We've heard it said many times and we've heard it said with some very lame justifications- The US will not cut and run from Iraq. We do a good job here of countering most of the lies and exposing the obvious fallacies of the security arguments. No one really believes that terrorists will be chasing anyone back home, so what are some of the reasons we need to stick around for more liberating in Iraq? What exactly is left unaccomplished?
We all have out favorite answers to these questions, but let's examine what Charlie Cray of the Center for Corporate policy in Washington has memtionned as one of the unresolved issue relating to the brazen profiteering going on in Iraq. link here. More on the flip
First off, let's examine who is writing the piece. The Center for Corporate Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization working to curb corporate abuses and make corporations publicly accountable (as per the mission statement). We can see who these people are
herehttp. Charlie Cray has worked for Greenpeace in the past. They appear to be respectable, serious people.
The meaty part of the piece:
Three years into the occupation, after an evolving series of deft legal maneuvers and manipulative political appointments, the oil giants' takeover of Iraq's oil is nearly complete.
This is pretty obvious to most readers who wear tin foil hats. Next we get:
Helping the process move along are the economic hit men at BearingPoint, the consultants whose latest contract calls for "private-sector involvement in strategic sectors, including privatization, asset sales, concessions, leases and management contracts, especially those in the oil and supporting industries."
So, someone is advocating some private sector involvement in government run businesses. Who wants to get involved?
Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips are among the most ambitious of all the major oil companies in Iraq. Shell and Chevron have already signed agreements with the Iraqi government and begun to train Iraqi staff and conduct studies - arrangements that give the companies vital access to Oil Ministry officials and geological data.
The big boys are cozying up to the local government, in other words.
What for?
Although Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said in August that the final competition for developing Iraq's oil fields will be wide open, the preliminary arrangements will give the oil giants a distinct advantage when it comes time to bid.
Why would anyone want the inside track?
At this point the key challenge to multinationals is whether they can convince the Iraqi parliament to pass a new petroleum law by the end of this year.
This is where it gets interesting. The new petroleum laws that are desired have a key provision that commits to Profit Sharing Agreements (PSAs). As mentionned in the article, the agreements would be for up to 50 years and it would restrict the right to introduce any new laws that might affect the companies' profitability. Apparently, none of the top oil producing countries in the Middle East use them (I wonder why?). The clincher of course is the amount of money involved:
Under the new petroleum law, all new fields and some existing fields would be opened up to private companies through the use of PSAs. Since less than 20 of Iraq's 80 known oil fields have already been developed, if Iraq's government commits to signing the PSAs, it could cost the country up to nearly $200 billion in lost revenues according to Muttitt, lead researcher for "Crude Designs: the Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth."
Let's look at this again. Big Oil is looking for petroleum laws that have not yet been passed by the parliament. The country is in quasi-civil war and very inhospitable for business. There's a ton of money to be made for many years to come. Everybody is getting antsy because the agreements are not yet in place. Do you think the US is leaving now?
What's happening now?
Meanwhile, in a kind of pincer movement, the parliament has begun to feel pressured from the IMF to adopt the new oil law by the end of the year as part of "conditionalities" imposed under a new debt relief agreement.
Golly gee! It looks like all the capitalists have their noses in here. There's nothing to the creating of international debt and in justifying the stripping of a country's wealth and resources because of it. It all sounds so legal.
Yes folks, The US will not cut and run and may never, ever, leave Iraq. The stakes are just too high in this ideological war of the twenty first century. We certainly cannot leave now as the liberating of the oil fields has not yet occurred <snark>. Freedom is on the march and the terrorists are jealous of our freedoms. They want what we have.