Iraqi Oil Belongs To The Iraqi People

[Jcrowley]

Published on Sunday, April 1, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
Iraqi Oil Belongs To The Iraqi People
by Nancy Wohlforth and Fred Mason

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost the American people more than $500 billion, the deaths of 3200 U.S. troops, 25,000 others wounded, and countless Iraqi lives. The total price tag is projected to top $1.2 trillion.With the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq upon us, the Bush administration asks Congress for $93 billion more for the war, over and above the fiscal year 2008 Pentagon request for $484 billion - an 11% increase over last year! The war machine eats well while starving our people of decent housing, quality health care, and education. The Gulf Coast remains a disaster.

Many of us felt shame in the opening days of the invasion as our soldiers were ordered to protect the Oil Ministry, oil fields, refineries, and distribution system while wholesale looting of Iraq’s antiquities unfolded. The message to the Iraqis was clear: “We’ve come for the oil.” There were no weapons of mass destruction. Hussein is gone yet we are still there. Rather than democracy, we brought massive destruction and civil war to Iraq.

Giving credence to Iraqis’ fears, a new Petroleum Law will be presented to the Iraqi Parliament that, if enacted, will put effective control of Iraq’s vast oil resources in the hands of foreign companies. Nationalized since 1975, Iraq’s oil was, before the years of sanctions and the invasion, the foundation for a relatively high standard of living, producing more PhD’s per capita than the U.S. and a health care system prized as the best in the region.

<snip>

The proposed Petroleum Law creates a Federal Oil and Gas Council on which would sit representatives of Exxon- Mobil, Shell, BP, etc., whose tasks include approving their own contracts. Instead of Iraqi central government decision-making on oil, the proposal authorizes regional authorities to individually sign contracts with foreign companies, promoting contract bidding wars between regions that could lead to breaking Iraq into three states.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/01/236/

A simple truth.

[knowbody0]

1. so fucking shameful

the Iraqis disposable people to the madmen of our nation.

[Solly Mack]

2. Exxon- Mobil, Shell, BP = members of Cheney's Energy "Task Force"

[whistle]

3. That is not Dubya's mission

[sabra]

4. looks like the Saudis are doing their part...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2793754

[Parisle]

5. Big Oil should be forced to pay every cent

--- Their respective "shares" can be actuarily determined,... but they are obviously the big winners. I'd make them pay,.... or else.

[ArmchairMeme]

6. Cost of war in oil

How much oil, jet fuel, gasoline, etc. have we used in this needless war?

[Jcrowley]

7. The figures are mind-boggling

According to the Defence Logistic Agency’s Web Site, as of November 2005 more than 2.1 billion gallons of fuel have been used in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (since October 2001; war on terrorism in Afghanistan). So at present the figure is probably at about 3 billion gallons of fuel.

That's for Afghanistan. For Iraq the figure is 1.7 million gallons of fuel per day. I'll let you do the math as I think the figure is beyond by abilities to calculate.

Gas Pains

One of the U.S. military's greatest vulnerabilities in Iraq is its enormous appetite for fuel. The insurgents have figured this out

by Robert Bryce

The Department of Defense now has about 27,000 vehicles in Iraq­and every one of them gets lousy gas mileage. To power that fleet the Defense Logistics Agency must move huge quantities of fuel into the country in truck convoys from Kuwait, Turkey, and Jordan. All that fuel gives American Soldiers a tremendous battlefield advantage (in communications, mobility, and firepower, among other things). But overseeing and carrying out this process requires the work of some 20,000 American Soldiers and private contractors. Every day some 2,000 trucks leave Kuwait alone for various locales in Iraq.

In addition to the challenges posed by the volume of fuel needed, the Army's logisticians must deal with the sheer variety of fuels. Although the Pentagon has tried to reduce the number of fuels it consumes, and now relies primarily on a jet-fuel-like substance called JP-8, the Defense Energy Support Center is currently supplying fourteen kinds of fuel to U.S. troops in Iraq.

In short, the American GI is the most energy-consuming soldier ever seen on the field of war. For computers and GPS units, Humvees and helicopters, the modern Soldier is in constant need of energy: battery power, electric power, and petroleum. The U.S. military now uses about 1.7 million gallons of fuel a day in Iraq. Some of that fuel goes to naval vessels and aircraft, but even factoring out JP-5 fuel (which is what the Navy primarily uses), each of the 150,000 Soldiers on the ground consumes roughly nine gallons of fuel a day. And that figure has been rising.

http://www.geocities.com/iraqiambush/

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest oil consuming government body in the US and in the world

“Military fuel consumption makes the Department of Defense the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S” <1>

“Military fuel consumption for aircraft, ships, ground vehicles and facilities makes the DoD the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S” <2>

According to the US Defense Energy Support Center Fact Book 2004, in Fiscal Year 2004, the US military fuel consumption increased to 144 million barrels. This is about 40 million barrels more than the average peacetime military usage.

By the way, 144 million barrels makes 395 000 barrels per day, almost as much as daily energy consumption of Greece.

http://karbuz.blogspot.com/2006/02/us-military-oil-consumption.html

DLA and Field Activity Support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)

Logistics backbone of the war in Iraq:

· provided more than 188 million field meals

· provided nearly 2 million Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs) for displaced refugees.

· supplied more than 52 million gallons of fuel since Oct. 1

http://www.dla.mil/public_info/facts.asp

[pigpickle]

8. the puke way - making corruption part of the system