This administration has the Exxon Valdez of foreign policies. For our leaders, the lights have gone on in Africa only because of oil. (See the following piece from Le Monde Diplomatique.) They’re bringing “democracy” to Iraq at least in significant part for oil and, if and when an American occupying army makes it there, it won’t be leaving soon largely for reasons of oil. (See Michael Rennart’s piece in today’s International Herald Tribune.) But “oil” is a complicated three letter word. It stands in for a multitude of sins and dreams, including an urge to control future economic and military competitors from China and Japan to Europe.
In our distinctly over-determined world, there are undoubtedly other reasons for the focus on Iraq — like an imperial urge to provide an object lesson to all potential rogue, or even uppity, states out there, and an urge to remake the Middle East in our own image (a bit of a shape-shifting concept these days).
We’re led by an administration of vulgar Marxists. Here, for instance, is a little quote from a piece (“U.S. Oil Wants to Work in Iraq, Firms Discuss How to Raise Nation’s Output After a Possible War” by Thaddeus Herrick, p. A10, Jan. 16, 2003) in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, which I unfortunately can’t pick up on line. Tom
“While the Bush administration is loath to be seen as waging war for oil, industry officials say Washington is leaning heavily on the expertise of the U.S. oil industry so that it is prepared to address its top postwar priority: funding a new Iraqi regime with oil revenue. ‘If we go to war, it’s not about oil,’ says Larry Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation in New York. ‘But the day the war ends, it has everything to do with oil.’… An industry expert said Tuesday that State Department officials met with as many as two major oil companies and an industry consultant as recently as last week… [and so on].”
The new Gulf oil states
By Jean-Christophe Servant
Le Monde Diplomatique
January, 2003The United States used to attach little importance to Africa, but now it is reviewing its oil sources strategy and sub-Saharan Africa, with its good quality reserves, could account for 25% of all US crude oil imports by 2015.
WHILE the United States marshals its forces to attack Iraq, it is also engaged in an equally strategic battle several thousand kilometres away. This calm offensive, as the Nigerian daily The Vanguard (1) calls it, targets oil reserves south of the Sahara and is designed “partly to avoid antagonising its Middle Eastern allies and partly to avoid generating a perception that it cares only about Africa’s resources” (2). According to Walter Kansteiner, US Under-Secretary of State for African affairs, African oil “has become a national strategic interest” (3).
The new Gulf oil states
By Jean-Christophe Servant
Le Monde Diplomatique
January, 2003The United States used to attach little importance to Africa, but now it is reviewing its oil sources strategy and sub-Saharan Africa, with its good quality reserves, could account for 25% of all US crude oil imports by 2015.
WHILE the United States marshals its forces to attack Iraq, it is also engaged in an equally strategic battle several thousand kilometres away. This calm offensive, as the Nigerian daily The Vanguard (1) calls it, targets oil reserves south of the Sahara and is designed “partly to avoid antagonising its Middle Eastern allies and partly to avoid generating a perception that it cares only about Africa’s resources” (2). According to Walter Kansteiner, US Under-Secretary of State for African affairs, African oil “has become a national strategic interest” (3).
To read more of this Le Monde Diplomatique piece click here
Post-Saddam energy visions
Michael Renner IHT
The International Herald Tribune
January 17, 2003WASHINGTON The Gulf region accounts for 30 percent of global oil production but has about 65 percent of the world’s known reserves. It is the only region able to satisfy any substantial rise in world oil demand, an increase that U.S. energy officials say is inevitable. Saudi Arabia, with 262 billion barrels, has a quarter of the world’s total oil reserves and is the single largest producer. But Iraq, despite its pariah status for the past 12 years, remains a key prize. At 112 billion barrels, its known reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia’s. Given that substantial portions of Iraqi territory have not been fully explored, there is a good chance that actual reserves are far larger.
For half a century, the United States has made big investments to keep the Gulf region in its geopolitical orbit and maintain America’s claim on a preponderant share of the world’s oil.