WE WENT TO WAR FOR OIL, 9-11 WAS THE EXCUSE

In a past address address, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called suggestions that the US is really after Iraq's oil "utter nonsense. We don't take our forces and go around the world and try to take other people's real estate or other people's resources, their oil. That's just not what the United States does," he said. "We never have, and we never will. That's not how democracies behave."

BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid (?) contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. The deals, expected to be announced on June 30th, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry to say the very least, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts, but there are still American advisers to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.

Iraq is now our oil colony... Well, are you going to be supporting a war because the price of fuel is getting ever higher? Is the price of cheaper fuel worth the blood of our sons and daughters? God, save us from the hypocrisy and lies of our 'leaders'.