"New Oil Law Means Victory in Iraq for Bush"
By Chris Floyd (t r u t h o u t | UK Correspondent)
Monday 08 January 2007
" I. Surging Toward the Ultimate Prize
"The reason that George W. Bush insists that "victory" is achievable in Iraq is not that he is deluded or isolated or ignorant or detached from reality or ill-advised. No, it's that his definition of "victory" is different from those bruited about in his own rhetoric and in the ever-earnest disquisitions of the chattering classes in print and online. For Bush, victory is indeed at hand. It could come at any moment now, could already have been achieved by the time you read this. And the driving force behind his planned 'surge' of American troops is the need to preserve those fruits of victory that are now ripening in his hand.
"At any time within the next few days, the Iraqi Council of Ministers is expected to approve a new 'hydrocarbon law' essentially drawn up by the Bush administration and its UK lackey, the Independent on Sunday reported. The new bill will 'radically redraw the Iraqi oil industry and throw open the doors to the third-largest oil reserves in the world,' says the paper, whose reporters have seen a draft of the new law. 'It would allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil companies in the country since the industry was nationalized in 1972.' If the government's parliamentary majority prevails, the law should take effect in March.
"As the paper notes, the law will give Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell and other carbon cronies of the White House unprecedented sweetheart deals, allowing them to pump gargantuan profits from Iraq's nominally state-owned oilfields for decades to come. This law has been in the works since the very beginning of the invasion - indeed, since months before the invasion, when the Bush administration brought in Phillip Carroll, former CEO of both Shell and Fluor, the politically-wired oil servicing firm, to devise 'contingency plans' for divvying up Iraq's oil after the attack. Once the deed was done, Carroll was made head of the American 'advisory committee' overseeing the oil industry of the conquered land, as Joshua Holland of Alternet.com has chronicled in two remarkable reports on the backroom maneuvering over Iraq's oil: 'Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil' (link*) and 'The US Takeover of Iraqi Oil.'
"From those earliest days until now, throughout all the twists and turns, the blood and chaos of the occupation, the Bush administration has kept its eye on this prize. The new law offers the barrelling buccaneers of the West a juicy set of production-sharing agreements (PSAs) that will maintain a fig leaf of Iraqi ownership of the nation's oil industry - while letting Bush's Big Oil buddies rake off up to 75 percent of all oil profits for an indefinite period up front, until they decide that their 'infrastructure investments' have been repaid. Even then, the agreements will give the Western oil majors an unheard-of 20 percent of Iraq's oil profits - more than twice the average of standard PSAs, the Independent notes.
"Of course, at the moment, the 'security situation' - i.e., the living hell of death and suffering that Bush's 'war of choice' has wrought in Iraq - prevents the Oil Barons from setting up shop in the looted fields. Hence Bush's overwhelming urge to 'surge' despite the fierce opposition to his plans from Congress, the Pentagon and some members of his own party. Bush and his inner circle, including his chief adviser, old oilman Dick Cheney, believe that a bigger dose of blood and iron in Iraq will produce a sufficient level of stability to allow the oil majors to cash in the PSA chips that more than 3,000 American soldiers have purchased for them with their lives...."
(MORE)
(updated version)
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=989&Itemid=135(truthout.org - original)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010807A.shtml(discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3073715*(Note: link to report -
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/43045/ )
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We need to know WHY this escalation of the war is happening, in order to more effectively oppose it and lobby Congress to stop it. I think this author--Chris Floyd--has nailed it. "It's the oil contracts, stupid!" The oil giants who run Bush and Cheney still think they can profit from the deaths of 3,000 U.S. soldiers, the maiming of tens of thousands, and the slaughter of over 100,000 innocent Iraqis, and secure the oil fields, with more of our lives and treasure. It is THEIR unconstitutional power that is behind this decision. The peoples' Democratic majority may oppose the war, but they are not immune to this power behind the throne, which brings me to the issue of why they have insufficient numbers to bring these tyrants to account.
It is useless to rail against "spineless Democrats" who compromise on "symbolic" resolutions against escalating this war, and don't seem to have the strength in numbers to de-fund this escalation--and to confront Bush/Cheney, Magna Carta style, on executive tyranny--when our elections are controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, using "trade secret," proprietary programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls, to "count" all our votes. The American people did everything they could to overcome this great handicap--an estimated 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites, warmongers and corporatists--and elected as many Democrats as they could, to stop this war. But Congress is STILL insufficiently representative of the American people--70% of whom want this war ended now. Even with top generals and numerous war hawks against the escalation, they can't seem to do anything effective to stop it. True, they have only been in office for a week, and may have legislative/investigative strategies that we can't yet perceive, but the horror of this escalation--Bush/Cheney throwing more "cannon fodder" into protection of the oil contracts and oil fields--is so great, that immediate action to de-fund the escalation is REQUIRED, by any reading of the law, the Constitution or common decency.
The Bush Junta's enormous malfeasance on global warming--one of the great tragedies of this Junta--is also one the keys to this escalation of the war. Why have we been pouring lives and treasure into securing Mideast oil fields for Exxon-Mobile, and NOT using these resources to convert to non-polluting alternative energy--something that the American people would accomplish in five years, in my opinion, with halfway decent leadership? Because Exxon-Mobile and brethren are now running our government. And this escalation, and the reason for it--as revealed by Mr. Floyd--makes this very clear, indeed. I think the best strategy for influencing Congress is to quote his article in all of our letters and communications, and to highlight THE OIL CONTRACTS in public protests--to let them know that we know--and to hearten and strengthen the good people in Congress, to resist this horrible decision, and the horrible coup that is behind it. Long term, we must--WE MUST!--restore transparent vote counting. Short-term, we can only hope and pray--and work tirelessly--for decency and the rule of law to prevail among the members of our semi-legitimate, partially representative Congress.
"It's the oil contracts, stupid!" should be our motto. And on the back of that sign, "Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' now!"
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