Oil Companies Dishonor Our Troops and Undermine Our Security

[Ed Barrow]

Since 2003, more than 4,300 American troops and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have become casualties of a war full of contradictions. One of the most fundamental of these is embodied in U.S. assurances to the Iraqi and American publics that Iraq will be a fully sovereign country upon the United States' military withdrawal at the end of 2011. The lobbying activities of U.S. oil executives and their political allies suggest efforts to perpetuate a more dependent relationship. Since 2003, these lobbyists and embassy officials have pressured Iraqi officials to open the country's oil industry to foreign control. This behind-the-scenes intrigue has fueled the insurgency by substantiating Iraqi suspicions of American motives, resulting in an increase in casualties on all sides.

Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and other oil companies colluded under the umbrella of the International Tax and Investment Centre (ITIC) to press for fundamental changes in Iraqi law that would enable officials to sign Production Sharing Agreements with foreign investors. The details were outlined in a document released in 2004 titled "Petroleum and Iraq's Future: Fiscal Options and Challenges." The authors state pointedly on page three of the report that, "The most appropriate legal and fiscal form for the facilitation of FDI longer-term development of Iraq's petroleum industry will be a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)."

PSA's would give foreign oil companies control over the production rates of Iraq's oil fields, resulting in a loss of control over revenue streams critical for national development. Over 90% of Iraq's national budget is dependent on oil exports. This legal opening could therefore eventually result in a de facto concession of Iraqi national sovereignty and all of the political instability and violence that would accompany it.

These political maneuvers, actively supported at the highest levels of the Bush administration, motivated the Iraqi insurgency to continue fighting out of fear of their country reverting back to foreign economic and political control hidden behind the façade of democratic elections. The Bush administration held the position that Iraqi legislative and regulatory reforms were critical to attracting foreign technical expertise and an increase in reconstruction revenue to the government.


http://www.truthout.org/oil-companies-dishonor-our-troops-and-undermine-our-security60174

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. It was aways about the oil. " The oil will pay for the war." Bastards

[FBI_Un_Sub]

2. Well known in the "industry". NT