Back in 2002, when President Bush and his cronies rolled out their sales pitch for an unprovoked invasion of Iraq, dissidents and protesters said all this stuff about WMDs was just a smokescreen and that it was all about oil. American companies wanted access to Iraq's vast oil resources, and they had a steady friend in the White House. Indeed, Vice President Cheney's secretive "energy task force" specifically concerned itself with the Iraqi oil fields.
Well, five years after the American invasion, it appears that they've given up all pretense and are heading for the trough. The New York Times reported last week that four big oil companies - ExxonMobil, BP, Total and Shell - are getting no-bid contracts to service and run Iraq's oil industry. Companies from all other countries, including Russia, India and China, weren't even allowed to try and compete.
Not coincidentally, the companies were all partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company, the foreign consortium which originally exploited Iraq's oil fields until Saddam Hussein nationalized the industry in 1972. So they are now being allowed back in.
Does anyone really believe the Iraqi people will get any more than a pittance for their oil? It is theirs, after all, and they should share in the benefits. But it seems increasingly likely that most oil profits will be taken out of the country, with a majority of the rest reserved for bribing Iraqi government officials.
Yes, after all the WMD lies, we now have proof that it really was all about the oil.
No comments:
Post a Comment