President Bush is having a very bad week in Iraq. One hundred and three Americans service men and women died in Iraq this month. And now, the Bush installed and protected government of Iraq, rather than hand deliver its oil revenues to American and British multinational energy corporations, has instead turned to the next global superpower to help it produce more “Texas tea”:
BEIJING — China and Iraq are reviving a $1.2-billion deal signed by Beijing and Saddam Hussein’s government in 1997 to develop an Iraqi oil field, Baghdad’s oil minister said.
Officials will meet next month to renegotiate the deal over the Ahdab field, said Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani as he was wrapping up a three-nation tour to secure investment for Iraq’s oil industry. […]
The new Baghdad government courted Beijing because Chinese producers have been willing to invest in Angola and other countries considered too dangerous or politically isolated.
Beijing had been thought to be out of the running for major contracts in postwar Iraq, with the best deals going to the United States and its allies. But the upsurge in violence there has made the country less attractive to Western producers.
The upshot? Not only are we in Iraq on false pretenses, but now it appears that if we stay we’ll be propping up the interests of China’s oil industry rather than our own. Ironic, isn’t it. Our invasion and occupation of Iraq keeps paying dividends — for our rivals. First Iran, and now China. Oh, and let’s not forget the another primary beneficiary of our little exercise in military adventurism: Al Qaeda.
That’s our Bush. Helping our enemies, one major SNAFU after another.
