WaPo covers Iraq why Iraqis oppose Bush's oil law: it gives away the store to Big Oil

[yurbud]

Washington Post acknowledged the bulk of Iraqi opposition to oil law Bush is forcing on them. Their reluctance has little to do with dividing the income between ethnic groups, and a lot to do with how much of oil wealth Bush's cronies get to take out of the country--far more than from other oil rich countries like Saudi, Kuwait, or Iran.

The remainder of the story was about wrangling between Baghdad and Kurds, who are more worried about losing their oil income to a central government than to oil companies according this article.

Missteps and Mistrust Mark the Push for Legislation

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 5, 2007; A12

excerpts
"This was a very bad move by the Americans to push for this law," said Issam al-Chalabi, a former oil minister. "Now it looks like . . . the Americans are after oil -- they will bring their Exxons and Chevrons and they will control our oil again."

snip

Meanwhile, bitterness was rising from many factions -- unions in the oil-rich port city of Basra, petroleum industry experts, Sunni politicians and those loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- that the law would allow foreign companies to make off with Iraq's oil wealth. A group of 419 Iraqi academics, engineers and oil industry experts would later sign an open letter to parliament stating that "it is clear that the government is trying to implement one of the demands of the American occupation."

The draft oil law, the letter stated, "lays the foundation for a fresh plundering of Iraq's strategic wealth and its squandering by foreigners, backed by those coveting power in the regions, and by gangs of thieves and pillagers."

FULL TEXT:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090402190_pf.html

Oddly, the article leaves the impression that the Kurds objections to the Hydrocarbon Law are primarily about being ripped off by the Sunnis and Shia in the central government, but a poll of Iraqis on the main issue of the oil law, foreign versus state control of their oil showed that like the other ethnic groups, Kurds opposed foreign control albeit by a slimmer margin.



http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/08/poll-charts-iraqis-dont-want-to-give.html">More on this poll

This article could be an encouraging sign. Reading the tea leaves, if the DC elite are forced to admit part of the reality opposition to the oil law, it may mean they are about to give up and want to make that capitulation look like a righteous bowing to the will of the Iraqi people rather than a failure to impose order as the childish Bush narrative says.

[Junkdrawer]

1. For 70 years the game was to suppress Iraqi oil production. The result?

As the world demand for oil increases and oil field after oil field fails, Iraq is left with 300 to 400 billion barrels of light, sweet crude with potential profits of over 30 trillion dollars.

And that is the true story of the last 10 years. Any questions?

[yurbud]

2. How do we get Dems to talk about it and stop genocide for oil company profits?

[Junkdrawer]

3. Kucinich is talking about it. All the rest are vying for a leadership role..

in the charge for the oil.

[yurbud]

4. it will be a trick for whoever gets elected to back off promises to pullout of Iraq

[Disturbed]

5. ""Now it looks like . . . the Americans are after oil ..."

In this case appearance is fact.

The Dems are mainly in support of stealing that oil.

[Disturbed]

6. The Dems have found a way now to keep the US Occupation

going.That is what they wanted all along. They voiced the opposite just to garner votes for '06. Dems will still pretend to be in favor of US Draw Down from Iraq to garner a majority in the Senate & the Pres. for '09 all the while keeping the US Occupation active. There is no way that Repugs or Dems are going to allow Iraq's oil to be controlled by "Terrorists" or anyone else. The US Govt. will control that oil flow & the US Occupation shall continue for decades in one form or another. Americans are being gamed by both Repugs & Dems.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. And that is the logic of empire

and like all empires they don't last forever, which is the lesson that our so-called leaders have forgotten

[lovuian]

11. this is what the Iraq war was all about

and Americans paid for the war while the Oil companies get the profits

and Iraqis watch us steal it

Imperialism at its best

We will Fail

[WinkyDink]

7. "Plundering" was, is, and will be the only concern of the Bush Administration.

At home and abroad.

[yurbud]

8. the Dems have the virtue of only supporting plunder abroad

[bbgrunt]

9. .....well, I am stupefied that they actually covered this! I can only hope this

means that there is a basic shift "benchmark" definitions.

[yurbud]

10. vote this up on buzzflash.net, digg.com, & netscape.com, so issue elbows into public debate LINKS

http://buzzflash.net/story.php?id=24369

http://digg.com/world_news/WaPo_admits_Iraqis_don_t_want_to_give_oil_wealth_to_big_oil

http://news.netscape.com/story/2007/09/08/wapo-admits-iraqis-dont-want-to-give-oil-wealth-to-big-oil