[Rhodes22-list] More Politics

Sat May 1 08:26:13 EDT 2004

Slim,

The oil industry is inherently capital intensive & highly technical.  In
about 2 months, the United States is going to turn over a country with the
2nd largest proven crude oil reserves in the world (The Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia is #1) back to the Iraqi people.  Decades of war, tribal blood feuds,
mismanagement by the Saddam regime, economic sanctions, and the corrupt UN
Oil for Food program had left the Iraqi oil industry in a real mess.  Since
the end of the war about a year ago & despite continuing terrorist attacks
on the oil production & transportation infrastructure, the United States has
gotten them from back just about no oil production to pumping about 2.5
million barrels/day in the beginning of April, 2004.  There are limits to
how fast the crude oil can be pumped in order to get the most oil from the
resource.  Iraq should be pumping about 5-6 million barrels/day for a nice
sustainable extraction rate.

War is an inherently messy, confusing business.  We need to stop fixating on
the day-to-day details and look at the bigger picture.  Five years from now,
there is no doubt that Iraq will be better off for us having overthrown the
Saddam regime.

Think about what we are proposing to do in about 2 months.  It's
extraordinary & unprecedented in the history of the world!  I only hope
whatever government takes over in Iraq on June 30th, uses the oil profits
wisely for the benefit of Iraq & her long-suffering people.  But, make no
mistake, one way or another, the west will have the Middle Eastern oil.  The
only question is whether this exchange will take place as a result of fair
trade or at the barrel of a gun.  The west has absolutely no choice in the
matter.

So, YES! of course it's about the oil.  The west just needs to keep the lid
on the Middle East for about another 50 years.  At that point, their oil
reserves will be mostly depleted.  After that, the Middle East will become a
political backwater & largely irrelevant on the world stage.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Alm" <salm at mn.rr.com>
To: "Rhodes" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 6:00 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] More Politics

> Roger,
>
> There's no denying the bloodshed for this product.  I only hope your
> estimates are wrong.  Hurry up and finish that degree so you can get to
work
> solving some of these problems!  Time's running out and frankly, I'm
> counting on guys like you to fix it.
>
> Slim
>
>
>
> On 4/30/04 6:20 PM, "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net> wrote:
>
> > Gentlemen,
> >
> > The world population is currently at about 6.2 billion people &
continuing
> > to grow exponentially.  Depending upon which study you believe, that's
about
> > 2X - 3X the size of the population that could be supported W/O modern
> > technology.  Like it or not, that means transportation, energy systems,
> > infrastructure, & products that run on crude oil.  If the civilized
world
> > does not take steps to assure the uninterrupted flow of crude oil from
the
> > Middle East; then, more people are going to have to die off than have
died
> > in all of the wars and all of the plagues throughout human history
combined!
> > Please keep that in mind as you go on & on about how there should be no
> > blood for oil.  The plain, unvarnished, irrefutable, inescapable truth
is
> > that OIL IS BLOOD!  Wrap your arms around that concept & learn to deal
with
> > it.  Any other attitude is so naive that it must be considered childish.
> > For everything else that G.W. Bush has done wrong, he clearly
understands
> > that basic truth.
> >
> > Roger Pihlaja
> > S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Wally Buck" <tnrhodey at hotmail.com>
> > To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> > Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 9:40 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] More Politics
> >
> >
> >> Steve,
> >>
> >> I wouldn't call Bush's taking us to war over false hoods a "minor
lapse".
> >> Talk about understatement!
> >>
> >> I agree that the French and Russians were on the take. At least when
the
> >> French and Russian's were on the take no Americans were getting killed.
I
> >> have said all along this war is about oil and Paul's post supports my
view
> >> point. WMD, human rights, freedom and so on all sound good but if there
> >> wasn't a drop of oil in the area the US, France, and Russia wouldn't
give
> > a
> >> flip.So now we are at "war " and the US controls the oil. I don't see
how
> >> this is a big improvement.
> >>
> >> Wally
> >>
> >>
> >>> From: Steve <rhodes2282 at yahoo.com>
> >>> Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> >>> To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] More Politics
> >>> Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 11:25:08 -0700 (PDT)
> >>>
> >>> Very interesting, Paul.  You know, I figured it was
> >>> only a matter of time before this came out.  A country
> >>> such a French putting monetary issue before the safety
> >>> of the world.  We should all get down on our knees &
> >>> thank God that we have our President (and a GREAT
> >>> President at that) & Tony Blair over in England that
> >>> was willing to take a stand for whats right!!!!!!!!!!
> >>> Where me a flag; I feel like saluting it:-)
> >>> Steve
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --- pdgrand at nospam.wmis.net wrote:
> >>>> Forgive me if you receive this twice.  I
> >>>> accidentally left out the subject
> >>>> on the first try. - Paul
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> April 28, 2004 -- ANYONE who pines for genuine
> >>>> international
> >>>> multilateralism would do well to follow the bribes
> >>>> now being uncovered in
> >>>> the United Nations' Oil-for- Food scandal.
> >>>> Why did France and Russia oppose efforts to topple
> >>>> Saddam Hussein's regime?
> >>>> And why did they press constantly, throughout the
> >>>> '90s, for an expansion of
> >>>> Iraqi oil sales? Was it their empathy for the
> >>>> starving children of that
> >>>> impoverished nation? Their desire to stop the United
> >>>> States from arrogantly
> >>>> imposing its vision upon the Middle East?
> >>>>
> >>>> It now looks like they it was simply because they
> >>>> were on the take. Saddam
> >>>> was their cash cow. If President Bush has suffered
> >>>> some discredit over his
> >>>> apparently false - but not disingenuous - claims of
> >>>> Iraqi weapons of mass
> >>>> destruction, the lapse is minor compared to the
> >>>> outright personal
> >>>> selfishness and criminality that appears to have
> >>>> motivated many of those
> >>>> who opposed his efforts to rid the world of one of
> >>>> its worst dictators.
> >>>>
> >>>> Throughout the '90s, France and Russia badgered the
> >>>> United States and
> >>>> Britain to increase Iraqi oil production. President
> >>>> Bill Clinton and Prime
> >>>> Minister Tony Blair fought them at each step, but
> >>>> then reluctantly gave
> >>>> way. First Iraq was allowed to sell 500,000 barrels
> >>>> daily. Then, on Franco-
> >>>> Russian insistence, it was raised to 1 million, then
> >>>> to 2 million and,
> >>>> finally, to 3 million barrels a day.
> >>>>
> >>>> Each time, America and Britain - the nations now
> >>>> accused of coveting Iraqi
> >>>> oil - resisted the increases in Iraqi production and
> >>>> urged tighter controls
> >>>> over the program. Each time, the French and the
> >>>> Russians prattled on about
> >>>> the rights of Iraqi sovereignty and the need to feed
> >>>> the children.
> >>>>
> >>>> Now we know why the French and Russians were so
> >>>> insistent. Iraqi government
> >>>> documents (leaked to the Baghdad newspaper Al Mada)
> >>>> list at least 270
> >>>> individuals and entities who got vouchers allowing
> >>>> them to sell Iraqi oil -
> >>>> and to keep much of the money. These vouchers, and
> >>>> the promise of instant
> >>>> great wealth they carried with them, bought vital
> >>>> support in the United
> >>>> Nations to let Saddam stay in power.
> >>>>
> >>>> The list of those receiving these bribes includes
> >>>> France's former French
> >>>> Interior Minister Charles Pasqua (who's a leader of
> >>>> Chirac's party) and
> >>>> Patrick Maugein, the head of the French Oil firm
> >>>> Soco International.
> >>>> France's former U.N. ambassador, Jean-Bernard
> >>>> Merimee, got vouchers to sell
> >>>> 11 million barrels.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> In Russia, the payoff chain reached right into the
> >>>> "office of the Russian
> >>>> president." President Vladimir Putin's Peace and
> >>>> Unity Party also got
> >>>> vouchers, as did the Soviet-era Prime Minister
> >>>> Nikolai Ryzhkov and the
> >>>> Russian Orthodox Church. Nationalist leader Vladimir
> >>>> Zhirinovsky shared in
> >>>> the largesse.
> >>>>
> >>>> Not to be left behind, the Rev. Jean Marie Benjamin
> >>>> of the Vatican got the
> >>>> rights to sell 4.5 million barrels as recompense for
> >>>> setting up a meeting
> >>>> between Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and the
> >>>> pope.
> >>>>
> >>>> Indeed, the list indicates that Benon Sevan, the
> >>>> United Nations official in
> >>>> charge of the Oil-for-Food program. received
> >>>> vouchers. He denies the
> >>>> charge, but has decided to retire next month anyway.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> At the start of the Oil-for-Food program, America
> >>>> and Britain proposed that
> >>>> the money flow only to accounts entirely controlled
> >>>> by the United Nations.
> >>>> Soon this standard was lowered to include accounts
> >>>> not actually controlled
> >>>> by the United Nations, but only monitored by it.
> >>>>
> >>>> Then-Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) warned that
> >>>> "oil is fungible" and
> >>>> noted that once Iraq was allowed to pump and sell
> >>>> it, Saddam could sell all
> >>>> he wanted outside of officially sanctioned channels
> >>>> and nobody could tell
> >>>> which black liquid was legal and which not. But
> >>>> nobody imagined that there
> >>>> were actual bribes going to specific French, Russian
> >>>> and U.N. officials as
> >>>> part of the program.
> >>>>
> >>>> Now it appears that Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
> >>>> sanctimonious posturing
> >>>> may have concealed oil bribes which reached high up
> >>>> in the ranks of the
> >>>> U.N. organization itself.
> >>>>
> >>>> The defect of international coalitions is that they
> >>>> include the just and
> >>>> the unjust, the bribed and the honest, the
> >>>> democratic and the autocratic.
> >>>> And their members cannot be trusted equally. The
> >>>> group that stood up and
> >>>> backed the invasion of Iraq was nicknamed "the
> >>>> Coalition of the Willing."
> >>>> Now it appears it was also "the Coalition of the
> >>>> Honest."
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> __________________________________________________
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> >>> www.rhodes22.org/list
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
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