Since we’re here ANYWAY, we’ll take your oil.

DemocracyNow reports that the Iraqis have always known what this war is about:

In one of the first studies of Iraqi public opinion after the US-led invasion of March 2003, the polling firm Gallup asked Iraqis their thoughts on the Bush administration’s motives for going to war. One percent of Iraqis said they believed the motive was to establish democracy. Slightly more – five percent – said to assist the Iraqi people. But far in the lead was the answer that got 43 percent – “to rob Iraq”s oil.”

The Iraqi parliament is soon expected to pass a new law, variously called “the oil law.   It seems “almost no one has been given access to the final version approved by the Iraqi Oil Committee.”

Writing for The Humanist, Kenneth Anderson, a scientist living in Baltimore, puts the cards on the table:  “Despite lofty talk of freedom and democracy, the true nature of the Iraq war may very well lie in the Iraqi oil law.”  The terms do seem to be extortionist.   According to Anderson:

The law as detailed in that draft is highly unusual for the Middle East, where other countries outlaw granting foreign companies direct interest in oil production. Under this draft hydrocarbon law, major Western oil companies would be granted Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) for up to thirty years and, in at least the first few years, would reap up to 75 percent of the profits from both developed and undeveloped oil fields. Key to these PSAs is that they would be “locked in” regardless of the government in power.

The profit margin set out in the July draft is unconscionable and we can only assume which interested party suggested such a lopsided deal. To award foreign oil companies most of the oil profits at a time when the people of Iraq would need it most could rightly be described as sociopathic plutocracy. . .

U.S. senators appeared to be just as sheltered. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 11 regarding the proposed troop “surge,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was questioned about the law. “You referred to the oil law as a remarkable law,” Senator John Sununu (R-NH) told Rice. “Well, it’s the most remarkable law that no one has ever really seen.”

Though then-Secretary of State Colin Powell explicitly said in July 2003: “We did not do it for oil,” the draft oil law casts a very long, very dark shadow across those words . . .

Bush has stated quite clearly that troops won’t be withdrawn while he is in office. This is perhaps the most believable statement he has ever made.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Avatar of Mary
    Mary March 19, 2007 Reply

    Is it any wonder Halliburton is planning to move to Dubai? I simply shake my head in wonder at how corrupt the American government is. How long before this story makes it to the major media? Thanks for the post.

  2. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim March 19, 2007 Reply

    "Disarming Saddam of WMDs," "bringing democracy to Iraq," "stopping the threat of Al Qaida," etc., have all just been easily marketable lies to gloss over the truth: Bush is using American troops to protect Iraq's oil while Big Oil companies pillage it. Since that is one of the real reasons why Bush sent troops into Iraq, his failure to find WMDs, his failure to create democracy, his failure to find Al Qaida, etc., have all been insufficient reasons to end his military occupation. Obviously, his real mission is not yet over, and he has already declared that it won't be as long as he is in office. How can he know this? How can he know that American troops will need to occupy Iraq for the remainder of his presidency? Because he knows it will take longer than two years to pump Iraq dry.

  6. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth November 18, 2007 Reply

    The real purpose of this "war" is getting clearer every day. The U.S. went to Iraq so that the U.S. could occupy Iraq.

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