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Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Wenceslao: Thirst for oil
By Bong Wenceslao
Text Reax contributor Ping Uckung made good his promise by sending me last week photocopies of selected articles of the April 8-15, 2002 issue of Newsweek that tackled “The Future of Energy” (the United States’ future, of course). Taken within the context of the war in Iraq, one could get insights there on why the US invaded that country.
No, the invasion was not about Saddam Hussein, the man is only incidental to Bush’s intention. I pity, then, the warmongers, who were deceived by top guns of the White House and Pentagon. More than that, I pity the ordinary people of Iraq, who were bombed, shot at and thus killed, wounded, their lives displaced and their country devastated.
All for what? John Barry, in the article “Pipeline Brigade” asked: “Is George W. Bush using war as an extension of his oil policy?” He wasn’t writing of course, about the US-led invasion of Iraq. That would come a year later. Still the question he raised was prophetic.
While Barry talked about US policy in Colombia, he seemed to hit the other target well.
In 2002, the US announced a $700 million aid package for the Andean region, supposedly to fight guerilla war and drug running in the area. What was not said was that half of the money would go to the training and equipping of a Colombian brigade of around 2,000 soldiers to protect a pipeline used by Occidental Petroleum of California.
But Colombia is only one aspect of this tale. Remember Afghanistan, the country the US invaded supposedly to flush out the hated Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network? Barry mentioned suspicions that the “war on terror” is really about oil, what with “Pentagon’s clear intent to keep access to bases in the oil-rich Caspian Sea region.”
Barry’s article was but a side bar to the main story by Tony Emerson entitled “The Thirst for Oil.” It reported that in May last year, Bush released an energy policy that painted a bleak scenario of “dwindling supplies of oil and gas, an antiquated power grid,” etc. threatening to drag the US into the “worst energy-supply crisis since the 1970s.”
Consider that the US is the biggest consumer of oil. Yet, big oil companies have admitted that, “they can’t meet US fossil-fuel needs from US reserves.”
An example: no major firm expressed interest in the small natural-gas fields Bush eyed in Alaska. “But when Saudi Arabia invited foreigners to explore its gas reserves in 1998, US majors rushed in.”
Indeed, in Newsweek’s “Geopolitical Guide to the World of Oil,” it was admitted that the Middle East is still oil’s heartland. And here is what it said about Iraq: “with its 75 billion barrels of untapped reserves, and potentially an additional 88 billion beneath the Western Desert, it’s a contender (as US source of oil). The obstacle: Saddam.” Uh-oh.
P.S. “Seeing scenes on television of unbridled theft, looting and lawlessness (when Saddam Hussein’s regime crumbled), I can only say, yeah the Iraqis are already ripe for American democracy,” said Mr. Uckung. Here’s a variation to that: “Newsflash: Bush wants Saddam found alive so he can restore law and order in Iraq.”
Finally, here’s a variation of a text message being circulated around: “When you feel that nobody loves you, nobody cares for you and everyone is ignoring you, you should start asking yourself: Am I George W. Bush?”
(For your Text Reax contributions, my cell phone no. is 09166496783. Please give your complete name and address. E-mail: opinion@sunstar.com. ph and cowens21@lycos.com)
(April 16, 2003 issue)
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