Go ahead, “Get Out Now” – you think that will bring closure to the matter? You think that will end this? Then you are really really stupid, dumber then dumb, and you will die.

“This is a crucial issue, with trillions of dollars at stake, because only 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields have been developed.”

The oil of Iraq is not in the hands of the USA. Note the word “almost” in the article you posted.
Comment by goodscarrier — December 9, 2006 @ 6:59 pm

I tried to explain this earlier to you. They don’t need to pump oil out of Iraq to control the oil. The fact that the oil in Iraq remains in the ground means that Saudi Arabia is the primary source of oil in the world. This means they have a MONOPOLY on oil anc can artificially inflate prices at will claiming there is a shortage. This is very simple economics and can be easily understood if you grasp the concept of “Elasticity.” All the US has to do is block oil production in Iraq to control the oil in Iraq. They have been very successful at this thusfar.

Here’s the bottom line, Bush an Cheney have more money than ever since they invaded Iraq. This is a HUGE victory for them. Everyone with half a brain realizes that the only real losers in the war in Iraq are the Iraqi people and the American people that were sold a bill of goods by Bush/Cheney.

Even if the factions in the middle east somehow manage to thwart the Bush/Cheney occupation, the damage is done to Iraq and the US and the Bush/Cheney bank accounts are full.

Try checking Bush & Cheney’s bank accounts before and after the war in Iraq.

I am looking foward to the war criminals and profiteers being frogmarched into The Hague or some other court.
Comment by goodscarrier — December 9, 2006 @ 6:36 pm

At least we finally agree on something. :)

But since you still don’t believe Bush, Cheney, the War Profiteers and Big Oil won the war in Iraq, take a look at the list of winners in 2004:

The Top Ten War Profiteers in 2004

The oil of Iraq is not in the hands of the USA. Note the word “almost” in the article you posted.

Most of the oil of Iraq is in the Kurdish and Shia regions. In the Iraqi Constitution, Article 108 states that “oil and gas are the ownership of all the peoples of Iraq in all the regions and governorates”.

What makes you think that Bush/Cheney are going to be able to rob them of this oil?

What makes you think that Bush/Cheney are going to be able to
convince the Shias to stab their Iranian brethren in the back as a favor to Bush/Cheney ?

Please, show the history of co-operation btw Shiite extremists and the USA.

This ought to be great!!

Again, the US is fuct.

It is a matter of time before the US is expulsed from Iraq with nothing but several hundred thousand bloodied bodies and $400+ billion in debt.

What sane person does not know/agree that Iraq is one of the gravest humanitarian crises?

Duh!!!

What sane person does not know/agree that oil companies are making unprecedented profits?

Duh!!!

#149, Republican Corporate Oil & War Machine Monopoly: I know you want to believe in the people killing eachother in the middle east and that their doing so is for a just cause

Just cause?

F*ck you: I have never even though that. That is despicable to attribute that to someone.

From you own article which does not support you claim that the US is winning Bush’s Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq’s Oil (Part Two)

Yet, despite a five-year effort, Big Oil still sits on the sidelines, wary of the disorder and violence that’s plagued the country. Ironically, it appears that China may well receive the first deal in post-Saddam Iraq (although it’s one negotiated with Hussein’s government before the war). The Kurdish autonomous zone has signed three PSAs — none with the majors — although there is some dispute about their validity (and, at this writing, there are reports that the Kurds are in negotiations with Royal Dutch/Shell and BP, among others).

At this point, the situation is very fluid.

HINT: The US lost badly in Iraq and is losing ground throughout the ME.

NOTE: There’s not one serious paid ME expert that espouses your views which can only be cooked up under a tinfoil hat.

I am looking foward to the war criminals and profiteers being frogmarched into The Hague or some other court.

It looks like the losers in Iraq are the Iraqis and the American Tax payers.

It looks like the winners in Iraq are Bush and Cheney who are billions if not trillions of dollars richer as a result of their campaign.

I hate to break the news to you goodscarrier because I know you want to believe in the people killing eachother in the middle east and that their doing so is for a just cause…but at the end of the day, Bush and Cheney will continue to be wealthy beyond anyone’s wildest dreams while the people that fight and die in the middle east will do so for the crumbs that fall from the Bush/Cheney/PNAC/Haliburton/Carlyle Group table…They have already won the war in the middle east because their bank accounts are fuller than ever before.

Oil industry awash in record levels of cash

“ExxonMobil’s earnings announcement that profits rose 75 percent from last year followed a BP announcement of $6.5 billion in profits, up 34 percent and ConocoPhillips reporting its income grew to $3.8 billion, up 89 percent”

“Up to $US194 billion ($263 billion) in Iraqi oil revenues are going to multinational oil companies under long-term contracts, and not to the Iraqi people, a social and environmental group said.”

Bush’s Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq’s Oil

Wake up and smell the trail of money leading all the way to the banks of the real winners in Iraq. It leads all the way to Bush and Cheney and their Oil and Defense Cronies.

HINT: The US lost badly in Iraq. The pro-Iranian Shiite fundamentalist state in Iraq is not what Bush and Cheney planned for. Iran is the victor.

Plan Floated to Divide Iraq Along Ethnic Lines
PETER GALBRAITH: Our ability to influence events in Iraq is extremely limited. I see no purpose for a continued U.S. presence in the Shiite southern half of Iraq.

The New Middle East
Richard N. Haass
From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2006
Summary: The age of U.S. dominance in the Middle East has ended and a new era in the modern history of the region has begun.

“Iraq Is Not Winnable”
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD HAASS
The old Middle East — an era which I believe has only recently ended — was one in which the United States enjoyed tremendous dominance and freedom of maneuver. [snip] It’s one of history’s ironies that the first war in Iraq, a war of necessity, marked the beginning of the American era in the Middle East and the second Iraq war, a war of choice, has precipitated its end.

IRAN’S GROWING POWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The Spider’s Web
By Georg Mascolo and Bernhard Zand
More people than ever are dying in Iraq while the United States looks on powerlessly. In the wake of its invasion of Lebanon, Israel is riven with self-doubt, while Europe tries to establish peace. But there is one country that is benefiting from every crisis in the region: Iran.

The Iranian nightmare
By Michael Schwartz
Now, over two years after Baghdad fell and the American occupation of Iraq began, Kagan’s prediction appears to have been fulfilled – in reverse. The chief beneficiary of the occupation and the chaos it produced has not been the Bush administration, but Iran, the most populous and powerful member of the “axis of evil” and the chief American competitor for dominance in the oil-rich region. As diplomatic historian Gabriel Kolko commented, “By destroying a united Iraq under [Saddam] Hussein … the US removed the main barrier to Iran’s eventual triumph.”

Bush/Cheney only stand to benefit and gain from the ongoing conflict in the middle east. As long as that conflict continues, Bush/Cheney are in control. Can you imagine if all the peoples in the middle east came together…Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, Iranians, Palestinians, Israelis…all at the same table, all suddenly realizing they must wash away the past and through peace, build a new middle east? Cheney/Bush would suddenly be powerless.

“There is no magic formula to solve the problems of Iraq. However,
there are actions that can be taken to improve the situation
and protect American interests.”

American interests.

No much mention of Iraqi interests, remember, the people who were supposed to benefit? I don’t know about you, but if an unenlightened guest came into my house, trampled my belongings, and expected me to clean up the mess in thanks for the “privilege” of their “good intentions,” I’d be more than a little reluctant to comply with their demands as well.

Meetings in Jordan? Yes, obvioulsy Iraq is secure. What a mess…some really do lead by example, don’t they?

Again, George Bush and Dick Cheney are not holding the reins of power. That is pure bullshit. I urge you to start reading.

If they are in control, why did Iraq’s parliament ignore Bush and Cheney and just recently pass a law that would allow the creation of autonomous Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions?

If they are in control, why is the Shiite south governed by the Shiite religious parties who enforce an Iranian-style Islamic law with militias ?

You have no idea how bad things are in Iraq.

You actually think America is in control.

This is why we are where we are today.

Comment by goodscarrier — December 8, 2006 @ 8:01 pm

How do you explain this?

Lifting the Iraq Embargo After Almost 2 Million Deaths

On May 22, 2003, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1483 finally lifting the 12-year embargo on Iraq. The United Nations had imposed a comprehensive ban on trade with Iraq on August 6, 1990, under resolution 661, amounting to a complete siege on the country. The embargo was then enforced by a military land, air, and sea blockade. This blockade continued until the end of the recent 2003 war, with land border checkpoints in Jordan, naval interdiction of ships, and no-fly zones imposed in the north and south of the country.

After the imposition of the embargo, a devastating bombing campaign against Iraq in 1991 destroyed the country’s civilian infrastructure (water, sewage, and electrical power infrastructure, among other sectors). Much of the diseases rampant in Iraq are due to the destruction of the civilian infrastructure and lack of spare parts in the 1991 war. Some of which was modestly repaired between 1991 and 2003, was destroyed again in the 2003 war. Contaminated drinking water and lack of electricity for hospitals are a major cause of the suffering for Iraq’s twenty five million people today.

In addition, the depleted uranium (DU) shells used in both the 1991 and 2003 wars have caused a significant increase in radiation-related cancers and birth defects. Iraq still does not have the necessary tools (primarily due to the embargo) to clean up the DU contamination.”

3 million post-invasion excess deaths in Iraq & Afghanistan

“A top US medical epidemiological research group has recently published their estimate of 655,000 post-invasion Iraq excess deaths in the top medical journal The Lancet (October, 2006).”

“Using this latter figure for Iraq and a UN-derived estimate for Afghanistan, the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan total 0.9 million and 2.1 million, respectively – a total of 3.0 million deaths, 1,000 (one thousand) times the number of people murdered on 9/11.”

Real Shock & Awe: After 15 Years War, Sanctions over 1,000,000 Iraqis Dead

You are also obviously ignorant as to who is holding the reins of power in Iraq.
Comment by goodscarrier — December 8, 2006 @ 8:01 pm

That would be George Bush and Dick Cheney and I’m well aware that they have all the power that 14 US military bases and nearly 200,000 troops in Iraq can muster. You’re obviously ignorant to the genocide committed by Bush/Cheney and their cronies against the people of Iraq. How sad.

Goodscarrier you’ve obviously never served in the US military nor are you apparently capable of fathoming the firepower and destruction the US military is capable of when wielded by War Mongers and Oil Monopolists.

None of your so called terrorists in the middle east are capable of or responsible for the sheer death and destruction Bush/Cheney are directly responsible for. Anyone that believes otherwise is utterly naive.

Take out Hussain al-Shahristani?

HINT: There is no pro-American politican within the United Iraqi Alliance

Mister Death Squad Goes to Washington
by Ahmed Amr
Sunday December 3, 2006
[snip]

To get a measure of the man, you need to see past Hakim’s wardrobe. This guy is more than a religious missionary. He’s certainly no ordinary politician. You can’t even consider him a military man – although he was the leader of the Badr Brigades – the military wing of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq – SCIRI. Still, he’s so much more than that. The source of his political clout is his control over the Shiite death squads that have infiltrated the American-trained security forces.

And there’s more to recommend this man for the task of getting “the job done.” The death squads under Al Hakim’s command aren’t your run of the mill assassins. They usually leave their signature on their victims before grinding them up. Al Hakim’s dedicated cadres like to drill holes in other people’s skulls before dumping the mutilated cadavers on Baghdad’s streets as a warning to any real or potential adversaries.

Bush surrenders Iraq to Maliki’s death squads
by Ahmed Amr
Saturday November 4, 2006
[snip]
The Prime Minister is the defacto chairman of the death squads – a radical partisan leader who is out to insure Shia supremacy in the new Iraq. Maliki, Bayan Jabr and Moqtada Sadr are cut of the same ideological cloth. They are men who have spent a lifetime in the quest to convert Iraq into a Shia theocracy – by any means necessary.

The US bombed and invaded whom into submission?

What precedent do you have in mind specifically?

That is to say, in the history of the USA, when exactly did the US bomb, invade, and take the oil from a ME country.

Obviously, the US did not do to Iran what it just did to Iraq.

You are also obviously ignorant as to who is holding the reins of power in Iraq.

The US is fuct: One the one side there is the Sunni Saddamists. One the other side there is the pro-Hezbollah, pro-Iranian Shia fundamentalists.

With the empowering of the Al Dawa (Al-Maliki) and the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution of Iraq (sic!!), Iraq is basically a vassal state of Iran.

Iraq: Bush’s Islamic Republic
By Peter W. Galbraith
NYRB, Volume 52, Number 13 · August 11, 2005

Real power in Shiite Iraq rests, however, with two religious parties: Abdel Aziz al-Hakim’s Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Dawa (”Call,” in English) of Iraq’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. Of the two, SCIRI is the more pro-Iranian. Both parties have military wings, and SCIRI’s Badr Corps has grown significantly from the five thousand fighters that harassed Saddam’s regime from Iran in the decades before the war; it now works closely with Iraq’s Shiite interior minister, until recently the corps’ commander, to provide security and fight Sunni Arab insurgents.

SCIRI and Dawa want Iraq to be an Islamic state. They propose to make Islam the principal source of law, which most immediately would affect the status of women. For Muslim women, religious law—rather than Iraq’s relatively progressive civil code—would govern personal status, including matters relating to marriage, divorce, property, and child custody. A Dawa draft for the Iraqi constitution would limit religious freedom for non-Muslims, and apparently deny such freedom altogether to peoples not “of the book,” such as the Yezidis (a significant minority in Kurdistan), Zoroastrians, and Bahais.

This program is not just theoretical. Since Saddam’s fall, Shiite religious parties have had de facto control over Iraq’s southern cities. There Iranian-style religious police enforce a conservative Islamic code, including dress codes and bans on alcohol and other non-Islamic behavior. In most cases, the religious authorities govern—and legislate—without authority from Baghdad, and certainly without any reference to the freedoms incorporated in Iraq’s American-written interim constitution—the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL).

Dawa and SCIRI are not just promoting an Iranian-style political system —they are also directly promoting Iranian interests.

Goodscarrier, I appreciate your position but as history has clearly shown, anyone that opposes the Bush/Cheney/Saudi Oil Cartel will be bombed and invaded into submission. This has been happening since the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was installed by the US and British Oil interests back in the 50’s.

Oil nationalization and 1953 coup

“In the early 1950s, there was a political crisis centered in Iran that commanded the focused attention of British and American intelligence outfits. In 1951, the Iranian parliament, under the leadership of the nationalist movement of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, voted unanimously to nationalize the oil industry. This shut out the immensely profitable Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was a pillar of Britain’s economy and political clout. A month after that vote, Mossadegh was named Prime Minister of Iran.”

“In response to nationalization, Britain placed a massive embargo on Iranian oil exports, which only worsened the already fragile economy. Neither the AIOC nor Mossadegh was open to compromise in this period, with Britain insisting on a restoration of the AIOC and Mossadegh only willing to negotiate on the terms of its compensation for lost assets.”

“Under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt Jr.’s (a senior CIA officer and grandson of the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt), the CIA and British intelligence funded and led a coup d’etat to overthrow the democratically elected prime minister with the help of military forces loyal to the Shah through Operation Ajax.”

“The deposed Mossadegh was arrested, given a show trial, and placed in solitary confinement for three years in a military prison, followed by house arrest for life. Zahedi was installed to succeed Prime Minister Mossadegh.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi

Does this sound familiar? I appreciate your point about Hussain al-Shahristani not being a “stooge” but if he doesn’t play ball with Bush/Cheney and agree to their oil contract privatization and constitutional amendment, they’ll take him out. There are only two reasons the Bush/Cheney are in Iraq, Oil and big Defense Contracts of which Bush/Cheney’s companies have exclusive rights to. 2 Billion dollars a week it being spent on Iraq and this amount will no doubt increase until Bush/Cheney are out of office. I know your concerns are with the factions involved in Iraq but the US, Republicans in particular, historically support the most tyranical leaders abroad as long as they support US, British, and Saudi oil interests. Keep in mind that Britain is struggling to maintain supremacy in the European union and Saudi Arabia pretty monopolizes the market on oil as long as Iraqi oil sits in the ground or they have partnership rights when this deal goes through.

My gut feeling on all this pro american/anti american sentiment among the factions resulting in conflict in Iraq is merely a smoke screen to conceal the war for oil. I also believe that Bush/Cheney wanted a conflict between Hezbollah and Israel to continue to ensue in order to continue the destabaliziation of the region. China and Russia’s plans to build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan into Iraq were completely disrupted because of the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. I believe Bush/Cheney’s people were disappointed that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel ended so quickly and why they sat back and basically did nothing to help mediate peace in the region. Hezbollah and the people of Israel and all these factions fighting amongst themselves are getting played by Bush/Cheney…its really tragic.

The civil war in Iraq is merely a means to keep out oil competitors?

Well, obviously China is moving fwd despite that (see below). Do you know of any contracts signed by US companies?

Ahmed Chalabi is long gone. Since he is gone and there is no longer a stooge, American companies are not having exclusive rights to the oil. Thus the concern expressed in the ISG report.

Hussain al-Shahristani is not a stooge of the USA. He’s a member of the United Iraqi Alliance which is dominated by the two major Shia parties, Prime Minister Al-Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party, and al-Hakim’s Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). These groups have been trying to make Iraq a Shiite fundamentalist republic for the last twenty years: They are not pro-American. They are pro-Hezbollah, pro-Iranian, etc.

Here:

Iraq, China to revive 1997 oil deal
Associated Press
BEIJING – China and Iraq are reviving a $1.2 billion deal signed by Beijing and Saddam Hussein’s government in 1997 to develop an Iraqi oil field, Baghdad’s oil minister said Saturday.

Officials will meet next month to renegotiate the agreement over the al-Ahdab field, said Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. He was wrapping up a three-nation tour to secure investment for Iraq’s oil industry.

Goodscarrier, I agree with DemPopulist. The civil war in Iraq is merely a means to keep out oil competitors while the US backs the side that agrees to amend the Iraqi constitution for the privatization of Iraqi oil. Bush/Cheney and their friends in the oil industry don’t care which faction they have to deal with in Iraq, as long as that faction can guarantee an oil amendment to the Iraqi constitution and unrestricted access to Iraqi oil for Bush/Cheney. I think the issue regarding the “shea theocracy” is merely a smoke screen clouding the real issues surrounding an oil driven agenda.

On the point of “the oil in Iraq is far from the greedy hands of the white trash oil executives in the USA”, I would say this is the reason the US continues to occupy Iraq and will continue to occupy Iraq until its guaranteed that the “white trash oil executives” have unrestricted access to Iraqi oil. The Iraq study group published a report saying as much. Here are some exerpts from today’s article in the LA times. I recommend you read the entire article.

It’s still about oil in Iraq

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.”

“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 a crucial issue, with trillions of dollars at stake, because only 17 of Iraq’s 80 known oil fields have been developed. Recommendation No. 26 of the Iraq Study Group calls for a review of the constitution to be “pursued on an urgent basis.” Recommendation No. 28 calls for putting control of Iraq’s oil revenues in the hands of the central government. Recommendation No. 63 also calls on the U.S. government to “provide technical assistance to the Iraqi government to prepare a draft oil law.”

This last step is already underway. The Bush administration hired the consultancy firm BearingPoint more than a year ago to advise the Iraqi Oil Ministry on drafting and passing a new national oil law.”

It doesn’t sound like the oil in Iraq is so far from the “greedy hands of the white trash oil executives in the USA” afterall…

Which religion prevails?

HINT: My post concerns the oceans of blood and treasure being spilled for a Shia theocracy. How many thousands of people need to be maimed or killed for the sake of a fundamentalst Islamic govt which the US will have to fight again later on ? How many hundreds of billions of dollars need to be wasted for the sake of a fundamentalst Islamic govt which the US will have to fight again later on ?

#134, DemPopulist vs RepublicanMonopolists: The side that will prevail will be the side that supports an exclusive oil deal with Bush/Cheney.

An exclusive oil deal with Bush/Cheney?

Huh?

Ever heard of Lukoil, China National Petroleum Corporation, and TotalFinaElf ?

As shown by the ISG report, the oil in Iraq is far from the greedy hands of the white trash oil executives in the USA.

Funny you should mention this. I seem to remember some Americans being held for 444 days in Iran and not one “Human Rights Group” did a thing about it. These people were guilty of nothing more than being American. I still have yet to hear ANYONE in the HR world condemn Iran for that or for calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth, or Ahmadinejad saying the Holocaust did not happen, or Irans support of Hezbollah, etc.