US rebuffs Iraq’s sovereignty: forces Iraq to surrender its oil; ignores parliament’s call to withdraw troops
Posted by Web Editor on June 9th, 2007
U.S. strong-arms Iraq’s parliament to pass oil law:
In a massive rebuff to Iraq’s sovereignty, the U.S. government and news media are forcing Iraq’s Parliament to pass a bill surrendering control and profits from Iraq’s oil to Western (primarily U.S.) oil companies.
Although the news media keep saying the hydrocarbon bill is about sharing oil revenues among different constituencies within Iraq, the law’s real purpose and real effect are to give U.S. oil companies control over Iraq’s oil and the profits from it.
Saddam Hussein skimmed off a lot of profit for himself, but he also used much of the profit to provide Iraq with the best education and health care in the region. The new hydrocarbon law would steal Iraq’s massive oil reserves from public ownership and give them to private oil companies. It would let private companies develop and profit from Iraq’s oil for 15-30 year periods and virtually prohibit the Iraqi government from renegotiating any contractual terms and conditions.
The new hydrocarbon law is the latest evidence that Bush, the Democrats as well as the Republicans in Congress, and the mainstream news media have all chosen to practice bare-knuckled colonialism there. The supplemental appropriation bill the Democrats are eagerly promoting to continue funding Bush’s war also contains a requirement for Iraq’s Parliament to surrender its oil to U.S. oil companies.
This falls in line with plans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which – as a condition of debt relief – imposed a timeline for privatizing Iraq’s oil. The U.S. and British governments and nine multinational oil companies reviewed and commented on the first drafts of the proposed law eight months before the vast majority of Iraq’s Parliament members were even allowed to see it.
In January Bush decreed that his top “benchmark” for Iraq’s government would be passing an oil low letting foreign oil companies profit from Iraq’s oil. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has expressed fear that the US would overthrow him if he did not get Iraq’s Parliament to pass the oil law by the end of June. Clearly, the U.S. is fighting this war for oil, not for democracy!
U.S. news media keep referring to this law as a way to fairly distribute Iraq’s oil wealth among its various factions, but actually only one of the law’s 43 articles addresses this. This law is much less about promoting peace and unity than about ripping off Iraq’s oil for the benefit of U.S. and British oil companies. The proposed law puts Western oil companies clearly in charge. The law’s many technical, legal and financial details give massive and consistent advantages to oil companies against a sovereign Iraqi government and Iraq’s public interest.
A great many articles about this – largely unreported in the mainstream press – are available. The Olympia FOR (360-491-9093 or info@olyfor.org) can forward them to you.
Iraq’s Parliament members want U.S. troops out
The U.S. government and news media – which claim to support democracy in Iraq – have ignored the fact that most members of Iraq’s Parliament want U.S. troops to withdraw.
On May 10 a majority of Iraq’s Parliament members signed onto a bill that would force a timetable for U.S. soldiers to withdraw from Iraq. While this timetable would be gradual – somewhat like a growing number of U.S. Congress members are favoring – it reveals a strong rejection of U.S. government policies and a rebuff to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.
The bill also would require Parliament’s approval before extending the United Nations plan for foreign troops in Iraq. That plan expires on December 31, 2007.
Iraq’s Parliament is losing support for the seemingly endless U.S. occupation of their country. Many Shiite members and a number of Sunni and Kurdish members are supporting the bill calling for U.S. withdrawal. As of mid-May a slight majority of Parliament members have signed on.