be making progress in stead of being bogged down in a childish political stalemate.
-knight
LOL. I don’t know about that, Knight. But I would make sure that there was great falafel and deli. (Deflecting compliment with humor.) But seriously…I agree that less politics and more movement toward things that truly matter – and that so desperately need Congressional attention – would be a great thing. Imagine all the hours – and creative energy – that have been spent trying to keep anything from happening! Now that’s an energy crisis we can all agree on.