Oil War and a Growing Sense of Panic in the US - by Robert Fisk

[JohnyCanuck]

Oil is slippery stuff but not as slippery as the figures now being peddled by Iraq's American occupiers. Up around Kirkuk, the authorities are keeping the sabotage figures secret - because they can't stop their pipelines to Turkey blowing up. And down in Baghdad, where the men who produce Iraq's oil production figures are beginning to look like the occupants of Plato's cave - drawing conclusions from shadows on their wall - the statistics are being cooked. Paul Bremer, the US proconsul who wears combat boots, is "sexing up" the figures to a point where even the oilmen are shaking their heads.

Take Kirkuk. Only when the television cameras capture a blown pipe, flames billowing, do the occupation powers report sabotage. This they did, for example, on 18 August. But the same Turkish pipeline has been hit before and since. It was blown on 17 September and four times the following day. US patrols and helicopters move along the pipeline but, in the huge ravines and tribal areas through which it passes, long sections are indefensible.

<snip>

But the real irony lies in the nature of America's new power in Iraq. US oil deposits are increasingly depleted and by 2025, its oil imports will account for perhaps 70 per cent of total domestic demand. It needs to control the world's reserves - and don't tell me the US would have invaded Iraq if its chief export was beetroot - and it now has control of perhaps 25 per cent of world reserves.

But it can't make the oil flow. The cost of making it flow could produce an economic crisis in the US. And it is this - rather than the daily killing of young American soldiers - that lies behind the Bush administration's growing panic. Washington has got its hands on the biggest treasure chest in the world - but it can't open the lid. No wonder they are cooking the books in Baghdad.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4855.htm

[Tommy_Douglas]

1. Good Article...

Just goes to show we'll never be free until we can kick this addiction to black gold...

[efhmc]

3. Most of our economic and many of our moral woes are tied to this

addiction and our reluctance to make the changes we must make.

[KoKo]

2. Doesn't fisk write for the "Guardian?" Why didn't he publish this there?

Too hot for even the Guardian to report right now?

I've suspected something was up with the oil wells for awhile. If soldiers are being blown up with these off road mines and bombs......then it's logical to believe that a pipeline that winds it's way through the country can be sabotaged as well..... This makes perfect sense......but wonder why the article is not out in mainstream print media.

OOPS: On edit I see there is a credit in the article which says (The Indpendent) so I had it wrong.....it isn't the Guardian he writes for. Why wasn't there a link in the article? I want to send it to someone, but I'd rather send the original link.....because this person doesn't believe anything that isn't from what they consider a "mainstream" source.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Here's the link from The Independent.

(just had to Google for it)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=448622

[fizzana]

8. Fisk writes for the Independant, not the Guardian

Unfortunately the Independant has gone to a pay for access format.

[demnan]

4. A great post

:kick:

[Old and In the Way]

6. The Republican "vision" thing..............

Reagan/Bush gave us "Morning in America" by stopping our diverification out of oil, because there was way too much money to be made for the Republican Roilists.

It is ironicly fitting that Dimson preside over the logical ending of Poppy's vision...."Evening in America".

We really need a new Democratic vision that views oil as THE longterm problem to our national security....from that basis we can begin a true renewal of our wellbeing.

[FuseONE]

7. yea

Robert fisk is pretty much a god:-)

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. This is scary stuff

Even if we get this misadministration out of office, it is too late. This whole thing is the biggest FUBAR in history.

"Anarchy is now so widespread in post-war Iraq that it is almost impossible for international investors to work there. There is no insurance for them - which is why Mr Bremer's occupation administrators have secretly decided that well over half the $20bn (£12bn) earmarked for Iraq will go towards security for its production infrastructure."

Instead if spending $12 billion to protect a pipeline, maybe we should just buy everyone a bicycle, cause we better start getting use to peddling if we want to get around.