Antonia Juhasz: Oil in Iraq

It's still about oil in Iraq
A centerpiece of the Iraq Study Group's report is its advocacy for securing foreign companies' long-term access to Iraqi oil fields.
By Antonia Juhasz, ANTONIA JUHASZ is a visiting scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time."
December 8, 2006

WHILE THE Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence.

Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the U.S. and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves." The group then proceeds to give very specific and radical recommendations as to what the United States should do to secure those reserves. If the proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be commercialized and opened to foreign firms.
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All told, the Iraq Study Group has simply made the case for extending the war until foreign oil companies — presumably American ones — have guaranteed legal access to all of Iraq's oil fields and until they are assured the best legal and financial terms possible.

We can thank the Iraq Study Group for making its case publicly. It is now our turn to decide if we wish to spill more blood for oil.

This article is well worth your while to read in its entirety. It can be found at a link here: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-juhasz8dec08,0,4717508.story

This highlights exactly what the problem is in Iraq. Namely, foreign powers seeking to exploit resources that don't belong to them. I point you, kind reader, to the Aldo Leopold quote at the top of this page. There you will find my true feelings on this matter. George Bush: I say no to your imperialism and your killing. Too many lives have been lost for your oil war. How can you bear the weight of your burden? Do you lack a human conscience?