Texas Tea

We must have an uninterrupted flow of oil at a reasonable price to maintain our economy as it is. (Or rather, was.) Our society is based on oil--for manufacturing, transportation, agriculture and more. Therefore it is not only expected but necessary that we have enough control over oil-rich areas to get that oil. If we can't buy it we have to take it. We don't have a choice. Millions will suffer without it.

And hey, if it must happen, why not make some money off of it? Someone's going to, might as well be, oh, say, Peter Gilbraith as anyone else, right? It's for the good of the country and a person can do a lot of good with a hundred million dollars. Or a lot of models. You have to be open to helping anyone and blonds need help too.

It's not like we left Afghanistan and invaded Iraq for the oil, of course. Sure, we agreed to leave, more or less, right after we opened Iraq for foreign oil investment, but the two had nothing to do with each other. Just like our threats against Iran have nothing to do with oil. We're in the middle east because that's where the terrorists are. Sure, they're in Southeast Asia too, and Egypt and some places in South America and a few areas of the USA even, but one has priorities and Iraq just happened to come first.

From the blog of Antonia Juhasz

Kucinich on Supplemental: It's about Oil

Congressman Dennis Kucinich's Office
May 11th, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10) - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
released the following statement after the passage of the U.S. Troop
Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability
Appropriations Act of 2007:
"There has been a broad deception about the content of the hydrocarbon
law, a deception which has taken in members of Congress and the media.
Misdescribed tactically as a revenue sharing plan, it is in fact a
radical plan to privatize Iraq's oil.

"The law before the Iraq Parliament contains 3 vague lines about
revenue sharing and 33 solid pages of a complex legal restructuring,
facilitating the privatization of Iraq's oil resources. The sharing
will not be 1/3 of 100%. The sharing is more likely to be 1/3 of 20%
at most, after private oil interests take their cut. The stage is
being set for theft on a historic scale.

"Iraq may have as much as 300 billion barrels of oil to be tapped. At
a market value of $70 a barrel, the value of its oil may approach $21
trillion.

"In the past twenty four hours the Vice President made an
extraordinary trip to Baghdad to urge the Iraqi Parliament to stay in
session to pass a "hydrocarbon law" which provides for "revenue
sharing." Today, President Bush explicitly mentioned that he could
come to an agreement if it included a benchmark for "sharing oil
reserves." This is the tone of the legislation which the House passed
tonight.

"The legislative debate between the Congressional Democrats and the
Republicans misses the point of the key issue regarding the invasion,
occupation and long term US presence in Iraq - - oil.

"The attempted theft of the oil assets of Iraq under the guise of a
plan to end the war will keep the war going long into the future.

"This is the time to be taking steps to end the U.S. occupation,
stabilize Iraq, and give Iraqis full control of their oil assets."