Duh, it's all about the oil. The biggest bitch we have with the Iraqis right now is that they won't sign the oil agreement WE'VE drawn up. Theere is a lot more in there than just the sharing of revenues among the Iraqi factions.
Way, way back in the fall of '02 there was an article in our local paper, the Grand Rapids Press, that was an interview with William Seidman, a local businessman, friend of Gerry Ford and namesake of the Seidman School of Business at Grand Valley State University. Here is a short bio, so you can see what a left-wing radical he is...
L. William Seidman is an American economist and financial commentator. Seidman began working in United States government as an economic advisor to President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1976, and later in a related capacity to President Ronald Reagan from 1982-1984. In 1985, he became the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and served until 1991, working extensively during the American savings and loan crisis to restore solvency to the failing savings and loan sector of American banking. He was the first chairman of the related agency, the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was created specifically to address issues arising from the savings and loan crisis, from 1989 until his retirement from active government in 1991.
The gist of the article was that he had just returned from a trip to DC whre he had sat in on a briefing about Iraq. In it he said that it is all about the oil, there was one line that was like "this is our oil and we need to control it!" I have looked in my local library but the archives don't go back that far. I'll have to go down to the Press and see if they have archives open to the public. The article was amazing in how openly he laid out the reason why we needed to invade Iraq, and yes, it was about the oil.
Much the same way as with Greenspan, he was obviously taken to the woodshed because a day or two later there was a follow-up where he said he was a little misquoted, etc. etc. But the actual interview was very telling, and since it was only in a small-town paper really didn't get wide exposure.
As far as who's profiting, if you're sitting on oil anywhere in the world you are reaping (or raping) a bonanza with the price up at $90 and climbing. American oil companies are doing quite well, thank you very much, but also Russia is pulling in bushels of rubles, which has appeased the population so that they're quite happy with Putin in spite of the major anti-democratic actions he takes (and the outright murders of dissidents that he is able to get away with!). The amazing thing in Russia is that there really aren't alot of "shareholders", so these oil profits are making a handful of people breathtakingly wealthy.
It has also enabled GWB's good friend Hugo Chavez to fund his altruistic activities in the region. At least somebody is spreading some of these windfall profits to the lower classes, even if it is to enhance his grip on power.
You can also bet that if there was a major oil discovery under the bloody sands of Darfur we'd be in there pronto.
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:18 pm
