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You Want To Know Why American Troops are Dying in Iraq?
by James Glaser
By Danny Fortson, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb Published: 07 January 2007 Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days. That is how they see it in Great Britain. Of course here in America our media will be keeping a low profile on this story. During the lead up for George Bush's war in Iraq, almost every anti-war speaker said something about oil being the reason for the war, but Bush and those pushing for this "slam-dunk" of a war shouted down that story with talks of mushroom shaped clouds over American cities. They figured that fear would work, and it did. . . we went to war. There were no mushroom shaped clouds, and we found out there never was a chance to have them. The reason to start this war was the oil, and it is still the oil that keeps us in this war. Our troops are dying; Soldiers and Marines are losing limbs, their sight, even their genitals so that the rich can get even richer. Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.
It seems that the American government has been drawing up this law (of which the Independent in Great Britain got a copy) that would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell, and Exxon 30-year contracts to pump and sell Iraq's oil. We are talking trillions of dollars here, and when you are talking about that kind of money, what are a few thousand American lives? We all know that Washington can be bought, and in the last year we have seen what kind of profits oil companies can make if they can manipulate the market. That kind of money means power, and with that kind of power, international corporations can even look the other way when young Americans are being sacrificed. George Bush will talk about freedom and democracy in Iraq, but the truth is that we attacked Iraq, we put together the government they have now, and we are pushing that government to pass laws that will sell out Iraq's only exportable resource to our corporations. You might say we bought that oil with the lives of our troops, and you might say that this whole war is a sick way to make money. |
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