Dennis gave a one-hour speech on the floor of the U.S. House May 23, 2007. In it, he detailed information that shows without a doubt that we are in Iraq for the oil, which is certainly no surprise to me. We are attempting to put "revenue-sharing agreements" in place in Iraq, effectively privatizing the oil and taking most of it away from the Iraqis. Knowing Bush, I am somewhat suprised that we aren't just STEALING it outright. But I guess that would be too much, even for thugs like Bush and Cheney.
I have no doubt that this nation needs oil. Thanks to our complacency, laziness, and greed for corporations, we have done very little to wean this nation from oil. Hence, we get involved in stupid, destructive schemes like Iraq. I guess it's too much to ask that we negotiate with Iraq to help them develop their own fields and ask for reasonable access. No, we go in with guns blazing and hold guns to their heads until they sign over most of their oil to us. What a country!
If you read all of Dennis' speech at the link below, you will understand.
Here are just a few snips:
...on March 13, 2007, Antonia Juhasz, an oil industry analyst, in an op-ed contribution, asks: "Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?" Here is what Antonia Juhasz writes:
"Today more than three-quarters of the world's oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn't always this way. Until about 35 years ago, the world's oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP. They are among the world's largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back. Iraq's oil reserves, thought to be the second largest in the world, have always been high on the corporate wish list. In 1998 Kenneth Derr, then chief executive of Chevron, told a San Francisco audience, 'Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas, reserves I'd love Chevron to have access to.'
"A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal. The Iraq hydrocarbon law would take the majority of Iraq's oil out of the exclusive hands of the Iraqi Government and open it to international oil companies for a generation or more.
"In March, 2001," continuing to quote from this article, "the National Energy Policy Development Group, better known as Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, which included executives of America's largest energy companies, recommended that the United States Government support initiatives by Middle Eastern countries 'to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment.' One invasion and a great deal of political engineering ..." later, this is exactly what the Iraq oil law would achieve. It does so to the benefit of oil companies but to the great detriment of Iraq's economy, democracy, and sovereignty.
"Since the invasion of Iraq, the administration has been aggressive in shepherding the oil law toward passage. It is one of the administration's benchmarks for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fact that" the administration officials "are publicly emphasizing with increasing urgency." And, that is that these are the benchmarks of the administration.
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