Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

opednews.com: Iraqi oil and the American consumer- are we better off?

By Carol Wolman     Page 1 of 1 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com

Now that Greenspan has acknowledged that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is about securing Iraqi oil reserves, we can look a little more realistically at the whole situation. We always knew it, of course.

One reason, perhaps the main reason, that the American people have put up with the illegal military operation in Iraq is that we are dependent on automobiles, and the fear of running out of oil has been drummed into us.

Although it hasn’t been stated, many Americans assume that if “we” control Iraqi oil, the price of gasoline will remain within reasonable limits. Of course, if the US military, who are paid with the tax dollars of We the People, can secure Iraqi oil, we the consumers get the benefits. RIGHT?

WRONG, for a couple of reasons:

1) the ongoing turmoil in Iraq has essentially removed 4 million barrels/day of oil from the world market- about 5%. Meanwhile, demand continues to increase. With supply shorter, the price goes up.

2) the main goal of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq is to privatize Iraqi oil. This helps the buddies of Bush and Cheney in the multinational oil corporations. What is the effect on the American consumer?

Most oil states (including Iraq under Saddam) control their their own petroleum industries and belong to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC’s stated aim is to ensure a steady supply of oil to the world market, without price fluctuations, with a fair profit to investors. This BENEFITS consumers.

By contrast, the private corporations- Exxon-Mobil, Shell and the others, have a stated goal of maximizing profits for stockholders. It is in their interest to raise the price of oil as much as possible, and gouge consumers. Privatizing Iraqi oil benefits the big international oil companies and HURTS consumers.

Let’s look at some facts.

The price of gasoline has gone up 50% since March 2003, when the US illegally invaded Iraq. It averaged $2.00/gallon at that time, now it’s over $3.00/ gallon.

Profits of the big oil conglomerates have gone way up. According to the London Times 7/27/2006 :

Exxon Mobil profit jumps to more than $10B Soaring energy prices catapulted Exxon Mobil, the world”s largest publicly traded oil company, to a second-quarter profit of more than $10 billion (euro7.85 billion), and they promise to ignite industrywide growth — and public outrage — all year. Royal Dutch Shell PLC came close to matching Exxon Mobil Corp.”s 36 percent quarterly earnings boost on Thursday, posting net income of $7.3 billion (euro5.73 billion), an increase of 40 percent from the year before. 

http://voteCarolWolmanforCongress.com

Carol S. Wolman, MD is a psychiatrist in Northern California. A lifelong peace activist, she has written extensively on the psychology of our times. She is actively working to impeach Bush and Cheney, and suggests you join or form a local group at http://impeachbush.meetup.com/ She ran for Congress as a nonpartisan write-in candidate in CA district 1, and is a coordinator of The Longhouse Coalition.

September 22, 2007 at 15:37:55

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_carol_wo_070922_iraqi_oil_and_the_am.htm

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.