[CTRL] Bush's Oil Move Backfires (Flashback)

[Sean McBride]

Title: Guardian | Bush's oil move backfires

-Caveat Lector- In a dream ending for the chapter of history being written now in Iraq, neo-conservatives fantasised before the war about a privatised, pro-American Iraqi oil industry. Note well: NEOCONSERVATIVES fantasized about easily exploiting Iraqi oil, NOT big oil industry executives.  Big oil all along has had a much more skeptical and realistic understanding of the Mideast oil situation than the fanatically ideological neocons, most of whom have no track record of succeeding in any business.  Neocons are simultaneously chickenhawk laptop bombardiers and imaginary capitalist tycoons.  They are grotesque fantasists.   Bush, of course, had no track record of succeeding at anything before launching the disastrous Iraq War.  Winning the White House has given him, with the help of the neocons, the opportunity to fail on a truly grand scale.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4726562-103682,00.html Bush's oil move backfires Now he will have to try diplomacy Leader Tuesday August 5, 2003 The Guardian In a dream ending for the chapter of history being written now in Iraq, neo-conservatives fantasised before the war about a privatised, pro-American Iraqi oil industry. This would have access to the world's second largest hydrocarbon reserves and produce so much oil that Saudi Arabia, in charge of Opec, would lose its grip on petrol prices. The world would then be swimming in inexpensive petrol - the cost of which would be dictated by the market, not by an anti-American price-fixing club run by Riyadh. Low prices would also mean falling revenues for oil-producers, which in the Middle East might precipitate the collapse of regimes hostile to the US. These hopes are now being dissipated like sand before the desert wind. Oil is dribbling, rather than pumping, from Iraq's bomb-blasted oil industry. Sabotage and theft mean Iraq's oil production remains at a fraction of the levels achieved under Saddam. With reconstruction failing to take off, there is little sign of a post-Ba'athist dividend in the form of low oil prices. The result is that US action in Iraq has not weakened Opec, and hence Saudi Arabia, but strengthened it. Last week's meeting of Opec ministers confirmed that with supplies being disrupted by political unrest in Venezuela and Nigeria, oil prices would remain where the Saudis want them to be - high. This is bad news for any putative global recovery and the US economy. Ever since Arab nations imposed an embargo on oil exports to America in 1973, the United States has tried, in theory, to wean itself off foreign oil. George Bush declared hydrocarbon independence a priority. But the real issue is not where the oil spurts from, but how much it costs to buy. If politics is the pursuit of economics by other means, then Mr Bush needs now to display a deftness previously absent. Oil ministers are already talking of cutting production, with the implicit, Exocet-shaped threat of rising petrol costs. Every major economic recession in the past 40 years has been preceded by a jump in the oil price. The Saudi foreign minister's fury last week over a Congressional report that implicated his nation in terrorism will not have gone unnoticed. The neo-conservatives' project for Opec has been exposed as counterproductive. Instead Washington will have to revert to diplomacy to win over Riyadh.The question is whether they do so by being crude - or by being refined. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003 www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om