Did we seize Iraq's oil for US as a whole or just for oil companies?

That we cancelled Iraq's contracts with Russia and France to pump their oil and restructured their oil laws to our oil companies liking and gave them the contracts is a matter of public record.

Executive order:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030522-15.html

Iraq oil machinations:
http://www.gregpalast.com/iraqmeetingstimeline.html

http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

The oil in Iraq was so important that Bush signed an executive order barring lawsuits against any company involved in pumping it, and he placed Ahmed Chalabi in the oil ministry.

Iraq went from a nationalized system, which meant most of the oil money stayed in Iraq, to a profit sharing system, which allows the oil companies to cook the books and pay the Iraqis whatever they feel like.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2005/crudedesigns.htm

Do you think this was meant to protect the economy of the country as a whole by ensuring a supply of oil, or was it just for the benefit of the oil companies?

seems like the loss of life, destruction of people and homes, hatred created against the US was all done for the fun & profit of a few corporations.

Did you get any oil outta the deal? Nah, me neither. And Grandma Millie is freezing her bum off while grieving over her lost grandson.

It wasn't about bringing oil to the U.S. any more than ANWR drilling will bring oil to the U.S. It was about exerting control over access to the Iraqi Oil, as well as the Caspian Sea Basin. If we control the spigot, the theory goes, we control the well-being of those who want access to it. THe word "hegemony" comes to mind somehow.

nations will not hold still for expanding US power. Empire building pretty much went the way of Hitler. IMO the resistance of Germany and France to Bush's war is in the equation of power. The worst part is if the people believed that this war's end result was plenty of cheap oil for the US the war would be pretty damn popular. The US can't even get as much oil produced as Saddam did while under UN sanctions because the Iraqi's are on to us.

While the Democrats snooze away.

Amen. Praise Be thy ALMIGHTY DOLLAR.

is green instead of white. And it's crispy, and foldable

Cast away the human spirit and let the evil enter in;
ordain me a republican.

But as a Democrat, you're already excommunicated and not eligible for Holy Foldin Communion.

:crazy:

as a whole. at least in the minds of the bush administration & wall street. we get our oil through multinational corporations. the spice must flow. the only way that a pea brain like * could conceive of a structure for controlling iraq's oil resources was to utilize the oil corporations.

this entire war is to ensure the "american way of life", which is non-negotiable. they don't see any way out of the hole we're digging except to keep shoveling.

it's who SELLS it that's important to them

what are the costs to the american oligarchy if the supply of oil that keeps our country's economy (& the economies of all the countries we buy our plastic crap from) going, and our plebes fat & happy, stops, or is severely curtailed?

they are planning to
a. avoid that possibility
b. make sure that if it comes (and it will), that they are positioned to direct the reactionary forces of nationalism, and control the anger towards a conveinient scapegoat.

can you guess who the scapegoat will be? that's right, its YOU, crybaby liberal ecoterrorist traitor.

Some days, I feel real dumb.

"Dune" was all an allegory about modern dependence upon middle-eastern oil? Why did I never see that before? It's all there -- the Empire; the foreign control, directed by the Empire; the local rebellion disrupting the spice production; even the desert setting.

OK. Back to the thread.

guess who won? the arabs.

he who can destroy a thing, controls a thing.

wealthiest 1/10th of 1% individuals to a near perfect extent.

And the interests of the oil corporations overlap the defense contracting corporations 100%

And since the continued obscene lifestyle expansion by the rest of the top 1% of U.S. income earners and investors--and indeed beyond the top 1% and well down into the top 20%--is all tied up in the Wall Street shell game of Military-Industrial Complex corporations (energy companies included as they must be since they are so sensitive to the fortunes of foreign oil), Bush style petro-invasion and imperial domination of the Persian Gulf region is in the economic interests of the entire top tier of American earners and investors. (Didn't you see where they wrote that into the Republican Party platform?) The one area which could even pretend to be supporting a "broad" prosperity (a period during which the top 10% are feeling prosperous) is the real estate and housing sector. Now our real estate and building economy is characterized by seemingly never ending expansion of suburbs away from cities, which is another way of saying, our housing culture is a function of our automobile culture, which in turn is predicated on access to ever increasing amounts of petroleum products.

What else besides the top 1% of wealthy individuals and the largest corporations, to an old guard Republican Conservative or new style Republican Fascist, is there to reckon with? As they see it, in the part of their separate visions that overlap there is no such thing as equality. The strongest companies and the strongest individual players in a country ARE that country. They are what makes that country strong or weak. It's thanks to the strong that the country is able to stand upright, if it does, in a world environment of unremitting hostility and competition. The country BELONGS to them in fact and by right, and the rest of us are just along for whatever ride they are going to take us on. Their policy, especially foreign policy, always prefers what's best for the strong, no matter what lip service a Conservative may give to the ideal of equality, or no matter how grossly a Fascist will pander to the vulgar hatreds and phobias of the masses. What matters to them is compensating for and exacerbating their own paranoia and their resulting worship of an abstract idealization of the "strength of the country".

It should go without saying that what's in the interests for the rest of the country, the vast majority, or the longterm interests of anyone who'll be stuck in America after our oil economy implodes, really don't figure in any of these impulses or decisions.

the oligarchy is the country. the rabble are not.

Oil companies would whither away and die like whale oil companies.

Biodiesel in particular would probably end up being cheaper, especially when you take into account the military cost of stealing and protecting oil.

to power the american vehicle fleet at its current size & consumption rate. not to mention home heating oil, etc. but i'm no expert; i just can't believe we'd put that much land into fuel production.

there is no reason that the energy companies could not diversify into renewables, were they to become economically viable. many are doing that, or laying the groundwork for it. BP changed their logo to a pretty green flower awhile back.

When you squish the oil out of stuff, you can still use the solids for food.

We could also get big agro to do their gmo mojo to increase the oil output.

of hemp to replace 20 million barrels of daily gasoline consumption. With careful planning this could be done IMHO.

Stopping population growth, mandatory conservation measures and changes to what we eat could allow the U.S. to survive but that would require enlightened and progressive government. We are fucked.

Biodiesel, that would give us some more time to develop alternatives.

The US economy and the American people as individuals were hurt by the war - the increased oil prices were a drag to the economy that it could not overcome.

But the oil companies and oil executives have made record profits over the past three years. Now, according to "trickle-down" theory (sometimes referred to as "being pissed on from above") we should all benefit from the oil company profits. I haven't seen it yet.

the idea is to still have a steady supply in 2020 or so.

the only shred of credit i give the mayberry machiavellis is knowledge of the global energy market. if we lose our access to mideast oil, we're fucked. if we're fucked, the entire globe is fucked. global depression. they know this, and they likely know that Peak Oil isn't a crazy tinfoil conspiracy theory. they have LOTS more data than we do, and the energy corporations on speed dial. if they know something they're not telling us, like the Sauds are lying about what's left, Iraq makes perfect sense.

i believe this is why Iraq was considered neccessary. it likely has the largest remaining PROVEN reserve of oil. energy will get more expensive regardless. it just needs to be available, or we're headed for a revolution, with the blood of the corporate oligarchy running in the streets. and the blood of environmentalist scapegoats.

scenario that makes sense, particularly compared to WMDs, Saddam/Bin Laden connection, imposing democracy, or whatever.

The LOL was the idea that 2020 is NOT short term. Fourteen years is an eyeblink.

I saw a picture the other night of last year's tsunami. A man on the beach watching the wave, then turn and start to run -- he made it about four steps before it engulfed him.

The oil companies are watching the wave, and invading Iraq is them starting to turn and run. By 2020, they'll be treading water, no matter what they do now -- invade Iraq, bomb Iran, overthrow the Saudis, drill in ANWR. There were people telling them thirty years ago that the tide was going out and that a wave was coming. But they have no concept of "long term". Corporate memory is only as long as the past year's budget reports, and it's prescience can only see as far ahead as the next four quarters. They are reduced to this despicable option precisely because they cannot think of the long term.

As the Saudis when the oil dries up.

I know it's a fine point, but in a democracy, theoretically, there should be public debate of the reasons for pursuing a policy.

Jack Murtha has come the closest to being honest about war's effects on iraqis and our military.

I'm still waiting for a Murtha on causes.

Honesty doesn't win elections. You have to sell America OPTIMISM.

Because they don't like hearing the truth: Murka, you are a selfish, lazy, obese people who know nothing about other cultures yet insist yours is the best. Colby is not better than Gorgonzola, and Miller is not better than Pilsner Urquell, you lumpen oafs. Now vote for John Kerry.

Bush, the Saudi's and select oil companies.

:rofl: We seized the oil for bushCo and his Corporate Oil bidness partners.