It Was Always About Oil

By Restless [Originally on goofyblog 5.17.07]

As things get murked up in Washington regarding funding or de-funding the war, who’s pushing for an end, who’s sincere in bringing it to an end, Matt Taibbi checks in with his usual blunt analysis.

I’ve been reading the Chalmers Johnson trilogy, which details the U.S.’s consistent meddling in the affairs political and economic of other nations for the past half century and so I’ve had a chance to bone up on the whole neo liberal agenda (the IMF and World Bank). It’s shocking to say the least what we’ve been doing in the name of “helping” other countries.

And we’re doing it now in Iraq. Taibbi hones in on the Benchmarks that both parties are near unaminous in endorsing, supported closely and blindly by main stream media. The central precept of these benchmarks is the neocolonial Hydrocarbon law that the Iraqi government and people must endorse to “prove” they are able to govern.

The proposed Hydrocarbon Law is a result of pressure from the American government on the Iraqis to draft an oil policy that would adhere to the IMF guidelines. It allows foreign companies to take advantage of Iraqi oil fields by allowing regions to pair up with foreigners using what are known as “production-sharing agreements” or PSAs, which guarantee investing companies large shares of the profits for decades into the future. The law also makes it impossible for the Iraqi state to regulate levels of oil production (seriously undermining OPEC), allows oil companies to repatriate profits, and would also allow companies to hire foreign workers to man facilities. Add all the measures up and the Hydrocarbon law not only takes control of the oil industry away from the Iraqi state, but virtually guarantees that the state will profit very little from future oil exploitation.

Now, I live in America and have been known to drive a car occasionally and I also understand something else — when mighty industrial countries need oil or anything else, they’re going to take it. They’re also unlikely to acquiesce forever to the whims of an organization like OPEC out of mere morality and decency, when military power can change the equation. Anyone who’s going to be shocked, shocked by this kind of shit had better be prepared to live in a tent and eat twigs and berries instead of African cocoa or Central American sugar or any of the millions of other products we basically steal from hungry, dark-skinned people around the world on a daily basis.

But I’ll tell you what I can do without. I can do without having to listen to American journalists, as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle, bitch and moan about how the Iraqi government better start “shaping up” and “taking responsibility” and “showing progress” if they want the continued blessing of American military power.

From any vantage point outside the U.S., the Hydrocarbon law can be seen for what it is. Not here though and the Dem’s endorsement of it strengthens the insurgency making the situation worse not better. It’s more of the same stuff I wrote about in February (Early Histories II: Iraq). There is a reason why we are building a gigantic embassy and multiple secret and not so secret military bases there. Now, it is crystal clear, for all the world to see.

Moreover, let’s just say this about the Democratic Party. They can wash their hands of this war as much as they want publicly, but their endorsement of this crude neocolonial exploitation plan makes them accomplices in the occupation, and further legitimizes the insurgency. It is hard to argue with the logic of armed resistance to U.S. forces in Iraq when both American parties, representing the vast majority of the American voting public, endorse the same draconian plan to rob the country’s riches. This isn’t a situation in which there’s going to be a better deal down the road, after Bush gets thrown out of office. Looking at it from that point of view, peaceful cooperation with the Americans is therefore probably impossible for any patriotic Iraqi; the economic consequences are too severe.

(A side note: there’s also an argument to be made that the smart play for the Iraqis is to cooperate now, and then tear up any agreement made with the Americans once they get their troops out. The instant our army leaves, any “laws” passed now under American pressure will be meaningless anyway. Yeah, sure, take all the oil you want… hey, do you want these bath towels, too? Oh, wait, you’re leaving? You sure you can’t stay? Etc.)

The media’s complicity in parroting the party line here as a kind of “tough love” way for the Iraqis to finally deserve our troop withdrawal may keep most Americans in the dark, but it’s not doing it for Iraqis, the people of the Middle East or the rest of the world.

This is no way to end the killings and the occupation. (Via AlterNet)