When the Iraq invasion/war/occupation/clusterfuck began, there were smart people who told us from the get-go: this is about oil.
Forget the shit about fighting terrorists, forget the "protecting Americans" crap, ditch the idea that this has anything remotely to do with "spreading democracy." All Cheney ever wanted to do was get his hands on the oil in the middle east. That's what the energy task force was about, and that's why its reports and deliberations are still hidden. Bush, who proudly told us in the debates that "nation building" was not his style, has proved his point -- he has trashed a few nations since becoming president, and has democratized exactly zero. Make that negative one. Bush took this country -- the United States of America -- and de-democratized it.
We are witnessing the greatest swindle in the history of this country. A hundred years from now, this story will be written up in the history books as the most massive heist ever perpetrated -- in any country, in any era. It was about oil, it is about oil, and it will continue to be about oil.
What happened? Here's the truth in one sentence: Bush, Cheney, and their crooked crew stole billions of dollars from the American people to buy themselves a private business. Your money is being used to make sure the oil guys own Iraq's oil. Your husbands, sons, daughters, and nephews -- and untold numbers of Iraqis -- are giving their lives so Cheney can line his pockets some more.
It is so dastardly and evil and obvious that none of us seems able to comprehend it.
Here is what is happening right now:
BAGHDAD, Iraq Apr 18, 2007 (AP)— Iraq's hotly debated draft oil law is to be sent to parliament "within the coming few days if everything goes well," the Oil Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
"The draft is with the State Shura Council now to be put in a legal form after being written in technical language," Assem Jihad told The Associated Press in a phone interview. He gave no date for the bill's introduction.
"We are expecting to take no more than two months to discuss it inside the parliament ... between one and two months it depends on the parliament," Jihad added.
The Iraqi oil legislation, which was endorsed by the cabinet last February, will open the door for the government to sign contracts for exploration and production of the country's vast untapped reserves.
You want to know why we are having a "surge?" Do you know why Bush is berating us for our lack of patience, and Cheney is going batshit crazy at the thought of timetables and oversight? Because they need to keep their hand in there to see the oil agreement through to completion.
If you think they give a living shit whether Sunnis or Shiites win the day, or women are forced to wear burkas, or democracy dawns in Iraq, you're nuts. Actually, the two of them probably lament the lack of a Saddam Hussein. A strongman could control the factions. Only problem was: Saddam told Bush and Cheney to go screw themselves, and made oil deals with other nations. That's why he had to go. Do you think Bush and Cheney gave a rat's ass that Kurds were killed? Oh, gag me if I ever again have to hear that pitiful sentence that Bush recites like a mantra: "Saddam used chemical weapons against his own people." That didn't bother Bush. Or Cheney. This did, a little something Cheney's energy task force stared at:
... a map of Iraq and an accompanying list of "Iraq oil foreign suitors" were the center of discussion. The map erased all features of the country save the location of its main oil deposits, divided into nine exploration blocks. The accompanying list of suitors revealed that dozens of companies from 30 countries -- but not the United States -- were either in discussions over or in direct negotiations for rights to some of the best remaining oil fields on earth.
Who was in line to get the oil? China, Russia, many others. But not the U.S. Not one stinking drop.
I believe you know the backstory -- the whole bit where Osama flees to Afghanistan, which immediately prompts Rumsfeld to bomb Iraq. For a good recap -- including insights from people who were there and have tried to clue us in -- go here: http://www.alternet.org/...
When the Democrats talk timetables, Bush and Cheney go ballistic. It's because they are a mere 30 to 60 days away from the biggest, boldest caper of all time. They want that oil, goddamn it, and they will not be stopped.
This is more dangerous than you might think. They're encouraging the media to call us America-haters and troop-let-er-downers, but that's a ruse. They use it because they cannot tell the truth: we threaten their big business deal.
Truth is, there probably is a limit to the number of troops Bush and Cheney would sacrifice for a free and democratic Iraq. Maybe a hundred or two. But for oil? Sky's the limit.
You know all that talk about the Iraqi government getting its act together? You ever hear anything much about what that really means? Hell, no. That's because what Bush and Cheney are waiting for is this: PASSAGE OF THE OIL DEAL. That's what they mean by standing up, and only when they lay their hands on the goods will Bush and Cheney stand down.
Now there's trouble with Iraq's Kurdish leaders:
Passage of the law, thought to have been written with heavy U.S. involvement, is one of four benchmarks the Bush administration has set for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's struggling government.
But the oil minister of Iraq's Kurdish regional government said the country should revise the draft law to encourage more competition and investment in the oil and gas industry.
"We are broke. Nobody is going to lend Iraq any new money to invest in its old, lousy oil fields. We have to do these professionally and on a competitive basis," Ashti Abdullah Hawrami told Dow Jones Newswires at the Dubai meeting.
He also said proposals to the draft law that would give the Iraqi National Oil Co. control over 90 percent of the country's oil reserves threaten the law's approval.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
How many times do we need to hear it? Here's a snippet from an L.A. Times story that ran in December, 2006:
WHILE THE Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence.
Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the U.S. and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves." The group then proceeds to give very specific and radical recommendations as to what the United States should do to secure those reserves. If the proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be commercialized and opened to foreign firms.
The report makes visible to everyone the elephant in the room: that we are fighting, killing and dying in a war for oil. It states in plain language that the U.S. government should use every tool at its disposal to ensure that American oil interests and those of its corporations are met.
It's spelled out in Recommendation No. 63, which calls on the U.S. to "assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise" and to "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies." This recommendation would turn Iraq's nationalized oil industry into a commercial entity that could be partly or fully privatized by foreign firms.
http://www.latimes.com/...
And what's the "Iraqi National Oil Company"? Nothing more than an umbrella name for an organization that will be comprised of largely American corporations benefitting specific Americans:
Both independent analysts and officials within Iraq's Oil Ministry anticipate that when all is said and done, the big winners in Iraq will be the Big Four -- the American firms Exxon Mobile and Chevron, the British BP Amoco and Royal Dutch Shell -- that dominate the world oil market. Ibrahim Mohammed, an industry consultant with close contacts in the Iraqi Oil Ministry, told the Associated Press that there's a universal belief among ministry staff that the major U.S. companies will win the lion's share of contracts. "The feeling is that the new government is going to be influenced by the United States," he said.
http://www.alternet.org/...
Here is a truth nobody -- neither Republican nor Democrat -- will say out loud:
The mess in Iraq is about oil. Iraq has what looks like the second largest, if not THE largest, reserves in the world. If America does not grab it and own it, our hegemony, our status, our power, our economic well-being, and our very way of life will be not only severely threatened, but perhaps extinguished.
You know what? Bush and Cheney think that all of us anti-war folks are total dickheads because they're just trying to save our sorry asses.
You know what else? This:
- Bush and Cheney stole our money under false pretenses. They took the money to buy our "security" -- but what they are trying to buy is oil. It'll give us something to think about when we are paying $20 a gallon for gas that we gave them the money to buy in the first place.
- Our security is totally threatened now. You think we're making friends doing this? Osama knows all of this -- so do many others -- and they'll be gunning for us. They hated our power plays and middle east meddling before, but this takes the cake. We've never been less safe.
- The U.S. has gone broke with this meddling. You and I may have trouble paying for our homes, or our heat, or food. Bush and Cheney will never lack for a meal. For his trouble, Cheney will line his pockets like no one who has ever lived before. Look into his eyes when he speaks his tough talk: this man believes he has earned every penny of it. Breathtaking.
- There are many Democrats who know what the gig is. There are days my head spins because the back-and-forth about timetables and governments standing up and down and "democracy taking hold" is all nonsense. I am afraid that most American politicians are actually quite clued in to what Bush and Cheney are doing, and not enough of them despise the objective. Sure, they may hate the details, the prosecution of the war, the cost. But the ultimate goal: American hegemony secured? Watch McCain, watch Clinton ... they know.
- The U.S. -- via a cartel of corporations -- is intending to steal another country's resources. I am not shocked. You don't have to read every stinking chapter of Howard Zinn to understand that we are the poorly educated descendents of the murderous, greedy, treaty-breaking swindlers who first populated this country. In an era when global cooperation has never been more necessary, the U.S. is basically saying to the rest of the world: "Fuck off. This is how we roll." Or, in dear leader's parlance: "Bring it on." This is so mind-numbingly dangerous I lack the words to describe all the ways in which we will experience attack, derision, and death. We have become, I do believe, the evil empire.
- There are lots of sideline stories to all of this. Wolfowitz at the World Bank is positioned to help Bush and Cheney carry out their swindle, as well as to economically pressure other nations. British collusion in all of this is pretty big, and Blair paid heavily for his share of the proceeds. Lots of Bush's appointments are related to doing whatever deeds need doing to make sure this administration gets its way, can hide documents, has alibis and expendable figureheads, and so on.
- You can watch for this scenario: Bush will tell us that the Iraqi government is sound and ready to stand on its own as soon as that damned oil agreement is made. If that agreement is threatened, he will call in some international body they've already stacked in our favor to enforce international commercial agreements. We will continue to have many heavily fortified and supplied bases in the country, not to help or protect Iraqis, but to protect and police our oil production facilities. As Iraqis starve or are murdered, Bush will appear on TV, express remorse, and say that Americans have done all they could do and deserve thanks for "bringing democracy to the middle east." Watch the Saudis: they will want special consideration, and there has to be some payback but I can't figure out yet what it is. They'll now control the terrorists they so conveniently could not control six years ago? Perhaps.
- Here's the spookiest part. You think the GOP wanted to control every branch of government, screw with elections, and enjoy a permanent majority? They'll get it no matter who is elected in 2008. Do you not think that with the Bush/Cheney cabal controlling energy resources through its cartel that they won't control economics in this country, and thereby the very source of power? Do you think Edwards or Obama will be able to tell Cheney to reduce the price of his friggin gas to help out us poor mopes? The short term plan for dominance was Karl Rove. The longterm plan is a monopoly on the world's last remaining oil.
Can we be frank? Our leaders do not give two shits about the civil war in Iraq. They do not care how many people die. They do not care if we expose their propaganda shows with Tillman and Lynch. They do not care one iota about any of the things we are doing with regard to Iraq. They do not care about congressional hearings. They want the oil, they have wanted it for a long time, and they are literally within days or weeks of getting it. Bush and Cheney stole our resources to finance a swindle of Iraq's resources. We have more in common with the Iraqis right now than I would ever have believed possible.
We are no longer living in interesting times. We are living in dangerous times.