Oil Still Drives
Mideast Policy

As we approach the beginning of the 110^th U.S. Congress there is a sense of unbridled optimism that this session may see us out of our debacle in Iraq. Unfortunately one can see our involvement in Iraq continuing for decades to come, with billions more spent, and thousands more dead, for the real reason for our invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq had nothing to do with WMDs, as there were none, nothing to do with ties to Islamic terrorism, as there was none, and certainly nothing to do with trying to establish democracy, as that is bitterly failing as we hear talk of coups on the present president, orchestrated by the U.S., because we don’t like the currently elected Maliki.

No, the reason for this tragedy was, and still is about oil and strategic control over the area of the world that holds two-thirds of the world’s remaining oil, and our departure will require giving up on our hold of those resources, which it is doubtful we will do. For after all, this policy is a continuation of the deals made by FDR with Ibn-Saud at the end of World War II for access to the oil fields in exchange for military hardware and protection, and then further reiterated by Jimmy Carter, establishing the "Carter Doctrine" which stated that we would intervene militarily in the area to ensure that the oil spigot is not turned off.

Further proof of our sealed fate is the upcoming long term, privately negotiated oil deals with foreign oil majors, you know, Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, and BP/Shell. According to industry analysts, these deals will be of the PSA (Production Sharing Arrangement) type. These type of long term arrangements, 30 years or more, with no Iraqi public input, and with "stabilization clauses" which prohibit future governments from changing the deal, are typically used only where extraction of the resource requires huge investments, which the companies provide. They usually would not be used in a place like Iraq, where it costs about $1.50/barrel to get the oil out of the ground. In fact the PSAs are used in only 12% of the oil deals world-wide. It has been estimated that Iraq will lose upwards of $200 billion in oil revenues over the next 10 years, money they desperately need for rebuilding. The oil majors on the other hand will realize profits of 42% or more.

Once the ink has dried we will then have the added liability to protect the investments, and interests of these oil majors, and to provide security for the future of our siphoning off of the Iraqi oil wealth. All of these things are related to our energy lifestyle, a lifestyle developed and perpetuated around cheap oil, one that will spiral into demise once we reach a peak of oil production. And so until we come to grips with this addiction to oil (we all have it), we will continue to pay for it with the blood of innocent, misled American youth slaughtered needlessly in a vain cause to protect our "American way of life."

Don Gray

Pittsfield

____________