Your worst fears are true-- 3,000 US soldiers did die in Iraq for oil company profits!

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132574.ece

So, this was the wretched truth all along. Bush and Cheney set the US into this disastrous war against Iraq to reverse Iraq's 1970's decision to nationalize its oil revenues so that (shock! horror!) Iraq's oil would benefit the Iraqi people and society rather than line the pockets of US and British oil company executives. Sitting on top of such enormous reserves, Bush and Cheney just couldn't let this stand, so they invaded Iraq and set up a puppet government with a rubber-stamp Parliament, so that they could force through an oil law that would open up Iraq's oil fields to ownership by the likes of BP and Exxon.

IOW-- Bush and Cheney have sacrificed 3,000 US men and women, and led tens of thousands more to be grievously wounded, so that they could boost the profits and stock value of their favorite pet oil companies.

This makes me sick-- this is what's underlying everything about this madness, including the surge.

IOW, if you are volunteering to fight in the Iraq War, you are suffering and dying to boost the bottom line of a few US and British multinational companies. If this stupid draft law passes the Iraqi Parliament, all hell will broke loose. The people of all sects and ethnic groups will take up arms against our forces.

No wonder all my old friends are studying language books in German, French, Chinese or Korean and leaving the United States, emigrating permanently to Europe and eastern Asia, for good-- there's almost nothing left of what the Founding Fathers gave us here, we're little more now than an imperialistic shell. All of us here, with our increasingly stressful and unbearable working conditions, falling wages and exploitation as expendable "commodities," are a microcosm of the US soldiers in Iraq-- we're being sacrificed on the altar of our newly fascist government and the corporate profits which it is pledged to boost.

[midnight]

1. Thanks for posting this. Because the next time someone

post that Cindy was out of line-I can quote this article. 3000 died for oil profits.

[Erika]

2. Yep. 3,012 U.S. troops died in W's war of choice

at www.icasualties. org

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

3. Amazing, the rate of attacks is still increasing

It was only about, what, 3,004 or so yesterday?

[Djinn]

4. while very sad

every one of those 3000 volunteered to join a military that has ben purely offensive for at least 50 years.

the HUNDREDS of thousands of Iraqis killed did not have this option - I find it quite offensive that much of the US opposition to the war is fixated purely on dead Americans (I'm not saying the orig poster is doing that it's just a general whinge)

IOW, if you are volunteering to fight in the Iraq War, you are suffering and dying to boost the bottom line of a few US and British multinational companies

If you EVER join the armed forces of a first world nation this is what you'll be doing 99.9% of the time, particularly the US armed forces.

War has ALWAYS been a racket and little more. While occasionally the rackets coincide with lofty goals (whilst the US entered WW2 for considerably less worthy reasons, I would have signed up for that one because clearly the Nazi's were worth dying to be rid of) and even less often can be said to produce some benefits for ordinary people the REASON they are fought is only EVER about money and power, regardless of the religious, commie, terrorist dress up in comes in

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

6. I agree with everything you say here

The 3,000 dead US soldiers (and tens of thousands wounded) is a shorthand, metonymy (or something like that, been a while since college lit classes) for the much greater genocide perpetrated against the Iraqi people-- with over 600,000 dead due to our invasion, a far greater tragedy.

There was in fact, some decorated US general in the 1920's, who said something like what you cleverly observed here-- that he was basically a high-class mercenary for US imperial and financial interests in Latin America in particular. Incidentally, our cause in even the one "good war" of the 20th century-- WWII-- was marred by the fact that WWII was made inevitable by WWI, a far less savory and ethical affair in which the US basically joined the war effort to expand the British and French imperial realms (especially in the Middle East) and to help consolidate Britain's grip over Ireland. This failed, of course-- the Irish forces thoroughly defeated the British in the Anglo-Irish War of the 1920's, when Ireland became independent, but the damage was still done. It was from WWI that the British got the mandates to mess things up royally in Iraq and Palestine, and the US (and Britain today) have inherited a mess because of it.

[Arugula Latte]

19. That makes me so angry too. It's always "3,000 U.S.dead!" ....

Maybe, as an afterthought, the hundreds of thousands of slaughtered Iraqis are mentioned, maybe not ...

[TahitiNut]

20. "War has ALWAYS been a racket..."

Let's talk about the 'blame' ... and stop piling on the troops. Claiming that "they all volunteered" is not only simplistic hogwash, it sounds disturbingly like "she asked for it" - blaming the victim of a rape for wearing the "wrong clothes" or being in the "wrong place." It's simplistic hogwash in an economy where easily 40% of our young people see the military as the best hope they have for decent medical care or an education. Economic coercion is not "volunteering."

Let's look at the people who build Humvees, too. And the people who build all the vehicles used in war - ships, planes, armored personnel carriers, and other hardware. That's a lot of people "benefiting" from war!

Let's look at the American taxpayer, whose dollars go more and more for war. How many risk jail to stop it - as they shift the blame to the troops who're doing the dying and losing limbs and expect them to mutiny?

Let's look a the voters, too. After all, in a democracy it's the People at the top of the food chain, right? Don't our "public servants" work for us? If not, then what the fuck are people doing about it? After all, aren't the deaths of 700,000 people worth a night in jail?? (If not, then stop trying to blame the troops.)


I regard the "blame the troops" crap as detestible - the moral equivalent of cowardice in a democracy.

[glitch]

23. Well said. nt

[LynnTheDem]

5. George W. bUsh already publicly admitted it; it's the OIL.

Bush gives new reason for Iraq war

Says US must prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/31/bush_gives_new_reason_for_iraq_war/

During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush and his aides sternly dismissed suggestions that the war was all about oil. "Nonsense," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared. "This is not about that," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Now, more than 3 1/2 years later, someone else is asserting that the war is about oil -- President Bush.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110401025.html

American citizens DEAD.

For OIL.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

7. Definitely gotta bring wider attention to this

Thus far, all the major news outlets including the "liberal" New York Times have either been unaware of this story, or deliberately ignoring it. This is the very heart of the push for the war. It has to get major play, and we have to put pressure on major news organizations to carry it, or otherwise lose their credibility.

[LynnTheDem]

9. It got huge play...outside the USA.

But then everyone outside the USA -including 76% of the people of Iraq- always knew it was the oil.

I still am not over the sheer embarrassment that NOT ONE NATION ON THE PLANET EVER thought Iraq/Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 911...except for 72% of AMERICANS.

Jeebus fricking Cripes. Nation of morans.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

11. Wallowing in ignorance

If I can speak the language of a foreign country I visit (i.e., Spanish) I never speak English when I go abroad anymore, or else I claim I'm a Canadian or something.

To the rest of the world, the US and Britain have become like a pair of drunken, heedless frat boys, trashing the campus and making utter fools of themselves-- something everyone but us is able to see.

[stansnark]

13. and we can lay much of the blame

for this on democratic politicians and office holders. in the last 25 years how often did they stand up and tell the truth to educate people? the majority of them cared more about their re-election then the good of the country.

[Strelnikov_]

8. Yep. For Big Oil Access To Middle East NOC Fields

Consider the following statement from Cheney:

From the standpoint of the oil industry obviously - and I'll talk a little later on about gas - for over a hundred years we as an industry have had to deal with the pesky problem that once you find oil and pump it out of the ground you've got to turn around and find more or go out of business. Producing oil is obviously a self-depleting activity. Every year you've got to find and develop reserves equal to your output just to stand still, just to stay even. This is as true for companies as well in the broader economic sense it is for the world. A new merged company like Exxon-Mobil will have to secure over a billion and a half barrels of new oil equivalent reserves every year just to replace existing production. It's like making one hundred per cent interest; discovering another major field of some five hundred million barrels equivalent every four months or finding two Hibernias a year. For the world as a whole, oil companies are expected to keep finding and developing enough oil to offset our seventy one million plus barrel a day of oil depletion, but also to meet new demand. By some estimates there will be an average of two per cent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three per cent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? Governments and the national oil companies are obviously in control of about ninety per cent of the assets. Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world often greet oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow..

- Cheney At London Institute of Petroleum, 1999

Puts a whole new spin on the Cheney 'Energy' task force, doesn't it.


Following is an article that sums up the peak oil/WOT link. I do not necessarily agree with all of the points, but I feel it provides a decent big picture view.

Energy Depletion And The US Descent Into Fascism
http://www.mountainsentinel.com/#energyfascism


Following is an older article that sums up the motives of ‘Big Oil’ and their Quislings in politics regarding the NOC’s.


Crude Dudes
The Toronto Star
Sep. 20, 2004

http://www.energybulletin.net/2156.html

. . .

Gheit just smiles at the notion that oil wasn't a factor in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He compares Iraq to Russia, which also has large undeveloped oil reserves. But Russia has nuclear weapons. "We can't just go over and ... occupy (Russian) oil fields," says Gheit. "It's a different ballgame." Iraq, however, was defenceless, utterly lacking, ironically, in weapons of mass destruction. And its location, nestled in between Saudi Arabia and Iran, made it an ideal place for an ongoing military presence, from which the U.S. would be able to control the entire Gulf region. Gheit smiles again: "Think of Iraq as a military base with a very large oil reserve underneath .... You can't ask for better than that."

. . .

One reason that regime change in Iraq was seen as offering significant benefits for Big Oil was that it promised to open up a treasure chest which had long been sealed — private ownership of Middle Eastern oil. A small group of major international oil companies once privately owned the oil industries of the Middle East. But that changed in the 1970s when most Middle Eastern countries (and some elsewhere) nationalized their oil industries. Today, state-owned companies control the vast majority of the world's oil resources. The major international oil companies control a mere 4 per cent.

The majors have clearly prospered in the new era, as developers rather than owners, but there's little doubt that they'd prefer to regain ownership of the oil world's Garden of Eden. "(O)ne of the goals of the oil companies and the Western powers is to weaken and/or privatize the world's state oil companies," observes New York-based economist Michael Tanzer, who advises Third World governments on energy issues.

. . .

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

10. Good find!

Definitely worth promulgating this far and wide.

[WinkyDink]

22. Explains U.S. animosity towards and propaganda about Hugo Chavez.

[uppityperson]

12. 46,880 were wounded

Even if only a fraction lost 1+ limbs or had a head/brain injury, that is a lot of wounded.
22,950 Iraqis killed in 2006 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/07/AR2007010701359.html

[Hubert Flottz]

14. Oil and GOP politics.

Karl Wanted a War pResident! The cost of both is still going up!

[Philosoraptor]

15. At least they didn't die for NOTHING.

At least someone benefitted from their grief and their family's.

[Phrogman]

16. So, who's been getting the 2 million barrels a day for the past 3+ years?

They never talk about that, the tankers have been filling nonstop since the invasion began, and theres not been a peep in the MSM about who is getting the oil and who they are paying for it.

What am I missing here?

[liberal renegade]

17. no surprise

after all the first order of business when us forces arrived in iraq was to secure the oil ministry....

[LynnTheDem]

18. Denis Kucinich; OBVIOUSLY OIL.

http://www.alternet.org/story/15359/

[stubtoe]

21. SHRED ran a post on this yesterday that says it all:

From The Independent:

Future of Iraq: The spoils of war
How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches

Thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3062845

Article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece

[earth mom]

24. Money-that's all those bastards care about!

:grr: