The Global Scramble for Black Gold

[Oceansaway]

March 30, 2007

The Global Scramble for Black Gold
Oil and the Empire
By ALAN MAASS

The oil men of the Bush administration are trying to set up one of the biggest swindles in history--the great Iraq oil robbery.

The cabinet of the new Iraqi government--under pressure from the U.S. occupiers who put them in power--approved a law that would undo Iraq's nationalized system and give Western oil giants unparalleled access to the country's vast reserves.

The oil companies would be guaranteed super-profits--on a scale unknown anywhere else in the Middle East--for a period of 20 to 35 years from oil pumped out of two-thirds or more of Iraq's oilfields. Meanwhile, Iraqis would continue to endure poverty and the devastation of war while sitting atop what is estimated to be the third-largest supply of the world's most sought-after resource.

The great Iraq oil robbery isn't a done deal. Even if the law is finalized by May as expected, the major oil companies say they won't have anything to do with production in Iraq until "security" is established--and that would mean a success for the occupiers and their Iraqi puppets that the U.S. hasn't been able to achieve over the past four years since the invasion.

Still, the law underlines the importance of the scramble for oil to the U.S. empire--no matter how much George Bush and his administration deny it with claims about spreading "democracy" and making the world safe from terrorism.

The U.S. government's thirst for oil isn't only about profits--and still less about securing supplies of a commodity that ordinary Americans depend on--but is also about power. In a world in which the economic and military might of nations depends significantly on access to oil, more control for the U.S. means less control for its rivals.

These dual calculations--securing access for its own needs and controlling the access of others--have been central to the history of oil and the U.S. empire, from the end of the 19th century, to the start of the 21st.

more at link...
http://www.counterpunch.org/

[izzie]

1. And every one in the Middle East knows this. Now if Bush

and Co,. can just keep our army in place to keep their oil in a few hands all will work out fine. For the stock holders any how. It also may just be what blows up the whole Middle East.

[Old and In the Way]

2. They can pass any laws they want....

whether they ever actually pump any significant oil from Iraq's reserves will be another question entirely.