The Bush Administration has long claimed that the war in Iraq is not about oil.
• "We will make sure that Iraq's natural resources are used for the benefit of their owners, the Iraqi people" --President George W. Bush, 3/16/03
• "The only interest the United States has in the region is furthering the cause of peace and stability, not in [Iraq's] ability to generate oil,"-- White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer, 2002.
• "[T]he oil of the Iraqi people belongs to the Iraqi people; it is their wealth, it will be used for their benefit. So we did not do it for oil." --Then Secretary of State Colin Powell, The Independent (online edition), 1/7/07
That is what they said. Let's see what they did:
Our first hint came on the eve of the Iraq War, when Bush spoke directly to the Iraqi people. Bush didn't say, "Don't harm the troops." He warned them, "...your fate will depend on your action. Do not destroy oil wells."
• "US-UK forces invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, seizing the major oilfields and refineries almost immediately. When coalition forces later entered Baghdad, they set a protective cordon around the Oil Ministry, while leaving all other institutions unguarded, allowing looting and burning of other government ministries, hospitals and cultural institutions." -- James A. Paul, Global Policy Forum, November 2003
Encouraged by the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and President Bush's promises of freedom and democracy, the Iraqis began to draft a new Constitution. They envisioned a "Scandinavian-style" system, declaring that "Social Justice" was to be the basis of their new society. The proceeds from Iraqi oil would guarantee the Iraqi people's right to education, health care, housing, and other social services. An Iraqi newspaper printed a draft of the Iraqi's new Constitution in June 2005.
...But then the U.S. and British diplomats took over, turning the Iraqis into bystanders at the drafting of their own Constitution. By late July 2005, a new draft of the Constitution appeared.
Gone were the progressive provisions of the earlier draft. Gone was the commitment to social justice. Gone were the provisions for protecting Iraqi oil.
• "Also gone was the provision affirming the Iraqi people's collective ownership of Iraq's oil and other natural resources and obliging the state to protect and safeguard them. Instead, a new article lays the legal ground for selling off Iraq's oil and putting it under the control of the big multinational oil companies." --Herbert Docena, Foreign Policy In Focus, 9/2/05
In November 2006, the Baker/Hamilton Iraq Study Group released their recommendations on the situation in Iraq. It sounded like it was written in the boardrooms of Big Oil (Exxon-Mobile, Chevron-Texaco, British BP-Amoco and Royal Dutch-Shell); and it probably was. James Baker's law firm represents Exxon/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, and Conoco/Phillips, and Lee Hamilton serves on the board of Stonebridge International consulting group, which currently advises oil companies on how to take advantage of opportunities in Iraqi and Syrian oil.
• "The Baker-Hamilton report says very clearly that an oil law is needed for foreign investment -- this is shorthand for PSAs [Production Service Agreements]. Elsewhere the report says that Bush should emphasize that the U.S. is not interested in oil in Iraq. These are two recommendation of the report that Bush will follow." --Institute for Public Accuracy: News Release, 12/11/06
• "...Big Oil didn't just want access to Iraq's oil; they wanted access on terms that would be inconceivable unless negotiated at the barrel of a gun. Specifically, they wanted an Iraqi government that would enter into Production Service Agreements (PSAs) for the extraction of Iraq's oil." --Joshua Holland, AlterNet, 10/16/06
No wonder the Iraqi people are resisting the American occupation and the theft of their national treasure.
• "We strongly reject the privatization of our oil wealth, as well as production sharing agreements, and there is no room for discussing the matter. This is the demand of the Iraqi street, and the privatization of oil is a red line that may not be crossed." --Statement from the Iraqi Labor Union Leadership, Spiegel Online, 12/22/06
Mick Youther is an American citizen, an independent voter, a veteran, a parent, a Christian, a scientist, a writer, and all-around nice guy who has been aroused from a comfortable apathy by the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration.
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