It's still about oil in Iraq

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-juhasz8dec08,0,4717508.story?coll=la-opinion-center

A centerpiece of the Iraq Study Group's report is its advocacy for securing foreign companies' long-term access to Iraqi oil fields.

By Antonia Juhasz, ANTONIA JUHASZ is a visiting scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time."
December 8, 2006


WHILE THE Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence.

Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the U.S. and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves." The group then proceeds to give very specific and radical recommendations as to what the United States should do to secure those reserves. If the proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be commercialized and opened to foreign firms.

The report makes visible to everyone the elephant in the room: that we are fighting, killing and dying in a war for oil. It states in plain language that the U.S. government should use every tool at its disposal to ensure that American oil interests and those of its corporations are met.

It's spelled out in Recommendation No. 63, which calls on the U.S. to "assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise" and to "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies." This recommendation would turn Iraq's nationalized oil industry into a commercial entity that could be partly or fully privatized by foreign firms.

This is an echo of calls made before and immediately after the invasion of Iraq.

I'm almost beginning to think that Iran gaining some control over Iraq is part of the plan. We've already stoked the nuclear fires of fear when it comes to Iran. All Bushie has to do is babble about how the mullahs are going to use the oil money to build their atomic arsenal and destroy israel and we have to invade the ME all over again but "given the lessons of Iraq we have no choice but to reinstate the draft so we have the proper troop levels to do the job". Rinse and repeat until any brown person opposing the "American way of life" (ie. us controlling the world) is dead.

IS THAT WHY DICK (THE DICK)CHENNY MADE THE OIL DEAL IN IRAN IN 1996 WHILE CEO OF HALLIBURTON?
If "america" ouught not to trade with law made no difference to him;what makes you think he has
the american peoples wealfare in his heart?
C'MON FOLKS ITS TIME WE CALLED A SPADE A SPADE!LIKE THE YUPPIES WHO STOLE WALL STREET THESE GUYS ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN POWER AND MONEY!

The point that most people don't want to consider is that Bush doesn't want to change course in Iraq, because he has what he wants. The U.S. controls the only dock in the Persian Gulf that pumps Iraqi crude.

That's all he's ever wanted. He doesn't care how many people died to get it, nor does he care how many will die to keep it.

The entire BushCo strategy has been a series of "We've gone this far. We can't turn back now" moves.

A military buildup in the region in 2002 -- We have all our troops in place, may as well invade. It would be too expensive to come back later.

Post invasion. We can't leave now. It would be a disaster...

WMDs. Freedom for the Iraqi people. The world is a better place without Saddam. Reshaping the middle east. Stay the course. Change direction. How do we salvage this?

They are all distractions.

We need a serious discussion about the real issue and the real reason we are in Iraq. America, how many more lives are you willing to waste and how many more trillions of dollars are you willing to spend to control the flow of oil from Iraq?

Too many americans truly believe in our manifest destiny in the world. I'm giving serious thought as to whether I want to be a citizen of any country that sees the death of potentially millions as acceptable to preserve some precious "American way of life". I can barely look at myself in the mirror anymore.

People will be more interested in "sticking it to Bush" by forcing him to accept a recommendation that eschews "Stay the course" rather than finding out what exactly is in said recommendation.

It assumes that a strong central government can be setup. I don't think the regions will give up their autonomy...