The government of Iraq is nearing the end of a road. It’s a road we put them on by invading their country, bombing the living hell out of their infrastructure and telling the world we were doing it to end Iraq’s suffering under a heinous dictator. Of course, the original reasons given for entering Iraq were significantly different than just dethroning Saddam Hussien, but for now..lets just go with how much good we did by getting rid of him, shall we?
What Bush didn’t tell the world was that Iraq was also being invaded so he could help his buddies in the Oil business secure the rights to all that black gold. Lee Raymond’s old haunt, Exxon, along with Shell, BP and others would be secure in the knowledge that they alone would be awarded the contracts to extract and process all that fossil fuel under the sands of Iraq. For more than 4 years, Bush and his Oil cronies have worked for passage of the law that provides them with what many of us have seen as the ultimate reason for entering Iraq all along…the Oil.
Bush is fond of telling the American citizens and the rest of the world, that Iraq is a Democracy now. To be sure, it’s a fledgling Democracy, but a Democracy nonetheless. Well, if that’s the case…why has this “new law” been created in almost total secrecy within Iraq? Almost no one—both outside of and within the Iraqi government, including the parliament—has seen it but the men on a cabinet-level committee.
This new “law” will basically shut out any Iraqi oil companies from becoming “contractors” in their own country’s Oil Business. That alone will be the job of foreign oil companies my dear reader. This means no longer will Iraq control its own resource. The oil will no longer be “nationalized” as other countries in the region are; like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Iran. These three countries, and actually Iraq under Saddam, outlawed foreign countries from controlling the development of their most precious resource.
This new law, will centralize the control of handing out the Oil contracts to one government group. The Kurd’s and the Shia’s, who have considerable amounts of the black gold underneath their territories, wanted to maintain control over who will get the 30-year contracts to suck the oil out of the ground and sell it.
It remains to be seen if the new Oil Law will be approved soon, the negotiation process with the Kurd’s and Shia’s is still taking place. The Kurdistan regional government issued a statement on Friday criticizing an Oil Ministry spokesman for saying that the oil law had been agreed upon unanimously and put in final form. While BushCo and the international oil companies chomp at the bit, the Oil Ministry is still trying to sell this law to all factions and groups within Iraq. The Kurds are fighting to maintain control over their oil and who will extract it. The central government wants to have the final say on who will be awarded the contracts.
American and Iraqi citizens can only sit by and watch while the world’s second largest oil reserves are carved up and handed to foreign Oil interests. The true winner in all this will be the American people, not the Iraqi’s. We will once again have plenty of oil and gas for our Hummers and Lincoln Navigators. The Iraqi people will lose the right to control one of the worlds most sought after resources, which sits under their sand. Reports are out there that as high as 75% of the profits from the extraction and sale of the Oil will go to the oil companies, not the Iraqi people for a set number of years in the beginning. Until the Oil Law is passed in it’s final form, nothing is for sure..except of course, who will win the right to extract and process all that black gold:
George Bush’s closest and best friends..the Oil Industry.
So when people tell you that entering Iraq, no matter what the reasons, was a good thing my dear reader..you can ask them who, exactly was it a good deal for? The Iraqi’s might of lost a dictator but they also lost the right to control their own oil. When people tell you that our soldiers died to secure freedom for the Iraqi’s ask them what else was secured as well. It took over 4 years for the real reason to see the light of day..but its out there in the mainstream media now. How they spin it is a whole ‘nother story. This article in the NYT doesn’t say one word about the foreign oil companies controlling the oil..it talks mainly about the splitting of the profits between the Iraqi territories. On the other hand..this article on TomPaine.com tells you how the people of Iraq are getting the short end of the stick.
No matter how you spin it though..its still a loss for the country of Iraq and its citizens.
Cross-posted at The Blue Republic
