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TechnoratiThe wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost the American people more than $500 billion, the deaths of 3200 U.S. troops, 25,000 others wounded, and countless Iraqi lives. The total price tag is projected to top $1.2 trillion.With the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq upon us, the Bush administration asks Congress for $93 billion more for the war, over and above the fiscal year 2008 Pentagon request for $484 billion - an 11% increase over last year! The war machine eats well while starving our people of decent housing, quality health care, and education. The Gulf Coast remains a disaster.
Many of us felt shame in the opening days of the invasion as our soldiers were ordered to protect the Oil Ministry, oil fields, refineries, and distribution system while wholesale looting of Iraq's antiquities unfolded. The message to the Iraqis was clear: "We've come for the oil." There were no weapons of mass destruction. Hussein is gone yet we are still there. Rather than democracy, we brought massive destruction and civil war to Iraq.
Giving credence to Iraqis' fears, a new Petroleum Law will be presented to the Iraqi Parliament that, if enacted, will put effective control of Iraq's vast oil resources in the hands of foreign companies. Nationalized since 1975, Iraq's oil was, before the years of sanctions and the invasion, the foundation for a relatively high standard of living, producing more PhD's per capita than the U.S. and a health care system prized as the best in the region.
President Bush says the war is not about oil but his actions belie that claim. In the months before the March 2003 invasion, members of the U.S. State Department "Oil and Energy Working Group" met to plan how to open Iraq to international oil companies. As reported by investigative journalist Greg Palast, the oil law now proposed by the Iraqi Council of Ministers is a virtual photocopy of a plan first drafted by U.S. oil industry executives and consultants in Houston long before Iraq was "liberated."
The proposed Petroleum Law creates a Federal Oil and Gas Council on which would sit representatives of Exxon- Mobil, Shell, BP, etc., whose tasks include approving their own contracts. Instead of Iraqi central government decision-making on oil, the proposal authorizes regional authorities to individually sign contracts with foreign companies, promoting contract bidding wars between regions that could lead to breaking Iraq into three states.
The practice in Iraq - as in other countries with giant reserves - has been that control of oil production rests with public sector oil companies. The role of foreign companies is limited to "service contracts." A company is contracted to provide a stated service for a limited period - build a refinery, lay a pipeline, drill a field. Decisions on development, distribution, and flow of profits remain with the government. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran run their industries this way.
However, the proposed Petroleum Law provides for "production sharing agreements," or long-term contracts whereby foreign companies control production, development and sale of the oil for up to 30 years, and reap as much as 70% of the profits. Given the severe weakness of Iraqi institutions, with the country devastated, under military occupation and mired in civil strife, Iraq is unlikely to receive a fair deal. With huge reserves and low production costs, foreign oil companies in Iraq stand to make enormous profits at the expense of the welfare of Iraq's people and Iraqi sovereignty.
Iraq's people will not take this looting of their national treasure lying down. Five major Iraqi labor federations, including the Federation of Oil Workers, have condemned the draft law and warn this is a "red-line" issue for Iraq. They recognize the hijack this law, drafted at the behest of the oil cartel, represents.
This oil scenario further stains our international reputation while doing nothing to curb U.S. dependence on foreign oil and our urgent need to develop sustainable energy.
Congress must cut all funding for the war except what is needed for the safe, rapid withdrawal of every U.S. soldier and private contractor, closing of U.S. bases, and meeting our obligation to fund Iraq's reconstruction. Iraqi sovereignty over their oil and every day life is in the best interests of U.S. working people, starting with our troops. Bring all the troops home now.
Nancy Wohlforth is Secretary-Treasurer of the Office & Professional Employees International Union/AFL-CIO and Co-President of Pride At Work. She is a member of the AFL-CIO General Executive Council. Fred Mason is President of the Maryland and DC AFL-CIO. U.S. Labor Against the War is a national network of more than 150 labor organizations opposed to the war and occupation in Iraq.
Published on Sunday, April 1, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
33 Comments so far
Show AllI should add, the 6 month figure quoted above is the result of not relying on any imported oil.
rjhuntington April 2nd, 2007 7:21 am
****That's such a nice sentiment, that Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It's picture-book pretty! Too bad it's nothing more than propaganda.*****
Nationalizing the oil wells is exactly what caused Saddam to fall foul with the corporate control freaks, causing them to roll in the military tow-truck in a act of repossession. Chavez may be next in line for this Kingdom Towing operation.
****What if someone said American oil belongs to the American people? Gee, wouldn't that be nice? Where's my cut? Where's yours?****
The U.S. has no oil, to speak of, to be nationalized by the people. My last reading of this was that if all the known U.S. oil were to be open for strictly American consumption, at present rates, it would only last about 6 months.
Best Wishes and Hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
I came late to this party, but I certainly am impressed with the number of people on this forum who recognize that if there were no oil in Iraq, there would be no American soldiers there.
I suppose the reason I am so unpopular on most fora when I mention oil is because I INSIST on covering the entire story, which involves our COVETing oil, telling pitiful LIEs to get into an illegal war so we could STEAL oil from Iraq, and in the process MURDERing uncounted numbers of innocent people as well as many of our own military and security forces.
Religious people who answer to a higher power and have a "heavenly Father" like the moron in the White House, can't handle the connection between the ten commandments and what we are doing.
Keep up the good work; this is a well informed and straight talking group that I hopw to see on the boxcars to the concentration camps sometime in the near future.
I just paid a visit to Hillary's blog site. Absolutely nothing there except gloating and bragging about who has managed to accumulate the biggest pile of money. She is attempting to rally support in forcing Bush not to veto the appropriations bill. We need to knock the wind out of her sails and make her eat this pile of fiat currency she has thus far amassed! I posted the following alert, but it has yet to show up:
***ALERT ALERT ALERT*** Before anyone presses Bush to sign this appropriations bill, first DEMAND that each of your representatives FORCE the removal from the bill, the 'IRAQI HYDROCARBON LAW' slipped into the bill as a bench mark. This bench mark does nothing but allow for International Oil Company's to plunder the Iraqi people of their oil and necessitate further occupation of their land. This is just another slight of hand this administration is attempting to slip by the American public. You had better question your representatives about this, as they are equally culpable for this infraction! I say let him veto this bill until this issue is resolved!
If any members of Congress acted with full and complete knowledge, however, then they have become complicit in a criminal war.
Here is the link if you all wish to keep an eye out, or act upon this yourselves:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/view/?id=3261
BTW, this isn't the first critical comment that I've posted to Hillary's site. There have been at least half a dozen, with none of them getting published. It appears that unless you post benign inquiries, your just simply ignored.
Best Wishes and Hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
"This entire warrior mentality and rule by force ideology must be exorcised from the world stage."
Interesting that Hillary struts her machismo while at the same time, the suggestion is that her gender wins her points.
Why the hell would a woman want to back a woman who emulates men to get elected?
No thanks. Meanwhile the vote is split between the other anti-Clinton candidates. And so the Clinton side of the Bush-Clinton dynasty carries the torch.
Is this really as good as it gets?
Zeitgeist has it right: "This entire warrior mentality and rule by force ideology must be exorcised from the world stage."
My personal process and success at transfoming warrior mentality comes from: Feldenkrais/Reich/Upledger, Wigmore/Gerson, and Bly/Estes/Houston et al.
Feldenkrais, Reich, and Upledger supply(uncover) a personalized bio-physic energy economy measuring system of the on flowing life process. This is based on a perception of gravity, the inherent reflexes in adusting with gravity and how biological systems always adjust for enegy economy. Marshall Rosenberg's work with NVC and A Language OF Life is helpful for putting words to personalized energy economy as Rosenberg emphasises the quality of connection and the awareness of the energy costs connected to the words of our needs and feelings.
Robert Bly, Jean Houston, and Clorissa Pinkola-Estes supply historical mythological background and mythology construction tools that assist in moving from a dysfunctional relationship with the energy of the cosmos: deconstructing the myths of "I'm heroically going to my Father's mansion", or "I'm going to 42 virgins...". The human nervous system creates the perception of invarience, order out of chaos -- every human being and human group creates it's myths: writing a singular story that serves as an organizing tool for mental energies -- the background and tools presented from those mentioned help in separating awareness of the larger cosmic pools of energy from the individual mistaking that they are the pool of energy: "I am working with the energy of the 'Dwenda', 'Iron Man', 'Hairy Man', but I am not these." Feldenkrais and Upledger help in recognizing the constant internal language of one's personal myth, as well as tools for measuring if the myth is enrgy economical.
The dietary works of Ann Wigmore, Max Gerson, et al, supply viable sustenance modals that enhance the perception ability of the personal energy economy tool(s), as well as, organically link the local sustenance bio-system to the larger cosmos in the Earth Democracy terms of Vandana Shiva -- building a base of confidence and health to stand up to the corporate syatem as well as helping to render the current corporate system obsolete.
These personalized steps of transforming warrior mentality and force ideology - recognizing that the same energy of the current paradigm (mythology) will be used in the new paradigm (mythology) -- is being placed within the context of legislation for a Department of Peace (HR 808); not as a means to an end of passing legislation, but as a local organizing tool for functioning within a social system that adheres to the Earth Democracy principles of peace, compassion, and caring.
With this context, and as the means deemed most expedient for alleviating the current suffering of the innocents of Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Columbia, and the American Ghettos, plus averting the possibility of further nuclear degradation of the environment due to the impending attack on Iran, and in addition supporting an optimal national use of the heroic and noble virtues of the true American Soldier: the Detroit Area Department of Peace calls for the immediate impeachment of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Impeachment of the Bush/Cheney administration is to be carried out in a non-vengeful manner, vengeance would be energetically cumbersome and inefficient. The main end of impeachment is to first remove from the executive decision making of the U.S. Government
those functioning within a catastrophically energy inefficient mythology. The impeachment process would also release the U.S. decision making process from the domination of the Bush/Cheney mythology while culturing the necessary dialogue for a new national mythology: in acordance with the Earth Democracy principles of peace, compassion, and caring within a viable bio-system.
This call for impeachment is done with the clear insight articulated by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Declaration of Independence From War In Vietnam: that the poverty and other injustices of the American ghetto are inextricably interwoven with the wars of corporate dominance. Therefore this call for impeachment is done as a singular rallying cry for both local and national action.
When Bill Cosby comes to Detroit, and Kwame Kilpatrick returns from Dubia to the city he mayors, and point to miguided youth as a "problem" and that this "problem" should be dealt with separate from national and world influences, they miss a devine organizing opportunity. Instead of a problem these youth would be most beneficially viewed as what they are: reservoirs of the energy and experinces needed for carrying out impeachment and the larger transformation of warrior mentality and force ideology.
Look to the civil rights documentary Eyes On The Prize. Listen for the verve of the song and dance of the youth that helped propel the civil rights movement. Where is that emotional verve today? In the
youth of the ghetto.
Thus, the Detroit Area Department of Peace issues a shout out for a singular call for impeachment, issues an endorsement for the presidency of the United State to Dennis Kucinich, and invites all to participate in the struggling joy of transforming warrior mentality and force ideology as offered above.
Answer: Hillary is just an extension of Bill. Labor needs to focus on the effects of NAFTA, WTO, IMF, World Bank, and all the other alphabet soup organizations and agreements that both Dems and Repugs have STRONGLY supported. They need to ask how Labor and workers have suffered because of what they have done!
TAKE ACTION: Educate ALL of your Congressional "representatives" about the extortion being done by the benchmark for passage of the "Hydrocarbon Law" attached to the Supplemental Funding bill that they will be sending to the prez for signature(signing statement of course), or veto. DEMAND that they strip this benchmark out of the bill before it goes to his desk.
Qustion: If this was written by Labor reps against the war, will they cave and ultimately support pro-war Clinton as a friend to labor if she is the heir elect?
And I never understood why the legitimate expection was widely accepted without question that Iraq would pay for the privilige of being invaded and occupied with their own oil revenues.
Unbelievable--and no one said a word--other than to complain when it didn't work out that way.
Rebel Farmer April 1st, 2007 11:41 pm
"This stupid benchmark is a hammer over the Iraqi's head that the U.S. will not leave until Iraq turn over their oil!! That's extortion last time I checked."
Yes, it is extortion. Over the past 40 years under the tutelage of the corporate elite, our government has become the "grand master" of lies, deception and extortion. This is what they call spreading democracy. And of course, it's all conducted at the expense of the taxpayers.
Now that the reason for invading Iraq is known (not that the world excluding the American public didn't already know), after all the money and lives spent, is the administration realistically gonna say, well o.k., we'll leave now.
Too bad we can't just take it like the olden days. Now we need a "reason". Either way, we're takin it from those "brown people" and we're not leavin until we get most of it. It used to be all of it.
No way is Bush gonna leave.
That's such a nice sentiment, that Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It's picture-book pretty! Too bad it's nothing more than propaganda. What if someone said American oil belongs to the American people? Gee, wouldn't that be nice? Where's my cut? Where's yours?
The only way that could happen is if the oil in the ground were nationalized and the holders of mineral leases had to give up half the oil produced as a tax. That's exactly opposite of how oil-soaked people like Bush think.
Oil-industry representatives did not even move toward a pro-war position in the post-September 11 period. According to oil analyst Anthony Sampson in December 2002, "Oil companies have had little influence on U.S. policy-making. Most big American companies, including oil companies, do not see a war as good for business, as falling share prices indicate."
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_oilwar.htm
Bob is listed under "Other Views" here at Common Dreams.
Well, wasn't that the plan? When Buch & Co. couldn't get Chalabi, they just got another puppet. The problem is that the Iraqis aren't as stupid as Bush et al think. Wander on over to Robert Dreyfuss' web site. He really knows what's going on inside Iraq.
I would say you're right on, Rebel Farmer, but consider also that we installed a puppet government that can't survive without our support. Part of the plan.
I have one question...Why did Cheney try so hard (and succeed) to hide the discussions with all the oil oligarchs back when our U.S. Energy Policy was being written? You think maybe the whole thing in Iran was already worked out and the language for the Hydrocarbon Law written down?
This is all so disgusting. I have written all of my Congressional representatives to get this "benchmark" out of the supplemental funding bill. This stupid benchmark is a hammer over the Iraqi's head that the U.S. will not leave until Iraq turn over their oil!! That's extortion last time I checked. The U.S. is in effect saying "We are not going to stop killing you and wreaking your country until you give us the oil". Am I right on this one?
Bigfoot, I couldn't even consider voting for Obama. He's another corporate flack wearing progressive makeup. But the health insurance industry is leaking through. He has never supported a single payer plan and in his last speech. proposed an insurance pool for small employers. I'm not a single issue person, but that's only one example of where his loyalties are. And Hillary's another. In fact, the only Democrat who's earned my vote is Dennis. 1968 was the last time I held my nose while casting my ballot after McGovern sold out Thomas Eagleton. I don't vote for sellouts.
And isn't it safe for him to tell us to pressure our representatives while he hides?
One last thing I meant to add about the Iaq war being about oil is explained by the behaviour of the politicians from both paties. Both Democratic and Republican unlike know very well how important control of the world's oil is to the vested interests of some very powerful people in the USA. Neither party wants to lose this prize of Iraqi oil. It's been US policy for decades to control this region of the world at all costs.
That's why Hillary and Obama won't flat out reject the notion of getting out of Iraq any time soon.
I have to rspectively disagree that this war was never about oil. One point in support of this is that the only parts of Iraq's infrastucture that were protected duing the invasion was anything that had to do with oil. And if it weren't about oil, then why the insistence on passing these oil laws which heavily favor foriegn oil companies with unheard of contracts? Lastly, why are the people who are to be in the top positions of Iraq's oil production all come from the major oil companies?
Israel cetainly does figure into this current situation, but at another level. Isarel may have undo influence on our foriegn policy but they don't enjoy complete control over the decisions we make. Israel is more like our local police force in the area, keeping certain people in line whenever they decide to do something for themselves that we don't like.
They are like our dogs in the Middle East.
Come on guys, a little common sense here, please. If Obama was with the MIC, he would not be asking us to contact our representatives to force an override of a Bush veto. Obama is the only candidate out there who had the foresight to see that this war would become the disaster that it is. If you are serious about ending this debacle, elect him president.
The price of oil
http://www.gpln.com/priceofoil.htm
Concrete Man…
I agree partly! The question and motives of Zionist ideology, politics, its history, foundation and how it has become woven into the sentiment of U.S. foreign policy should be allowed free and open intelligent debate, without having the insulting darts of anti-Semitism hurled at the inquiring mind which dares challenge or question these inherent aspects of Zionism. We can rail against Christian fundamentalism and fanaticism as steering the Republican Party into a state of Fascism, but we are not allowed to study the forces and effects Zionism upon us.
But, you must agree that a monopoly of oil is a prerequisite for world dominance or empire, especially where rule by force is required. What pool of oil will the military beast take a drink from next?
This entire warrior mentality and rule by force ideology must be exorcised from the world stage. Until that happens, xenophobic religious hatred will continue being reduced to the battle of whose god has the biggest club. The corporate war model loves this division in that it promotes their perpetual war for a perpetual peace.
I think in my response to your comment, I have drifted too far from the main premise of the article, so I will conclude in saying; Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqis! Stop trying to swindle them out of it after already having invaded, under false pretenses, slaughtered and maimed.
Best wishes and hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Greg Palast wrote that this war was about controlling the oil spigot. When Bush was running for President, the price of oil was bouncing around as low as $1.46/gal. Well, we know what it's been since. It's doubled, and that's just the beginning. Palast says the oil companies want to join OPEC and Iraq's oil will get them in because they will have control of so much oil OPEC can't afford to ignore them. If Americans weren't so ignorant about what's really going on, they might even support this adventure.
And I've been put off by Obama for awhile now. At least now he's taken the gloves off.
This war is not about oil. This war is about the price of oil and who will profit from oil. How did Exxon's oil get under Iraq?
Iraq was not and is not a war about oil. Yes, oil companies might get some of the spoils (if they can ever pump the stuff out of there) but the primary cause of the war was Israel. See: James Petras, The Power of Israel in the United States for an exhausive and irrefutable analysis.
Zeitgeist,
Part of "What do we do?" you link at the bottom of your post. The phenomenal growth of youtube as an alternative media platform is very important; it must be used as the new indymedia, as many are already doing. Another path is shown by Vermont's local democratic (small d) activism. Emulating the organizing of the big city "machines" will work for us too, as long as the size of the organic unit remains small. Hardest to organize is suburbia, except those areas already economically stressed, which are many and growing. Each citizen must become an agitator.
Not much of the above is new; rather, the context of the overall situation is rapidly changing, along with awareness levels of those previously stupified. As I said in another comment, we are entering what is called a "Populist Moment."
karlof...
Yes, Obama and Hillary both seem to have climbed into bed with the "MICs" Military Industrial Complex. What a crying shame. Initially, I had great hopes for Hillary, until she started talking, she lost my vote. I thought if anyone, a mother, would be the most likely in pulling us out from under this warrior mentality. Now, Obama has fallen to the strains of bombs bursting in air also.
What do we do?
Best wishes and hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Drive the nail into the coffin of this OIL SUCKING vampire!!!!
Excellent article!!!
I must remind everyone here to PUT and MAINTAIN pressure on ALL congressional representatives to GUT Bush's "IRAQI HYDROCARBON LAW" from the present and any possible future supplemental war appropriations bills. The present inclusion to the bill does absolutely nothing for the Iraqi people, allowing only full scale plunder by the International Oil Companies. This slight of hand to, again, sneak one by the public should speak mountains to anyone who has paid even the slightest modicum of attention to the Bush neocon agenda, with earlier fabrications to justify the invasion of another sovereign are now setting the stage that would necessitate a continued occupation and subjugation by the neocons.
More info on the IRAQI HYDROCARBON LAW here:
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1912/Congressman_Seeks_to_Scra...
Best wishes and hope
Impeach the Bush neocon empiricists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Obama seems more than willing to continue murdering Iraqis for their oil, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070401/ap_on_go_co/obama_interview
By taking this position, he shows he is unfit for his position as Senator let alone an antiwar advocate.
As for the "oil law," I've stated elsewhere that it's a NoGo for the same reasons noted by JadedProle.
And as this just released GAO report allows one to infer, the war is all about oil, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07283.pdf
Every time I read about interviews with Iraqi people, I can see they are far better informed than the average American. Jaded Pole is right. They won't put up with this. We need a real poll of the American public: Are you willing to go on murdering Iraqis for their oil? This article would be useful to send to our representatives in Congress in case they don't know what's going on. Maybe some Representative would be willing to read it into the Congressional record. Freedom and democracy indeed. Bush speaks with a forked tongue.
How criminal that we turned Iraq into a snake pit.
Iraq has the largest reserves of untapped oil at a time when even the Saudi Gawar oil field is running low. Oil is what it is all about. The west may write laws and claim ownership of Iraqi oil but they will never be able to access it because Iraqis will continue to sabotage those efforts on the ground. All the agreements signed by the puppet Maliki government will become void when it is removed by Iraqis and without our occupation, it is unsustainable.