We can't leave Iraq: Oil remains the central feature of the political landscape.
Raymond
battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village,
stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like
wild beasts against each other."
-Thomas Carlyle
Stay the course? We can't leave Iraq now. We have too much invested.
"A people at war have become in the most literal sense obedient,
respectful, trustful children again, full of that naive faith in the
all-wisdom and all-power of the adult who takes care of them, imposes
his mild but necessary rule upon them and to whom they lose their
responsibility and anxieties. In this recrudescence of the child, there
is great comfort, and a certain influx of power. On most people the
strain of being an independent adult weighs heavily ."
----Randolph Bourne, The State
President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep
misinterpreting his Iraq policy as "stay the course." A complete
distortion, they say.
"We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy
succeed, We will win in Iraq so long as we stay the course."
"I saw people wondering whether the United States would have the nerve
to stay the course and help them succeed," he said after returning from
Baghdad in June. We have been -- we will complete the mission, we will
do our job and help achieve the goal, but we're constantly adjusting
the tactics. Constantly."
We can't leave Iraq now. We have too much invested. Oil remains the
central feature of the political landscape and that's what we came for.
With Washington now running the show, "friendly" companies expect to
gain most of the lucrative oil deals that will be worth hundreds of
billions of dollars in profits in the coming decades.
According to oil industry experts, new exploration will probably raise
Iraq's reserves to 200+ billion barrels of high-grade crude,
extraordinarily cheap to produce. The four giant firms located in the
US and the UK have been keen to get back into Iraq, from which they
were excluded with the nationalization of 1972.
US operations in Iraq have drawn heavily on military and security
companies, an important precedent. Unlike state military and police
forces, these private companies operate beyond the realm of legal
accountability and public oversight, and they enable states and
industrial companies to engage in military operations, seize valuable
natural resources, terrorize citizens and overthrow governments without
public knowledge. Because they are available for hire, these companies
are the ultimate neoliberal re-invention of the state, putting armed
force at the direct service of those who can pay for it.
**"To the victor goes the spoils." In a war or other contest, the
winner gets the booty
"War is the health of the state."
"In your reaction to an imagined attack on your country or an insult to
its government, you draw closer to the herd for protection, you conform
in word and deed, and you insist vehemently that everybody else shall
think, speak, and act together. And you fix your adoring gaze upon the
State, with a truly filial look, as upon the Father of the flock."
-Randolph Bourne, The State
The new Iraqi constitution of 2005, greatly influenced by US advisors,
contains language that guarantees a major role for foreign companies.
Negotiators hope soon to complete deals on Production Sharing
Agreements that will give the companies control over dozens of fields,
including the fabled super-giant Majnoon. However, despite pressure
from the US government and foreign oil companies, the current Iraqi
government has not passed a national oil law. While regional
governments angle for influence over the foreign oil contracts, most
Iraqis favor continued control by a national company and the powerful
oil workers union opposes de-nationalization. Iraq's political future
is very much in flux, but oil remains the central feature of the
political landscape.
Also See Global Policy Forum's related pages on:
Development Fund for Iraq ;
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/dfiindex.htm
Corporate Contracts in Iraq ;
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/contractindex.htm
and Natural Resources and Conflict
Back to Iraq
http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/militaryindex.htm
**The proverb originated in the United States and was first used in
1832 by Senator William Learned Marcy (1786-1857) of New York. 'The
victor gets the spoils' and 'To the victor go the spoils' are
variations of the proverb." Senator Marcy was quoted as saying, in
1832, "They (Democrats) see nothing wrong in the rule that to the
victor belong the spoils of the enemy."
---From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by
Gregory Y. Titelman: