Comments for Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, The Prize of Iraqi Oil at http://atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://atlanticfreepress.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:23:15 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/1522-tomgram-michael-schwartz-the-prize-of-iraqi-oil.html#comment-2149 Your excellent article shows that the Oil Law will indeed be a critical benchmark for the Maliki government. Two questions will be answered by the end of the summer of 2007. First, will Maliki (or a successor if he is deposed or assassinated) be able to muster a Quisling majority sufficiently corrupt, venal, and subservient to their American masters to pass the law and 2) will such a traitorous Quisling coalition be sufficiently strong politically and militarily to avoid complete political isolation and survive armed resistance by the opponents of the law who represent the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people. - martin cadwell Wed, 09 May 2007 04:35:07 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/1522-tomgram-michael-schwartz-the-prize-of-iraqi-oil.html#comment-2140 The Iraqi Oil Law---which might be better named the American Oil Law, or the American and Word Bank Imperialist Oil Law---may just be the galvanizing object which simultaneously unites the real nationalists in Iraq and, together with the exposures of the Bush Administration's big lies about Saddam's Iraq and "WMD," "nuclear and biological programs," and "9/11 and Al Quaeda," may finally provide a basis for the majority of the American public to firmly grasp the real nature of the war in Iraq. Thank you for providing this brief, but outstanding, essay on nature of the Oil Law and the opposition to it in Iraq. A few comments on the Pat Smith's gratitude for Bush's "initiative to try[] to decrease the future cost of oil" and that statement that "we cannot live without oil." The Iraq war has nothing to do with trying to decrease the cost of oil. On the contrary, to the extent it has anything to do with prices, its goal is to increase the price of oil, or maintain its current high price, by placing control of oil production in the hands of the Big Four (Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell) which would limit production to levels that would maximize prices and profits. As noted, the benfits of these high prices would accrue to the owners of the oil companies and their American technicians. Further, the real costs of obtaining these profits---the cost of the war itself---is being born by the Iraqi people in death, dismemberment, disease, and the destruction of their country and society, and by the American people in huge tax expenditures which rob American society of the funds needed to address domestic problems and in the blood and bodies of our economic conscript army. It is true that every modern society needs oil to function. However, "we," that is the overwhelming majority of the American people, do not need to conquer and occupy foreign countries to obtain oil. They are quite eager to sell it to us. This war is not about "access" to oil supplies which can be obtained thru ordinary commerce. The imperialist oil companies and their neoconservative political representatives need to dominate the world's sources of oil to realize their dreams of economic and political world domination. That is what the Iraq war---and the probable war against Iran---is all about. - martin cadwell Tue, 08 May 2007 15:57:58 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/1522-tomgram-michael-schwartz-the-prize-of-iraqi-oil.html#comment-2123 Yesterday the price of gasoline went up again to $3.07 a gallon for regular. As someone who was not on the Internet until January 07 but has closely watched this situation here is an extremely simplistic fact. Even in the beginning of 2005 every time I read the newspaper many news stories began with; ” yesterday former oilman George Bush..” I always became aggravated and thought; do you think the American people do not know that at least some of your family and friends still have interests in the oil industry? Part of this war does pertain to the future cost of oil. Suddenly I realized when I had one chance to buy a potential race horse champion at the Hanover auction in Harrisburg PA; I took along another more experienced trainer than myself. We should be grateful that former oilman President Bush would take the initiative of trying to decrease the future cost of oil. We cannot live without oil. - Pat Smith Mon, 07 May 2007 22:24:35 +0100