Breakfast of Champions
What Congress Really Voted For: Benchmark #1: Privatizing Iraqi Oil for US Oil Companies.
AfterDowningStreet: This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, the US Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed in Iraq. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave the control of only 17 of 80 known oil fields with the Iraq National Oil Company. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields and all yet undiscovered oil fields would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to the United States firms given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)
…. Let me interject a wider clue here : It is not just US oil firms. Do folks not understand that global corporations, i.e. Lukoil, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, BP, TotalFinaElf, Exxon-Mobile, etc. is just one global elite octopussied mob of riffraff?
For instance, Exxon Mobile largest shareholders are : Barclays Global Investors, State Street Global Advisors, Vanguard Group, Fidelity Management and Research, Northern Trust Company, AllianceBernstein, Wellington Management Company, Capital Research & Management Company, JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, Columbia Management Advisors, Mellon Financial, TIAA-CREF Investment Management, Goldman Sachs, Lord Abbett.
The above investment management firms mostly manage high net-worth clients, and get this – they aint all Amerikun investor clients. You got your Brits, your Irish, your Aussies, your Euros, your Russians, etc. etc.
Get a clue – this war for oil isn't just for firms in the United States. The US is little more than the muscle which protects the asses and assets of the global elite. In the grand scheme of things for Joe N. Amudhut, it makes no difference if it's a "State owned" corporation or a "private" corporation bending him over to pull out the profit.
If any of these "leftist/progressive" bigmouths were genuine they would illuminate for Joe Blow how to eat the current system for breakfast, instead of serving endless articles bitching about "US firms" getting the best contracts.
(Also author states: "No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iran give only limited usage contracts to international oil companies for one or two years." Not true. Gazprom 25 years in Iran, Lukoil similar contract with Saudi, and other long-term Saudi deals with Italy's Eni, Spain's Repsol, and China's state-owned Sinopec Group. And by the way, Saudi only nationalized their oil in 1975; isn't that about the time Joe USA was bent over the barrel?)
3 comments:
I agree that the writer of the referenced post is a little too US-centric regarding the ownership of multi-national oil companies. But I think she's right on with her central point, that it couldn't be more obvious that the US is strong-arming the Iraqis to pass this hydrocarbon bill that will lead to the privatization of much if not most of their oil industry.
abi,
I agree it's strong-arming, but that's a tactic oft used in international business, particularly when dealing with the underdeveloped world.
I doubt corporations would ship business to China, India, etc. if the host governments did not agree and guarantee cheap labor, lax environmental laws, little to no taxation, etc. I consider that a form of strong-arming. Anglo "aid " to dozens of African countries depend on installing Anglo friendly governments and selling off local resources to friendly corporations. Strong-arming.
Embargo, as in dealing with Cuba, past Nicaragua, and Iraq for a dozen years, another form of corporate/guv strong-arming.
I haven't read the Iraqi hydrocarbon bill but assuming it's politics as usual there would be enough concession to satisfy the Iraqi ruling class, afterall, that reconstruction money will line of lot of uppercrust Iraqi pockets. (Sorta like Katrina funds do here.)
I don't see anything unusual in the deal being offered Iraq. Squeezing the life out of a nation/race/region/group is the capitalist way of life.
American progressive/liberal "outrage" as usual is too little too late.
I've no doubt that if the same strong-arming was Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter or JFK, the same naysayers would be defending the privatization of Iraq oil and explaining how equitable it is for the Iraqi and the US.
However, in the political theater, republicans always seem to get the role of macho gun-totin' strong arm cop. Dems play the good cop.
I can hardly wait for Mz Hillary, madam mother president and first daddy Bill, to smooth all the ruffled feathers and make the world a fair place for everyone.
:)
We are doing in Iraq almost exactly what Britain did to Iran before the Shah and we continued when we INSTALLED the Shah.
And then they stand around wondering "why do they hate us?"
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