Greg Palast: we invaded Iraq to keep Iraq's oil off the market.

I went to see Greg Palast Saturday and bought his book. So far it's been really depressing. Seems that from 1927 the US, Great Britain, and Saudi Arabia have worked to keep Iraq oil off the market. They don't want a big glut of the stuff. Need to keep those profits up. Saddam was playing with everyone by playing with oil prices with what little he was able to drill. People weren't pleased. So we invaded to make sure Iraq at least didn't go beyond the OPEC amount they're allowed. As to why we tried the coup in Venezuela - last time the Arabs and an embargo against us, Venezuela came to the rescue. There was talk there was going to be another embargo and * knew Venezuela wouldn't come to the rescue.

Taken in that light that they want the prices up and all these wars for the last 60 years have been for that aim - just imagine what the world would have been like had our country and GB worked for peace and prosperity for all - not just the oil companies and Saudi Arabia.

Greg's book is really great. He said none of it was copyrighted. He just wants the word to get out as to what's going on.

sense, and has so far been successful. The price of oil is way up, just like they wanted.
Highly recommend to all.

petrodollars. Cheney would have none of that.

The regime, driven by Cheney could not allow Saddam to harm their record profits in oil.

How do votes spoil? Do you forget to put them in the fridge?

top. I wonder if there's anyway out of this mess.

last week and bought it there at a Greg Palast speaking engagement. It was an interesting experience listening to him and how he uncovered most of the info that he has included in his book. One thing that strikes me as I read through his book is that * has really been successful in carrying out his mission. When * says "Mission Accomplished" he means it. We haven't been giving * enough credit. We think he is stupid and a screw-up - but bottom line *Co has basically delivered what they set out to do.

As I proceed through this book - I am continually getting more inflamed about what is happening to this country and us. We are really being taken as suckers and - outside of Greg Palast - no one else (any of our Dems) have exposed this administration for what it is and what it is doing to us.

Our current gas pricing situation is all contrived. There is no oil crisis. No peak oil. Palast basically says we have enough oil to last for hundreds of years - if not more.

Essentially - what we're up against is a global oil industry that wants to keep prices up and drive profits up. There really is no incentive to talk alternative fuels - those talking about alternative fuels are basically paying 'lip service' to it. It is politically correct to talk 'alternative fuels' because it is what we want to hear - to get energy pricing back down to where it's affordable for us. BUT - immediately if not sooner - energy prices could be back down well below what we have been paying even 5 years ago - if the global oil giants wanted to do that. They don't - because profits would be down and the petrodollars wouldn't be pumped back into the U.S. economy to continue to (no pun intended) fuel our economy.

It is interesting to note - I'm at the part where Palast is talking about China - that what looks to be a bigger threat is China. We have farmed out our manufacturing to the Orient - and dollars are going out faster than they are coming in. I have to stop here because that's as far as I've gotten in this book. I only hope that as I get through the last half of it that Palast has some suggestions as to how we get out of this current situation and how or if it can be turned around.

If what Mr. Palast has outlined in his book is fact - then why haven't others jumped on these facts and exposed them more publically than in this book - that the RW press - discredits as 'hogwash'.

*Co is purposefully bankrupting this country and bringing it down. They are doing it in the open. We all can see what they are doing to us - but nothing is being done to stop it.

I can't understand how the media, the oil execs that live in this country and our elected officials - just continue to let this happen. We all will have to live in the aftermath of *Co. Is greed more important than our future existence?

Don't these same people realize that when this country is brought down that they will be included in the aftermath? That they and their families will have to deal with what they've brought on. That if people can't afford to live and purchase anything that even those companies that are fleecing us now will not be able to eek out an existence in the future - because no one will be able to afford anything they make. We're coming to a point of 'diminishing returns'.

It seems that things really could be so great for all of us if we would just put our heads together and make things right so that all could benefit. BUT - we are stuck with people that have gotten so greedy that all they care about is themselves.

What is it going to take to shake the American people up. Greg Palast and his book is great - but - for him to travel this country and promote his book to a few hundred people in fewer cities isn't going to get it into the main stream.

I'm as mad as hell and I can't take it anymore - but I'm in the minority of the so-called informed and feel helpless. Every chance I get I try and expose this administration for what it is - but most of my friends are so into themselves and their lives and the lives of their families - they aren't seeing the forest through the trees. To use forests as an analogy - unfortunately - the forests are all being cut down - slowly - and almost imperceptably. Soon, however, there will be less and less shelter - till there is none. Then it will be too late to turn things around. We need to protect these forests now and we need to plant new ones immediately.

What we need now are solutions. We need people - media, politicians, corporate CEO's, and just plain people to say - enough is enough. We need to stand together and put a stop to this. *Co can't keep on discrediting and swiftboating everybody. There is power in numbers. The question is - will we have the courage to do this?

We have a chance in November to begin to put a stop to this - but - given the momentum that this adminstration has built up and the control they have over basically everything that governs us - I fear that we are up against something that can't be stopped. I'll feel much better if we win something in this next election - but I fear - that if we don't - that there is no stopping this snowball from coming down and ultimately crushing us.

in the back of the book. He quotes * when he tells the Iraqi people to not fight the invasion because it's not worth fighting for a dying regime. I am wonder if he is expecting the country to crash and burn before these creeps are tossed out.

I had to stop and take a day off from reading it I was getting so pissed and depressed. It was a fascinating and infuriating book though and Iraq , Venezuela ect..made a lot more sense after reading the book.

It also seems there has been small war between the neo cons and big oil ..big oil won...and neo cons are retarded...or naive i don't know...now I wonder how do you fight this up hill battle...all this money and power behind this ....I wonder how ugly is this going to get? or will we just sit back and let it happen.

I would URGE everyone to read this book. Although it was highly infuriating, and I sat there, like you, getting more and more pissed off reading it, I also found myself thanking God or whomever for a reporter/writer/truthteller like Palast.

I came away with the same feeling as you did too. What in the world can anyone do about this?? I dont have the answer to that, but I do know that, at the very least, it has to start with knowing the truth.

Excellent book!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525949682/qid=1151508638/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-4407811-6792704?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

-chef-

unless he lifted the information straight off the internet. A substantial amount of that information is easily locatable using a variety of yahoo searches going back to prior to the invasion of Iraq. I first came across the references last year while searching the background to Iraq selling oil in Euros. Try this for example : http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html

There is a paradox and I'm not sure whether or not he mentions that fact in his book. The parodox has already been mentioned on a DU thread about 10 days ago. It is the oil companies who wanted Iraq's oil kept off the market - that keeps the price high by limiting supply. On the other hand Bushco need the opposite to keep your level of inflation down by keeping oil prices low. Be interesting to see who wins.

Inflation hits the middle class and the poor. It drives them further into poverty and servitude. That is their goal, and inflation is just one tool they use.

the boat on Peak Oil.

Apparently he thinks that Hubbert and the Peak Oil community claim that the "peak" means that production comes to a complete and abrupt halt once the peak has been reached - which would be just about now, which is the basis for Palast to claim that Hubbert got it all wrong.

I suggest Palast takes a long hard look at the logo of the Hubbert Center:

http://hubbert.mines.edu/
http://hubbert.mines.edu/news/Ivanhoe_02-4.pdf (one of the newsletters)

It is very simple: Peak Oil means that after a period of increasing production (the past 70 years or so), at some point production will start to decline. That point is the peak. The peak can be fairly flat and last for several years, up to a decade perhaps. It works a little different for natural gass, but that's not called peak "oil".


No Peaking: The Hubbert Humbug
by Greg Palast
Tue, 23 May 2006 07:23:33 -0700
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/2295/No_Peaking_The_Hubbert_Humbug

<snip>

"In his 1956 paper, Hubbert wrote:

On the basis of the present estimates of the ultimate reserves of world petroleum and natural gas, it appears that the culmination of world production of these products should occur within a half a century (i.e., by 2006).

So get in your Hummer and take your last drive, Clive. Sometime during 2006, we will have used up every last drop of crude oil on the planet. We’re not talking “decline” in oil from a production “peak,” we’re talking “culmination,” completely gone, kaput, dead out of crude—and not enough natural gas left to roast a weenie. In his 1956 treatise, Hubbert wrote that Planet Earth could produce not a drop more than one and a quarter trillion barrels of crude."

<more>


Even though i generally love his work, the best i can make of this is that it is a very stupid mistake on Palast's part. Palast has quite a reputation as an investigative journalist, but his investigation of Peak Oil is extremely sloppy, which damages that reputation.

http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/~GEL115/115CH13oil.html

I started a discussion of this essay on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1468638&mesg_id=1468638

but are essential reading.

K&R!

I suspect that they know there is a point soon when demand will outstrip supply. When that point hits, there will be no more pricing games, it will go inelastic. Why would they want to allow the market to pump at a rate that will oversupply and drive prices down? Better to keep Iraqi crude in the ground and let SA and the refiners reap the big profits now. The Republican Party, a wholly owned subsidiary of the House of Saud, have their marching orders. We'll be paying for Big Oil's bottom line with our children's blooed. They'll be no energy independence for us until we rid ourselves of the TRepublican Party.

I was reminded that Bush had a plan to invade Afghanistan BEFORE 9/11 because the Taliban was blocking the pipeline his cronies at UNOCAL wanted through there. In that light, 9/11 itself can be seen as a "pre-emptive" attack on an immanent aggressor.

The current American puppet there is an ex UNOCAL employee -- Karzai? Isn't that right?

/oops

South American company for the pipeline. That was amazingly canceled right after the invasion. It was also a big secret for many years afterward.

and how much of it

in the Afghan and Iraq Invasions and keep supporting the Occupations with funding. America is an Oligarchy. It has been since the founding of the Republic and still is. Now America is Fascists. The Govt. is controlled by the Multi-Corps. The power structure will not change by itself.

get together in November and say they want it to change

our current "government" is 99.9% a tool of corporations. corporations are an artifact of capitalism run amok. capitalism is a tool of the oligarchy.

jesus, I sound like Lenin.

but it's fucking true!