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Big Oil and the war in Iraq
By Derrick Z. Jackson
June 24, 2008
IT TOOK five years, the deaths of 4,100 US soldiers, and the wounding of 30,000 more to make Iraq safe for Exxon.
It is the inescapable open question since the reasons given by President Bush for the invasion and occupation did not exist, neither the weapons of mass destruction nor Saddam Hussein's ties to Al Qaeda and the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks.
The New York Times reported last week that several Western oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron, are about to sign no-bid contracts with the Iraqi government.
Western oil had a significant stake in Iraqi oil for much of the last century until the government nationalized the industry in 1972.
The Associated Press Quote: d Oppenheimer & Co.
Analyst Fadel Gheit as saying he believed the contracts were a first step toward production-sharing agreements.
"These companies are in it for the money, not to make friends," Gheit said.
This of course blows a hole in another ancient Bush fallacy, the one in which former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said "the oil wells belong to the Iraqi people" and former secretary of State Colin Powell seconded him by saying Iraqi oil "will be held in trust for the Iraqi people." Former Deputy Defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz once claimed there was so much oil in Iraq that "When it comes to reconstruction, before we turn to the American taxpayer, we will turn first to the resources of the Iraqi government."
No, all that is really happening is that while the American taxpayer is being turned inside out by the war, and while families bury the brave, the corporate colonialists get all the resources.
Halliburton, the oil services company which Vice President Dick Cheney once led, last year reported a 49 percent rise in profits, to $3.5 billion.
KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter, and laundry services to soldiers, last year reported record profits and is about to share in a new 10-year, $150 billion contract.
The controversial North Carolina-based private security firm Blackwater, whose guards shot and killed 17 Iraqis in one incident last year, has crossed the billion-dollar mark in government contracts, charging, according to the Raleigh News and Observer, $1,221 a day for security guards who are actually paid $500 a day.
This is despite repeated charges of waste, overcharging and recklessness, and a degree of patriotism that verges on betrayal.
As many veterans were being treated amid appalling conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar last year moved from Texas to Dubai.
The Globe last March reported on how KBR has avoided paying perhaps half a billion dollars in Social Security and Medicare taxes since the start of the invasion by hiring employees through shell companies in the Cayman Islands.
Now comes Big Oil itself, which is already basking in record profits.
Its interest in Iraq, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves according to the federal government, is utterly transparent.
A decade ago, then-Chevron CEO Kenneth Derr said "I'd love Chevron to have access to" the Iraqi oil reserves.
A Los Angeles Times news account just before the invasion said, "Maybe it's a coincidence, but American and British oil companies would be long-term beneficiaries of a successful military offensive .
. . Industry officials say Hussein's ouster would help level the playing field .
. . a bonanza for the US-dominated oil-services industry."
Who will stop the bonanza or at least ensure that it is not an utter windfall for CEOs as US soldiers risk their lives keeping the peace and as Iraqis continue to struggle out of the rubble of the invasion?
That is unclear. Of the two presumptive nominees for president, Democrat Barack Obama makes the most noise against oil profiteering and indeed, Republican John McCain has received more money overall from Big Oil.
But Obama has received enough campaign contributions to leave it an open question as to how much leadership he would exert.
We know Big Oil is in this for the money.
Nothing says it is returning to Iraq in the name of the people.
Derrick Z.
Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.
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And exactly who will "the Iraqi people" sell this oil to?
Do you think they will drink it?
How naive can you (and the author of the article) get?
In order for the Iraqi people to benefit from their natural resources the resource must be sold, and the income from that sale put into their economy.
This means jobs and taxes to support and improve infrastructure.
Under Saddam, it meant money to support the exorbitant lifestyle of him and his sons, the military and terrorist groups.
Did you mean to infer that this was preferable?
This entire article and your reprinting is simply inflammatory "Bash Bush Bullshit".
Try posting something that makes sense to people with an IQ higher than their shoe size.
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Sadam was just the same as hitler and he needed to be removed along with his followers, they owe us a little oil for their freedom.
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I love that they are worried about us soldiers risking their lives, THEY SIGNED UP TO BE SOLDIERS!
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Oh my god.
Seriously?
Ok, lets get this straight.
I'm so sorry if CNN (and we all know how on the up and up they are...
With what miss lohan and miss hilton keeping their hands full as well)has only just recently in the past 4 years or so started covering the middle east for those that lack the common sense to read up on what's going on in the world, however...
Things have never been peachy over there.
One country beating the shit out of the other.
Only now that American troops have stepped in, we're finally paying attention.
I hate that people that barely have any change at all, dare to throw in their 2 cents.
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James:
And exactly who will "the Iraqi people" sell this oil to?
Do you think they will drink it?
How naive can you (and the author of the article) get?
In order for the Iraqi people to benefit from their natural resources the resource must be sold, and the income from that sale put into their economy.
This means jobs and taxes to support and improve infrastructure.
Under Saddam, it meant money to support the exorbitant lifestyle of him and his sons, the military and terrorist groups.
Did you mean to infer that this was preferable?
This entire article and your reprinting is simply inflammatory "Bash Bush Bullshit".
Try posting something that makes sense to people with an IQ higher than their shoe size.
How much of an apologost for Bush and Cheneyburtin can you be?
I guess you missed the part about NO BID contracts for big oil.
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Those companies are worldwide it is not just THE US RAPING IRAQ
your a dipshit
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You..re so friggin stupid you can..t even see that Bush co.
Is stealing tax dollars so Big corporations can make Billions in profits.
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Macleod:
How much of an apologost for Bush and Cheneyburtin can you be?
I guess you missed the part about NO BID contracts for big oil.
"BAGHDAD: More than 70 international firms have registered to compete for tenders to help develop Iraq's oil reserves, seen as vital to providing the funds to rebuild the shattered country, Iraq's oil ministry said on Monday.
Iraq currently produces only a fraction of its vast reserves, the third-largest in the world and among the cheapest to produce, and international oil firms have been positioning for years to gain access.
Big oil firms such as Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Repsol YPF, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Norway's StatoilHydro are among firms that have said they have registered or intended to do so."
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/02/18/news/OUKWD-UK-IRA Q-OIL.php
So 70 bids = 0 bids, where did you learn math?
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Macleod:
James:
And exactly who will "the Iraqi people" sell this oil to?
Do you think they will drink it?
How naive can you (and the author of the article) get?
In order for the Iraqi people to benefit from their natural resources the resource must be sold, and the income from that sale put into their economy.
This means jobs and taxes to support and improve infrastructure.
Under Saddam, it meant money to support the exorbitant lifestyle of him and his sons, the military and terrorist groups.
Did you mean to infer that this was preferable?
This entire article and your reprinting is simply inflammatory "Bash Bush Bullshit".
Try posting something that makes sense to people with an IQ higher than their shoe size.
How much of an apologost for Bush and Cheneyburtin can you be?
I guess you missed the part about NO BID contracts for big oil.What part of "several" oil companies did YOU not understand.
If it were a single company, you might have a point, But as you so reasonably pointed out the oil companies are in it for the money.
There is not an oil company extant that would not sell its product for 2 or 3 cents less in order to gain a larger market share.
So if "several" companies (and there are not that damn many oil companies out there) compete, we will all see the benefit.
Including the Iraqi people, who have not seen benefit of their natural resources in nearly 30 years.
Again, this is a non issue for those who look at the picture from a point of reason, and not politically motivated emotion.
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James:
And exactly who will "the Iraqi people" sell this oil to?
Do you think they will drink it?
How naive can you (and the author of the article) get?
In order for the Iraqi people to benefit from their natural resources the resource must be sold, and the income from that sale put into their economy.
This means jobs and taxes to support and improve infrastructure.
Under Saddam, it meant money to support the exorbitant lifestyle of him and his sons, the military and terrorist groups.
Did you mean to infer that this was preferable?
This entire article and your reprinting is simply inflammatory "Bash Bush Bullshit".
Try posting something that makes sense to people with an IQ higher than their shoe size.
HA!
I love the way the tyrants in the Middle East shit on gold toilets yet tell their people its the US's fault that they are poor!
I love when Westerners and Americans believe that too.
I love them because it is clear that God too loves stupid people...he makes millions of them!
If the war in Iraq was about oil we'd be paying $1 a gallon!
We would have ceased those oil fields, turned the pumps on full blast and would be selling oil at prices other nations could not compete at while boosting our own economy and driving up the stock market because energy costs would be so low.
Oil companies would continue to make record profits because gas and oil would be so cheap no one would be conserving or budgeting!
The US government would love all that extra tax revenue to spend on bullshit programs and the auto industry would make a killing because the costs associated with filling the gas tanks of large expensive trucks would not be an issue.
Presidents like when that stuff happends while they are in office.
Its good for ratings...
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James:
Macleod:
James:
And exactly who will "the Iraqi people" sell this oil to?
Do you think they will drink it?
How naive can you (and the author of the article) get?
In order for the Iraqi people to benefit from their natural resources the resource must be sold, and the income from that sale put into their economy.
This means jobs and taxes to support and improve infrastructure.
Under Saddam, it meant money to support the exorbitant lifestyle of him and his sons, the military and terrorist groups.
Did you mean to infer that this was preferable?
This entire article and your reprinting is simply inflammatory "Bash Bush Bullshit".
Try posting something that makes sense to people with an IQ higher than their shoe size.
How much of an apologost for Bush and Cheneyburtin can you be?
I guess you missed the part about NO BID contracts for big oil.What part of "several" oil companies did YOU not understand.
If it were a single company, you might have a point, But as you so reasonably pointed out the oil companies are in it for the money.
There is not an oil company extant that would not sell its product for 2 or 3 cents less in order to gain a larger market share.
So if "several" companies (and there are not that damn many oil companies out there) compete, we will all see the benefit.
Including the Iraqi people, who have not seen benefit of their natural resources in nearly 30 years.
Again, this is a non issue for those who look at the picture from a point of reason, and not politically motivated emotion.
Now comes Big Oil itself, which is already basking in record profits.
Its interest in Iraq, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves according to the federal government, is utterly transparent.
A decade ago, then-Chevron CEO Kenneth Derr said "I'd love Chevron to have access to" the Iraqi oil reserves.
A Los Angeles Times news account just before the invasion said, "Maybe it's a coincidence, but American and British oil companies would be long-term beneficiaries of a successful military offensive .
. . Industry officials say Hussein's ouster would help level the playing field .
. . a bonanza for the US-dominated oil-services industry."
I guess comprehension is not your strong point.
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