T. Boone Pickens: U.S. ‘entitled’ to Iraqi oil.
T. Boone Pickens: U.S. ‘entitled’ to Iraqi oil.
Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens has in recent years been involved in efforts to develop alternative energy. He has even developed his own energy independence plan, dubbed “The Pickens Plan,” which on its website proudly pledges to reduce “our dependence on foreign oil” and enhance our national security. Yet in remarks to Congress yesterday, Pickens revealed that he is just as interested as ever in tying our national security to oil interests in the Middle East, suggesting that American oil companies are “entitled” to Iraq’s oil because we spent blood and treasure invading the Arab country:
T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are “entitled” to some of Iraq’s crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.
Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq’s vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.
“They’re opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world … We’re entitled to it,” Pickens said of Iraq’s oil. “Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars.”
Unfortunately for Pickens and others who feel that the U.S. can freely exploit Iraq’s oil because we invaded it, the U.S. is a signatory to the Hague Conventions, which specifically bar the confiscation of private property by occupying powers. And while Pickens is right that the invasion cost us tremendously in both blood and treasure, it is Iraqis who have suffered the most. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed in the war, millions fled the country, and the nation’s infrastructure remains in tatters.
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Ignore the brown skinned people who’ve lived there for millenia… it’s the American Way!
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:33 amUh, let’s not forget the part about “false pretenses” leading to our invasion, mmkay Tee-Boo-Dickhead????
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:34 amThis is akin to a slaveowner demanding reparations because so many died fighting in the Civil War.
The Iraqi people need the oil more than we do, Boone. We may have had over 70,000 casualties; they had several million. We aren’t entitled to shit. If our oil companies can work out a fair and equitable deal with the Iraqi government to buy oil, alright then.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:34 amThese rich people and their entitlements.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:34 amwind farms? Where are they?
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 amThis is a phenomenally sick point of view.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:38 amAnd the suspicions we had for years about the real reason for invading Iraq have finally come to fruition.
Thanks for clarifying, T Bone (sic).
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:39 amOh, Really T. Boone? No wonder we are hated in the Middle East. WTF? How arrogant. We went in there, blew the place up. Now this guy thinks we should make off with THEIR oil? We took a functioning society (And it WAS, regardless of what the Wingers say) and turned it back on it’s head. Iraqi woman were some of the most educated in that region and now that is shot. God, these people suck.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:40 amShorter T. Boone: What’s OUR OIL doing under their sand????
What an unmitigated asshat.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 amApparently we didn’t loot enough, along with the rape, pillage, torture and death, for Mr. Picken’s taste.
I liked T. Boone better when he was sticking to alternative energy projects.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 am“…the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus”
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 amOMG
Too funny.
Install a methane compressor in the Capitol Dome.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:48 amHeat every home in America this winter.
and we wonder why the world hated us? we invade a country start a war and then claim because our soldiers were killed invading their country they owe us something?I’m shocked the world didn’t embargo us
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:49 amI see that T. Boone Pickens is embracing the philosophy of General Tojo. Let’s just go the whole nine yards and declare all of the Middle East to be an American “Co-Prosperity Zone”.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 amThe world owes us because we’re better than them and dog gone it, we’re Americans so they should worship the ground we walk on.
Oh, please…and conservatives wonder why we are hated so much.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 amNot really OT but a great read
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10222009.html
$400 per gallon gas? WTF
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:53 amWhat good is “American exceptionalism” if we’re not going to take other countries’ stuff?
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:54 amFrom the policies of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Jeb Bush – all members of the group
New American Century (newamericancentury.org)
‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century
September 2000
in this report (published a year before 9/11) it suggests to rebuild America it would be beneficial to fight and decisively win multiple simultaneous major theatre wars -
‘Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new pearl harbor.‘
17 of the 19 members of New American Century were part of the Bush administration.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
Don’t let 9/11 happen again.. first step – don’t let our country fall into Republican hands.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:54 amIt’s time for vocabulary word of the day!
ar?ro?gant? [ar-uh-guhnt]
–adjective 1. making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud: an arrogant public official.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:55 amOh, gee whiz! He’s let the cat out of the bag in spite of all the rhetoric from Georgie & company about how we weren’t there for the oil at all. I’ll bet Dickie is foaming at the mouth right now.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 amtrolls to say that this war had nothing to do with the Hague Conventions in 3.. 2.. 1..
T. Boone Pickens = Flying Assclown.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 amYes, and unfortunately it was official US foriegn policy for the past 8 years.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:59 amSo the Chimp and the oil titans were all gung-ho about democratizing the ME. Democracy’s a cruel mistress ain’t she T. Boone?
May I ask a follow up T Boone, how many of YOUR family members fought in Iraq?
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 pmAn Evangelical “Wingnut’s” Night-time Prayer
Now I lay me down to sleep
Pray to God my soul to keep
I voted for Bush the Texacutioner
Who put more people to death than an executioner
The highest execution rate of any governor in history
How he was elected president is still a mystery
The biggest serial killer since Timothy McVeigh,
mocks Karla’s pleas for clemency during her final days
I hold stoutly to my world view
Despite being contradicted by what is proven true
I believe the earth to be only 4000 years old
“Intelligent” design is the view I hold
Even though evolution explains how life changed and adapted
verified by countless experiments not retracted
the scientific facts should be stricken as inadmissible
teaching creationism to our children is permissible
Take some parts literally, others out of place
And I can use the Bible to judge the whole human race
Pat Robertson said 9/11 was a punishment from God
That innocents died instead of him he didn’t find odd
For lifestyles of feminism, liberalism, and being gay
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said over 3,000 people died that day
That God will punish them for their remark
Pride has hidden from a judgmental heart
“After the last tree standing is felled”
“Christ will come back” I heard James Watt tell
you see evangelicals don’t care about generations
because they won’t have to be here to face elimination
“compassionate” conservatives fantasize about journeying through the air
As Left Behind: The Series plays out below everywhere
While pollution they caused brings about ecological collapse
It doesn’t bother them that people will die perhaps
by Cherokee American
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 pmWhat a laugh…
this clown thinks we are “entitled” to the oil.
BUT, if normal non-filthy-rich American citizens were to use the word “entitled” (oh say, seniors, those who are homeless, those who really need help, etc.) he and his ilk would SCREEEECH!
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 pmHey! That oil was stolen fair and square!
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:02 pmEveryone seems to forget that T. Boone Pickens and his buddies destroyed 12 million US jobes in the 1980s.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:03 pmI guess it’s a good thing for all Christian Republicans (and especially those on K Street) that GREED is no longer one of the 7 Deadly Sins.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 pmLet’s see — I wonder what his reaction would be if the United States was invaded by a foreign power? And let’s say this invasion happened without our invitation. The invaders deposed our leadership (even if it was leadership we weren’t thrilled with in the first place), installed their own puppets, facilitated a nasty civil war and invited terrorists from around the world to come and use our country as a battleground, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Americans getting killed, millions of Americans getting displaced, and infrastructure all over our country getting trashed.
And then imagine his reaction if the invaders felt they were “entitled” to our natural resources to compensate for the money they spent on this endeavor, as well as a few thousand of their lives lost.
I imagine he’d be as angry as any other American would be.
T. Boone Pickens = Major League Asshat
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:06 pmwe’ve got trolls!… invisible ones .. speak up troll cowards
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:06 pmSo, if my buddies and myself break into your house for nor reason, shooting wildly, injuring some of your family members, and you and your relatives fire back, injuring, killing some of my buddies -I am entitled to your wife, daughters, cars, and everything else I can get my hands on, due to the loss of “life and treasure”?
Must be nice to be a thug with no conscience….
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:06 pmJust another chapter of the “Blood for Oil” saga.
However, this time Pickens comes out and outright says what the conservatives have been thinking all along.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pmjust heard an AR radio news report of the decline in poll numbers of those who believe climate change is a problem…
something like that… mostly it was the tone used… kinda like, ’see, we told you so’…
and, in other news:
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pmChina and India agree to cooperate on climate change policy
guardian.co.uk – ?27 minutes ago?
Minister Jairam Ramesh, Indian minister of state for environment and forests and Su Wei, director-general of the climate change department of national development and reform.
Video: Lack of clarity on climate change UTVi
UK warns of lack of urgency over Copenhagen talks Reuters
The Associated Press – AllAfrica.com – Xinhua – Bloomberg
all 1,646 news articles »
What a remarkably medieval attitude. No wonder Rummy and the idiots at the Pentagon incurred the wrath of Islam by originally dubbing their adventurism “Operation Just Crusade”. Taking things that don’t belong to under by right of conquest doesn’t exactly work under international law T. Boner.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 pmShades of “territorial imperative!”
Doesn’t T Boone have some native American ancestors? I find it ironic that he’d be talking about taking the resources of another people, in that light.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 pmO/T, but, another terrorist/conservative/faux viewer accused of Obama threat due in court
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 pmThis is Dick Cheney’s underpants gnome plan for Iraq:
Invade
?
Control their oil
I’m not making a joke. This really seems to have been the plan.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:09 pmThis is our problem as Americans. Arrogance. There’s none of this,”Let’s come together to solve problems.” with THESE guys. It’s basically, “You got what we want, and we are going to take it.” It’s good ole Cowboy Diplomacy.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 pmIt’s a complicated world we live in.
And, this is how it was always going to work. Those who opposed the war in the first place knew the US wanted to be first in line but would never be. It’s likely one of the reason we went to war in the first place. Remember, Iraq was embargoed before the war for [insert after the fact reason here], so no one was getting all that much oil from it.
and . . . another way to look at it is that the US, using money borrowed by the Chinese, used its military power to help out its creditor (China) so as to enable the US to keep borrowing heavily from the Chinese.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:11 pmstealing… it’s easier than working.
The irony to me has always been that they feel the poor want stuff without working for it… and the rich… want stuff without working for it.. they just take it.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pmWho the Hell keeps clicking us down! I haven’t seen a troll post in awhile. Come on out.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
lux, it’s the child alexandro.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:13 pmstorm cheers on stealing, toruture, financial policies that bankrupt a country, racism, etc.
In other words the failing aspects of our society.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pmAt least the reich-wingers are no longer afraid to admit that they will murder Americans and brown people for oil and money.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pmSpoken like a true robber baron. Pickens is really diminishing the American and Iraqi lives lost by saying the US should have a claim to the oil on the basis of Americans who died in the conflict. It would be like admitting we waged the Iraq War for oil (I suppose that was the true Bush-Cheney rationale) to the international community. I suggest Pickens confine his comments to alternative energy sources, which the US desperately needs. We don’t need more fossil fuels that lie under Middle Eastern sands!
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:16 pmUh, T. Boone, that optional, unprovoked war of aggression was based on lies about WMD. The Iraqis didn’t invite the US military to invade. The Iraqi’s don’t owe the US sh!t! We owe them an apology – a huge one.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:17 pmTexas adds 436 megawatts of wind-power capacity
And no, Mr. Pickens had absolutely NOTHING to do with this.
When he got wind (yes, pun intended) of the minimal profits forecast in the near future, he reverted back to “fossil fuel man“.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:17 pmOK, well, screw the Pickens Plan.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:20 pmOur oil companies just can’t compete in a fair bidding process on these oil contracts. The only reason why any nation in the world goes with an American or British oil company is because one of our governments leans on their government and requires it. Unfortunately for T. Boone the Bush administration didn’t want to portray the Iraq war as an invasion so their cronies in the oil industry don’t get the spoils of war.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:21 pm“We’re entitled to it,” Pickens said of Iraq’s oil.
SEE!! This is what I was talking about! We all have our own entitlement programs.. this is the Republican version..
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:22 pmWords can’t express how much hatred I have for Pickens. He relentlessly blasted us last year with his stupid “green” commercials, and now he shows his corporate sense of entitlement for something that isn’t his to take.
From what I’ve read, this chicken-sh*t tycoon never served in the military. And he has the gall to mention dead troops, waving his phony stars and stripes in our faces.
Only rich republic tycoon ass-hats like Pickens think they are gods. Why is it that mere death is the only way to silence these dirty money-grubbing bastards?
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:22 pmT. Boone Pickens: U.S. ‘entitled’ to Iraqi oil.
Speaks volumes for the true oil glutton’s agenda, actions and evil doing under the mask of freedom.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm“Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq’s vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.”
Gee. Iraq wants to award contracts to companies from countries that didn’t bomb and kill tens of thousands of Iraqis. Who would’ve thought?
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:25 pmDuring the 2008 Presidential campaign, T. Boone Pickens was campaigning for more drilling for natural gas in the US. Not a good idea unless you care that your drinking water will no longer be safe to drink.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:27 pmHey T. Boone, our losses in Iraq are bush/cheney’s red badge of courage. They make their bucks and you missed out. Too late now.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:29 pmWhat would this illegal and immoral investment have bought us in terms of energy independence, had we elected to wean ourselves from ME oil? Setting a bad precedent for other countries to justify the taking of other country’s resources.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:33 pmSo now T. Boone Pickens admits that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld invaded Iraq for the oil. Why else would he object to other countries having access to Iraq oil? He just stated that 5000 Americans gave their lives for US control of Iraqi oil.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:34 pmCats r Flyfishn..
I wish it was simply that Bush and Cheney wanted their oil. I think that was just a side project… they also just like killin.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:38 pmIf T. Boone was a Republican politician the right would be calling for him to get kicked out of the party for telling too much truth, that the Iraq war was about oil. It wasn’t about fighting terrorism, finding weapons, or spreading democracy.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:39 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
wait a minute.
i thought tbone was going to save us with his gas,
so we wouldn’t need that dirty, foreign oil.
what happened to that game-changer?
what about all those folksy commercials with tbone whittlin in the shade of the windmills?
y – bag that – easier to be a looter, esp. if you’re not black, and don’t live in nola – right boonie?
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:40 pmdookie my friend,
all the grownups have known all along that dick-n-dubbie went to iraq for the oil.
also, there’s no easter bunny -
i’m sorry.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:42 pm.
Pickens…
… ANOTHER Opportunist Party Member.
.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:43 pmlux says:
“We’re entitled to it,” Pickens said of Iraq’s oil.
SEE!! This is what I was talking about! We all have our own entitlement programs.. this is the Republican version..
all hail CORPORATE WELFARE…
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:46 pmMr.Duke, they never admitted to regiem change either did they?
Just because it wasn’t said in the open doesn’t mean it wasn’t a key motivation.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:51 pmShorter Boone: Oil before life.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:02 pmT. Boone Pickens — The Romans, Ghenghis Kahn, and all other ruthless invaders felt the same way!
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:08 pmAnother fascist destined for hell.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:11 pmSo it was all about blood for oil.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:12 pmHow many oil executives, exactly, served in Iraq?
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:12 pmWhen T-Bone says “we” lost so many lives, he’s pretty explicitly saying the U.S. Military works on behalf of oil companies. Sort of refreshing to hear him just lay it out. I have no doubt at all he believes it.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:26 pmLet’s get this a**hole on the Rachel Maddow show. That would be fun.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:40 pmDear T. Booboo,
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:49 pmWhy don’t you scamper right over to the Iraqi Parliament and plead the value of your entitlement versus the Chinese sovereign wealth fund (which, by the by, is denominated in dollars, it’s just that they have more of them than we do). Maybe by the time they quit laughing, they’ll have forgotten why they hate us and we’ll be able to use that embassy complex for something other than Fort Apache.
I am sure that what Pickens said was in the back of the minds of those government officials responsible for invading Iraq with WMD’s as the lame excuse.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:59 pmWell, the american people did sign onto the invasion under the promise that the Iraqi oil would pay for the invasion and also pay for the rebuilding of Iraq.
How are those going, by the way ?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:01 pmThis is the results of an illegal invasion. No mention of the March invasion as millions of Iraqis were bombed in their sleep or the millions who were forced to leave their country because the US didn’t know who was the enemy or friend. Nothing was said about the contractors who did nothing but got billions. Nothing is said about the soldiers who lost it and murdered innocent woman/children. Nothing is said about the men/woman/children who were tortured and raped in Iraq Jails by the United States of America. Iraq has a right to do what ever they want and it will take a long time before the US can be trusted again.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:12 pmAh, American Imperialism and it’s only one hundred and eleven years old. Since 1898, the US government has been intervening in third would countries, stealing natural resources, destroying progressive political movements, overthrowing democracies,and fixing and stealing “democratic” elections. Why stop now? Creeps like Mr. Pickens make it too bloody obvious, though. Better the subtle use of imperial war power by President Obama, slowly escalating his war on the Afghan people and drone-murdering Pakistanis as a side dish…
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:17 pmFunny how the most fervent followers of “free market” orthodoxy are the first to cry foul when they can’t close the deal. And exactly how is Iraq indebted to the United States for its illegal invasion and occupation of their country? Would it be the number of innocent civilians killed, maimed, imprisoned, tortured, or rendered homeless and/or jobless.
T. Boone, thanx for showing your true colors and making fools of those who were willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:17 pmWhile we were building permanent bases and trying to control their government, China was building schools and hospitals for them. Gee, I wonder which country the Iraqis will look more favorably on?
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:20 pmI think this needs repeating:
Also, remember this gem from Rummy when asked how long the Iraq war would take:
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Two things I want to add…
1. They should not get preferential treatment as long as the Bush tax cuts are enforce allowing them to not pay taxes on any revenue made and spent off shore. This would encourage them to sell that cheap oil to other nations instead of passing the savings on to the American people.
2. America should be repaid our tax dollars by getting a percentage off the top of whoever gets this oil. We deserve to get paid before one person, to include Iraq gets one cent profit.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:53 pm81. Teleman,
And don’t forget all the flowers they’re throwing at us !
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:40 pmI thought the repubs were 100% against “entitlements”
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:26 pmThe oil companies are NOT American companies any longer. They are multi-national, off-shore addressing, no tax paying scumbag corporations who neither deserve nor should expect American help in ANYTHING. AND to think that American GIs died, and now we see the true nature of what they were fighting for, it disgusts to the point of revulsion.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:39 pmThe map dividing up Iraq’s oil fields used at Cheney’s March 2001 Energy Task Force meetings. Obtained by Judicial Watch through Freedom of Information Act:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/iraqi-oil-maps.shtml
Article by R.W. Behan:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1203-21.htm
Afghanistan is important for the oil pipline and also as part of the Pentagon’s “Lily Pad Strategy” to control the oil and gas center of the world.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 pmSo Hitler was entitled to the world’s resources simply because he decided to invade it. You owe the Nazi’s an apology you ass.
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:42 am