Slippery Slope 122009

Spin-doctors are on a oil slick slope as they attempt to distance politicians from the Iraqi invasion, occupation and impending disaster. According to after the fact sugar coating spin, there is now proof that the Iraq invasion was not about oil.

The Texas oilmen running the Bush administration may well be trying to placate American Oil INC. The Cheney/Rumsfeld cabal was quite vocal in assuring Congress and Big Oil that the Iraq occupation would be paid for with Iraqi oil and secure American energy for the future. There was even a plan to “secure” other foreign oil fields for America’s future requirements. This was an open admission that there was no intention to leave Iraqi oil fields once secured.

The difficulty emerged when nothing in Iraq worked as Rumsfeld envisioned. The invasion fractured the infrastructure of the country so the oil ceased to flow. Years after America was supposed to recoup the cost of war from Iraqi oil the flow remains a trickle that barely supports the broken nation.

Spin now cites as proof that oil was never an objective in the Iraq decision point to the fact that Americans companies were locked out of a new oil boom. It’s true, not because it wasn’t the objective but rather because a sovereign Iraq refused to award a single oil contract to an American company. Countries that opposed the invasion of Iraq will now shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Rather than giving foreign oil companies control over Iraqi reserves, as the U.S. attempted to do with its Oil Law which it failed to push through Iraq’s parliament, foreign oil companies were awarded service contracts lasting 20 years. The oil will remain the property of the Iraqi State, and the foreign companies will pump it for a fixed price per barrel. Exxon Mobil did achieve an 80 percent share in one field prior to the public auction process, but Iraq plans to exploit its technology to expand output for the country.

While it appears that the victor exercised no special claim on the spoils of war there is a more probable explanation. Iraqi officials say they are not awarding contracts based on political considerations, but it is sending a message, there is no reward for destroying a nation and killing its citizens.

Rumsfeld promised rich rewards following a short mission. He later admitted, “It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.” He also said, “There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.” Sorry Don, you didn’t get away with it!