Oil, "the greatest single prize in all history." (Oil companys profits up)

[LaPera]

Oil and Blood

"The Bush administration has no plans to bring the troops home from this misguided war, which has taken a fearful toll in lives and injuries while at the same time weakening the military, damaging the international reputation of the United States, serving as a world-class recruiting tool for terrorist groups and blowing a hole the size of Baghdad in Washington's budget.

A wiser leader would begin to cut some of these losses. But the whole point of this war, it seems, was to establish a long-term military presence in Iraq to ensure American domination of the Middle East and its precious oil reserves, which have been described, the author Daniel Yergin tells us, as "the greatest single prize in all history."

the connection to Al Qaeda (which was bogus), and, one of President Bush's favorites, the need to fight the terrorists "over there" so we won't have to fight them here at home.

All the rationales have to genuflect before "The Prize," the title of Mr. Yergin's Pulitzer-Prize-winning book.

It's the oil, stupid."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/opinion/28herbert.html?hp&oref=login

Today ExxonMobil Announced Record Profits of $7.64 Billion in last 3 Months

Consider this:

- Despite making a record profit of $25 billion last year, ExxonMobil is still shirking payment of the full amount it owes fishermen and natives hurt by the Exxon Valdez oil spill sixteen years ago.
- ExxonMobil is the only oil company that's still part of Arctic Power, the group lobbying Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The rest bowed out due to public pressure.
- ExxonMobil has spent more than $15 million since 1998 to deny the existence of global warming by funding junk science groups to cloud the debate. BP, for example, not only admits we have a problem but is investing in solar energy research and selling real solar panels today to help deal with the problem.

http://www.truemajority.org/