On the floor of the House of Representatives, January 11, 2007
Mr. McDERMOTT: Mr. Speaker, the American people have not received very much information about a major issue in and around the Iraq war, and the oil industry would like to keep it just that way.
This is the war, stripped bare of all the bullshit and hemming and hawing, and that truth should ring out with a clarity that withers every lame ass talking point that lets more of our soldiers and Iraqis die to make very wealthy assholes even wealthier.
There is some hope for our democracy if at least one guy in Congress is talking about what's really going on, and not mouthing condescending recycled talking points about going to Iraq to be the good fairy of democracy and the Iraqis being ungrateful for our fairy dust.
When all Democrats in Congress start talking like this, and refuse to rehash the propaganda any longer, the war will come to an end because the propaganda will look like the pathetic embarrassing piece of shit it is by comparison. This is the return to reality and not just the nicer lies some other democrats have offered.
But that's beside the point at the moment.
I'm going to write McDermott a letter and thank him for representing me in Congress, even though I live more than a thousand miles away from his district.
KEY EXCERPTS FROM CONGRESSIONAL RECORD:
On the floor of the House of Representatives, January 11, 2007
Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the American people have not received very much information about a major issue in and around the Iraq war, and the oil industry would like to keep it just that way. Fortunately, investigative journalism is still being practiced, and I want to share information uncovered by a reporter for AlterNet, in the United States, and a major Sunday story this week in The Independent, a newspaper in the United Kingdom.
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These investigative reports paint a disturbing picture and raise troubling questions about big oil's attempting to steal the oil wealth and resources of the Iraqi people. From the beginning of the Iraq invasion, more moderate voices, especially overseas, questioned whether the ulterior motive behind toppling Saddam Hussein was a grab for Iraqi oil. In this scenario, democracy is a by-product of oil production , not the real reason for military action in Iraq .Gaining access to the oil wealth of Iraq has had oil industries salivating for years. Gaining control of that oil wealth would be a prize beyond compare for the oil industry. Iraq has the third largest oil reserves in the world, and there are many oil geologists who believe that vast additional oil reserves are just waiting to be discovered in Iraq's western desert. They call it the Holy Grail, and some believe the untapped riches could propel Iraq from third to first place in the world's oil reserves.
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The news account continues: ``Their introduction would be a first for a major Middle Eastern oil producer. Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's number one and twoexporters, both tightly control their industries through state-owned companies with no appreciable foreign collaboration, as do most members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.''
The PSA's would give big oil in Iraq deals that would last for 30 to 40 years. These deals, the news reports point out, would force Iraq to share its oil wealth with Western outsiders, not their own people. Up to 70 percent of the profits would go to outside producers in the first years, and the news media points out that these deals could be enforced ahead of any social and economic reforms in Iraq and ahead of any social programs. One person quoted called it ``colonialism lite.''
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How long will we be there if western oil companies are given free rein to put a vice grip on Iraq's oil?If western oil companies get a 30-year agreement , we may call Iraq the 30-year war.
Articles McDermott cited and entered into Congressional Record:
iraq war privatization jim mcdermott oil psa production sharing agreement president george w bush oil companies shell bpExxonMobil ChevronTexaco ConocoPhillips republican antonia juhasz greg palast GOP conservative corruption occupation colonialism hydrocarbon law grover norquist jay garner professor smartass iraq peak oil propaganda corporation democracy war on terror public relations worst president ever failure war criminal smartass comments resistance censored news 30 year war thirty year war
2 comments:
Good post (and good blog). (I came here from Colorado Bob's.)
Reading over some of these comments I am left with nothing but awe! The truth is so obvious as well as the LIE. But still some are determined to behave as though it's not as clear as it is, and that some sort of honor is to be had in ignoring facts. The wealthy convince us that we should be patriotic while they sell the soul of a nation and it's people for more wealth and power! So now, from analysis of these replies and rebuttals, I hope that everyone realize how pointless it is to try to convince sheep, marked for the slaughter, that to naively and blindly follow their sheperds they are going to be put to shame and sometimes even to death for the previleges we may never benefit from individually, proportionate to our sacrifices, as those who propogate these messes do in relation to the sacrifices they and their families have made
This is an old saga that plays over and over again!!
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