It’s not to threaten Iran, though that may be a side benefit. It’s not to spread democracy. It certainly helps KBR rack up obscene (and fradulently obtained) profits, but that’s not the real reason either. No, the reason we need those however many bases there are in Iraq is very simple. We need to insure the Exxon Mobil and all the other oil companies can get their money out of Iraq. In short, our military is just the muscle for Big Oil:
BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. […]
The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.
It will be very hard for any future Iraqi government to nationalize Big Oil’s investments with American troops, tanks, and war planes situated permanently on Iraqi soil. Not to mention any other companies from Russia or China getting a piece of the action. Bad things could happen, ya know? People need protection from accidents, if you get my drift.
Of course, if you believe the spin, everything’s all on the up and up . . .
(cont.)
For the American government, increasing output in Iraq, as elsewhere, serves the foreign policy goal of increasing oil production globally to alleviate the exceptionally tight supply that is a cause of soaring prices.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry, through a spokesman, said the no-bid contracts were a stop-gap measure to bring modern skills into the fields while the oil law was pending in Parliament.
It said the companies had been chosen because they had been advising the ministry without charge for two years before being awarded the contracts, and because these companies had the needed technology.
A stop gap measure? Sure it is. It will stop up all those gaps just until all the oil is squeezed out of the ground. No wonder McCain spoke of a 100 years occupation. It was hyperbole, of course. It won’t take 100 years to bleed Iraq dry of its oil, and siphon off massive profits to the Big Oil conglomerates. I figure thirty years. Maybe 40 years tops.
And lest anyone believe the spin, that these are just temporary measures to assist the Iraqi oil industry get back on its feet, well, have i got a bridge in Alaska to sell to you.
“The bigger prize everybody is waiting for is development of the giant new fields,” Leila Benali, an authority on Middle East oil at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said in a telephone interview from the firm’s Paris office. The current contracts, she said, are a “foothold” in Iraq for companies striving for these longer-term deals. […]
[W]ork in the deserts and swamps that contain much of Iraq’s oil reserves would be virtually impossible unless carried out solely by Iraqi subcontractors, who would likely be threatened by insurgents for cooperating with Western companies.
Yet at today’s oil prices, there is no shortage of companies coveting a contract in Iraq. It is not only one of the few countries where oil reserves are up for grabs, but also one of the few that is viewed within the industry as having considerable potential to rapidly increase production.
So, our military is necessary in Iraq for really only one good reason. To make certain that the right companies get those massive contracts for the development and exploitation of the Iraqi oil fields awarded to them, and then to provide the “security” necessary to ensure that the oil flows unmolested into the hands of those large multinational parasites. Reminds me of that famous quote from Major General Smedley Butler of the USMC back in 1933. What was it again? Oh yes …
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. […]
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. […]
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
Times haven’t changed all that much since the days fo general Butler, only the faces of the men (and occasional women) who run the corporations which need the projection of American military might to protect their investments, or generate “business opportunities” for them where none previously existed. And the real scam? Big Oil is taking our tax dollars to make future profits from us and our children. We get screwed both coming and going. As for the Iraqi people? Well except for a few greedy politicians and warlords who will no doubt be well compensated for selling out their countries resources, they will get nothing out of this deal other than death and misery.
If you ever wondered why Muqtada al-Sadr, an extreme religious fundamentalist with a militia of trained killers still commands such respect among Iraq’s poorest Shi’ites, you really shouldn’t. Because, despite his despotic tendencies and ruthlessness, he continues to appeal to anyone who wishes to see the American forces thrown out of Iraq. Ordinary Shh’ites in Iraq see him as their only hope for the benefits of their oil resources to be realized by all Iraqis, not just the big shots. They may be wrong (indeed, history usually shows us that strong men don’t deliver on their promises to anyone but themselves) but it’s not difficult to understand the appeal he has for the masses of downtrodden Iraqi citizens who distrust the American domination of their country and who lack all confidence in Maliki’s government to stand up to the Americans.
Because Prime Minister Maliki is hopelessly compromised, and everyone knows it. His power rests almost entirely on American military might. This is why he must dance to the tune of his Washington puppet masters when push comes to shove. Which is why these initial “foothold” contracts were awarded without any competitive bidding to the very companies which have contributed millions of campaign contributions to the Republican Party and President Bush. Despite the denials from the administration, it isn’t hard for anyone with eyes to see to figure out the scam that is going down here.
War is a racket. Indeed it is. A deadly racket that kills and maims American troops and Iraqi citizens for the benefit of a few. But at least our troops really can say they fought and suffered for freedom. Just not yours and mine, friend. They fought and died, instead, for the freedom of Exxon Mobil and Shell and BP and Chevron to make the kinds of obscene profits that have made our country what it is today. I’m sure the executives of those companies and their shareholders appreciate the sacrifices the troops have made on their behalf.
