Slick McCain talks and skids on that spreading oil stain..
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Iraq By Moonlight
.. Here's the smell of the blood still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand!…-Shakespeare..

This war made to order brought tears and pain
By madmen, gun or sacrifice they die
And the smoke of Baal rises to the sky;
In blackened earth their buried cries remain.
The cycle of blood from war runs again
As the dark side of the moon rises high;
But men who trade in death always deny
Power they serve is for their own acclaim.
The lies they told live on in their great wealth
Paid for by limbs and lives lost at high noon,
With cities decimated and despoiled
And centuries of art left prey for stealth,
The light of truth glares above these ruins
And on the palms of men who warred for oil.

©Artemesia
.. 7/1/2006

but I won't be having any.

I think McCain mooned the Congressional ass that the 'oil taboo' still covers..Or else 'weapons of mass destruction' would fall on the WhiteHouse lawn. There is a long, slow but steady oil leak about the war in Iraq. America seems to be waking up to the Oz wizards' behind this debacle.
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Iraq Oil Reserves and Production History.

With 115 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, Iraq has the world’s second-largest endowment of oil, amounting to 11% of the global total.

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(For those who had no idea)

"Some say" that if Saudi Arabia were honest about the depletion of many of their older oil fields, then Iraq would move into the number 1 slot.

This is a very good poem.

We can only hope the madness will cease sooner than later.

Peace,
MaryPrankster

NightSwimmer..

How do you like this in the offing..Privatization of Iraqi oil.. I don't recall reading about this in any of the obvious places..or hearing it about in on CNN or MSNBC..
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At some point..all those foxes who have been biding their time will be in that henhouse. They're licking their lips right now.
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Thank you Mary Prankster..

Very hopefully the coming election will start to bring some relief from this madness and hope to the soldiers caught in those endless tours of duty.
Peace..
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Have a look at this.

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ANWR and Iraq are two famous examples of big oil reserves contested and (so far) denied the IOCs. I'm as sure as I can be that regime change was the neocons' way of seizing control of Iraq's oil and gas reserves and leveraging control of the stuff in surrounding countries. It was as much a swipe at OPEC as Saddam.

Unfortunately for Herr Chenney and company, Iraq backfired; it was easy for an inexpensive insurgency (maybe motivated and funded by Sunnis in SA) to deny US control of the Iraqi reserves. That's put a major crimp in IOC plans to get into Iraq (access) and ramp up their production.

Dubina..
There obviously is a chess game going on in the 'inept' Iraqi goverrment that Bush & Co. don't know how to tap into and control except by throwing cash into a disappearing pot..Just as it was 'controlled chaos' by the Pentagon that kept this war going..and going..until the oil reserves could be secured, it is probably to the advantage of the Iraqis at the top to keep the control of the oil income and production in their version of 'chaos.' So far, the right stick hasn't been found to dislodge the honey. I am far from sophisticated and knowledgable in knowing how the oil factions/industry is geared together from drilling to distrubution, ownerships and apportionments..I suspect that the average Congressman only sees limited pieces of how 'oil' as a whole..works from A to Z. I think that ignorance is also fueling this war. And..I can see that the 'terrorists' may be a needed distraction in this mix of chaos.
Until our Gov. knows how the dust will settle IF this war comes to..or is permitted to end, the 'oil' will remain up in the air..until the dust can settle to the advantage of the US and the Iraqis with 'shares' spelled out for the factions concerned.

Solutions may eventually come from Int'l Oil companies so that everyone saves face..Some new organization that counters OPEC and that Iraq could trust as a new Big Brother that in effect, could surround and include the US interests but preclude domination might be part of an answer in the future. A new kind of cooperative force..Until some kind of reconciling force enters this mix, I don't see hope for the 'dust' to settle, this war to subside. I'm just speculating out of ignorance..I don't expect the neo-con/oil factions that started this war to go away.
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I'd separate Big Oil from the neoconservatives, but it's pretty clear they're in cahoots to some extent. Dick Cheney signifies that.

I think the reason we built permanent bases in Iraq was to safeguard / establish authority over Iraq's oil resources. If that happened, IOCs would have easy access. If we leave, it's not clear that the IOCs would still get access. IOCs have foothold involvement in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait, but SOCs dominate the Middle East and cream its oil riches.

I think if we pull out, Iraq's oil development will mainly be done by a state oil company or companies.

Big Oil's imperative at this point is to get more access to more profitable prospects. They get access to the Athabasca oil sands and ultra-deep offshore stuff, but they'd much rather have the shallow easy good stuff. Who could blame them? But look at Jubak's piece on XOM. He thinks Exxon will either be bailed out by an oil price collapse or disappear in a blizzard of dividends. Imagine that: oil so costly to produce and consume that's it's not worth producing or consuming anymore. That's radical because you have to imagine what people would do without cheap motor fuel. Big changes in store. Other IOCs will offer many technical solutions, but they won't save our wasteful "economy" from an extreme makeover.

"oil so costly to produce and consume that's it's not worth producing or consuming anymore. That's radical because you have to imagine what people would do without cheap motor fuel. Big changes in store. Other IOCs will offer many technical solutions, but they won't save our wasteful "economy" from an extreme makeover."

Today, the big ripple affect is also hitting our mass transit systems, up 5 - 10% already. I hope we don't precipitate a pretext for war/invasion of Venezuala (LOL) ..we've been grooming Chavez to look like the next Saddam..

Also..I've wondered if by holding back from releasing oil from our own oil reserves, Bush & Co. isn't using the pressure of high oil prices here to push for further exploiting and opening up Alaska and other 'public/protected' land for oil and other resources..Necessity being the mother of betrayal..

The days of reckoning for earth's resources are underway..I guess to the victors or losers..will belong the spOILs.

Thanks for all the input and those links..What a mess!
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