|
|
 |
  |
| Sunday, 11 July 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Politics of oil by V. R. K. de Silva
Oil is the centrepiece of the US economy and policy. The consumption of petroleum is awesome. The first user, the automobile which links on oil products is the largest consumer of steel rubber and synthetics. The petrochemical sector by itself is enormous. The importance of oil in the Middle east was recognised by the British and French when they secretly signed in 1916 the Sykes - Pikot agreement whereby the Ottoman Empire (Turkish empire) was to be fragmented into a patchwork of states ruled by the British and the French. This secret agreement was exposed by the Soviet Union which retrieved a copy. But a year earlier in 1920 by the San Remo treaty the oil wealth of the Ottoman empire was to be shared by the UK France and the US. This led to the arbitrary creation of artificial states such as Kuwait, and mixed Kurdish and Arab population in Iraq and Syria which Procolonial regimes. In 1945, when Britain was still a major colonial power US and British co-ordination was highlighted in the following memo. "Our petroleum policy towards the UK is predicated on a mutual recognition of a very extensive joint interest and upon control at least for the free petroleum resources of the world US - UK agreement upon the broad forward looking pattern for the development, utilisation of petroleum resources under the control of nationals of the two countries is of the highest strategic and commercial importance". (Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Petroleum Division June 1 1945 - FRUS Vol viii page 54) "Two years later the British government expressly noted that the Middle East was a vital prize for any power interested in world influence or domination since control of the world's oil resources meant control of the worlds economy. This clearly illustrates the reasons for going to war clouded by statements of weapons of mass destruction and to overthrow the evil Saddam for liberty and install a client state. After the second world war with the liquidation of the British and French Empires the US stepped in as the dominant neo-colonial power in the region. The US imperial goals were clearly stated in a 1953 internal document: U.S. policy is to keep the sources of oil in the Middle East in American hands. In 1958, a secret British document stated that the principal objectives of Western policy in the M.E." Saudi Arabia "The major British and Western interests in the Persian Gulf (are) (a) to ensure free access for Britain and other Western countries to oil produced in states bordering the gulf (b) to ensure the continued availability of that oil on favourable terms and for surplus revenues of Kuwait (c) to bar the spread of Communism and pseudo - Communism in the area and subsequently to defend the area against the brand of Arab Nationalism". Saudi Arabia was one of the most backward countries in the Middle East. It was ruled by tribes. With the growth of trade and with the overwhelming power of the Wahhabis the country was united but the British Dutch and the Portuguese set up bases on the sea board of Arabia. Subsequently with the discovery of great reserves of oil in the 1930's the US made her entry into the affairs of Saudi Arabia. The defence of Saudi Arabia was vital to the defence of the US. This became a key pillar of US foreign policy and propped up the decadent feudal regime of the house of AL Saud which has been called the largest family business in the world. It had no regard for democratic or civil rights of citizens millions of migrant workers produce its wealth. The royal family has survived since the US has provided over US $ 33 billion in military hardware upto 2002. Vital for the production of oil is the cheap immigrant labour both skilled and unskilled. A new phase in Saudi Arabia has now opened with the attacks of AL Queda to remove both the Royal family and the US. Iraq In pursuing the declared policy of the US to keep the sources of oil in the Middle East the attack on Iraq was carried out after a media blitzkrieg. Weapons of mass destruction and the Evil Saddam and in defence of liberty and democracy were the catchwords of the coalition led invasion Weapons of mass destruction were never found and the blatant lies uttered were clearly exposed as subsequent events emerged. Aerial Bombings of a scale unheard of before with the deadliest of lethal armaments led to the occupation of Iraq and the boast of Bush that "major combat was over". But not so and when Saddam said ten years before when senior Bush unleashed desert storm that this was the mother of all wars is now proving correct. The divide and rule policy of the Imperialists had boomeranged when the Shia population too rose in revolt with the Sunnis. The ferocity of the resistance of the people of Iraq was never anticipated by the Coalition forces. The opposition of France Russia and Germany and the total disregard of the International community (the UN) against the invasion has made Bush junior and Blair isolated in the eyes of the world. From the imperious hights the Coalition whimpering and begging for the international community to step into carry out peacekeeping in Iraq in the civil war conditions and the so-called handover of sovereignty to US hand picked Council of Ministers is only a continuation of colonial power policy in the Middle East from the time the East India Company established trading posts in Basra and Baghdad. The human toll with the invasion going into millions has united the Iraqi people against the Coalition and winning the hearts and minds of Iraq is only for the consumption of the US Britain and Australia. The US has appointed a kangaroo court to try Saddam and his close associates and the identity and credentials of the presiding judge had not been revealed. Man has been born in chains like Saddam and will break free the shackles and become a Superman like Saddam. The entire policy of the colonizing powers can be summed up thus. "Naked aggression, diplomatic deceit, economic and moral depravity are the hallmarks of these colonizing powers, then and now". Kuwait An artificial creation of the super powers historically part of Iraq holds ten percent of the worlds oil reserves. For its survival Kuwait has to follow super power policy. Dr. AL - Fraj President of the Kuwait center for Strategic Studies sums the policy of Kuwait. "For us, if there's an economic interest then we understand American policy. When Americans don't speak in this language, when they talk about human rights, women's liberation, we don't understand them. When they talk business, oil, we know. We know the liberation of Kuwait had to happen, because you are talking about amalgamation of interests. Iraq sought to double the percentage of oil reserves. It would become the real factor in deciding global oil policy. That was not acceptable from a regime like Saddam Hussein's. When the Americans talk real politics, like this, we understand them." This is the thinking not confined to Kuwait alone but also all the reactionary regimes in the Middle East. Politics of oil in Central Asia "Turkistan, Afghanistan, Transcaspia, Persia to many these words breathe only a sense of utter remoteness or a memory of strange vicissitudes and moribund romance. To me I confess they are pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the domination of the world". Lord Curzon [later Viceroy of India]. The vast oil and gas resources of Central Asia - Caspian and former Soviet states in Central Asia portends to the unfolding of the great new game, part of a larger geo-political battle. In the late nineteenth century. British and Russian empires played power games in Central Asia with Afghanistan as the designated Buffer Zone. This time around the name of the game is oil and gas - and the pipelines necessary to bring them to far away markets. With the breakup of the Soviet Union new forces were unleashed. The almost inexhaustible supplies of oil and gas in the Caspian sea basin of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, countries are competing to get the Caspian oil to western markets. The routes are: In the rerun of the first great game the 19th century imperial rivalry between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia - players once again position themselves to control the Eurasian Landmass. Today the US had taken over the leading role from the British. Along with Russia, new regional powers, such as China, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, have entered the arena, and transnational oil corporations, are also pursuing their own interests. The main spoils in today's great game are Caspian oil and gas on its shores and the bottom of the Caspian sea, lie the world biggest untapped oil resources ranging from 110 to 243 Bn barrels of crude, worth upto US $ 4 trillion. According to estimates, in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan alone reserves are estimated at 130 Bn barrels, more than 3 times the US reserves. Oil giants such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco and BP have already invested more than 30 billion in new production facilities. The US Vice-President Dick Cheney, says "I cannot think of a time when we had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian" in a speech to oil industrialists. In May 2001 the US Vice-President recommended in the national energy report, that the President make Energy Security a priority of our "trade and foreign policy" singling out the Caspian basin as a rapidly growing new area of supply. In pursuance of this policy of Energy Security the US have deployed combat troops and established bases in Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring Uzbekistan the former Soviet States. Bush has used his massive military build up in Central Asia to seal the Cold War Victory against Russia and to contain Chinese influence and tighten the noose around Iran. Most importantly Washington - supported by the Blair government - is exploiting the so-called War on Terror to further American oil interests in the Caspian region. This would spawn thuggish dictators and corrupt Sandi Oil sheiks and so-called terrorists. The US policy is to diversify energy supply, to wean away the dependence on Oil from the Arab-dominated Opec Cartel, which they fear is using its near-monopoly position as pawn and leverage against industrialized countries. Washington's Great Game opponents particularly in Moscow and Beijing have time and again resented the arrogant imperialism of the US. For the majority of the Russian establishment it is unthinkable to permanently cede its dominant role in Central Asia. In October 2003, Russia's Defense Minister, Sergei Ivanov, demanded publicly that the Americans pull out within two years. President Putin has signed new Security Pacts with the Central Asia rulers, allowing Russian troops to set up a new military base in Kyrgyzstan, which lies only 35 miles away from the US airbase. The Bush cabinet is an oil consortium in and of it self. He and his close associates are bathed in oil investments. Bush was a major player. Vice-President Dick Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton Corporation which is the Worlds largest oil Services Company. Cheney and his wife hold large stock options in Halliburton. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans holds 940,000 options in Tom Brown Inc. a Denver based oil company. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton worked for the right-wing law firm Mountain States Legal Foundation, funded by large oil and automobile companies. Super hawk Condoleezza Rice was on the the Board of Directors of Chevron from 1991 to 1993 and her financial assets included 250,000 shares of Chevron. Christine Whitman administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, owns corporate shares in five oil companies as well as Ford Motors. She also owns 853 acres of oil producing properties in Texas. These are the people at the helm of the US government. Afghanistan Afghanistan is the Buffer Zone of power politics in Central Asia. The US., Russia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan are the major players in this embattled country where violence has raged on a constant and daily basis throughout the country at an unprecedented scale for decades. The so-called battle against terror and the so-called fight for Democracy, Religious Tolerance and Ethnic Co-existence belie the actual truth-oil, gas and pipelines. The US involvement in Afghanistan for the expulsion of the Soviet Union funded financed and militarily trained and equipped the Mujaheddin. With the rise of the Taliban the US trained its guns on them with the assistance of the war lords and other ethnic elements because they were frustrated from obtaining concessions in oil, gas and pipelines through Afghanistan. The US installed a puppet regime under CIA trained Karzai with no effective control beyond Kabul. The Great Games is not over. The US as the only super power pursuing policies of naked aggression, diplomatic deceit economic and financial enslavement and moral depravity in the Middle East, Central Asia and Afghanistan, the African Continent and South America, in a word, the whole world over, has defied the longings of the peace loving people of the world. America like that crazed mongrel is fighting for a bitch in heat - black gold - oil. Bush the messiah of the cluster bomb and the satellite guided missile, the symbol of imperial America has emerged as the greatest threat to world peace. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Oil, that viscous substance that has made countries go to war since its
ability to power economies was discovered more than a century ago. In 1870
John D. Rockefeller first American billionaire, the robber baron founded
standard oil which changed the course of history. The story of the growth
of standard oil spawned corporate power to ride roughshod over law and
overflowed into international practices backed by governments to shatter
moral considerations in its most intense forms.
