The Role Oil Plays in the Iraq War
Is the war in Iraq about oil after all?
Writing in the liberal truthout.org, Anne Wright (who served 29 years in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves) furiously attacks last week's legislation to give additional funding to the troops in Iraq as a means to take oil rights away from the Iraqi people. As part of the funding package, Congress approved language that says if the Iraqi parliament refuses to pass oil legislation currently under review, then the U.S. will withhold reconstruction funds.
But Wright sees the Iraqi legislation as a Trojan horse for U.S. oil companies -- under the legislation, Iraq's national oil company would control only 17 of 78 known oil fields (some of these 78 have been identified but are not yet in production). The remaining known fields and all unknown ones would be up for grabs.
As Antonia Juhasz noted in an L.A. Times opinion piece in December, the much-ignored Iraq Study Group called for the privatization of Iraqi oil. Oil companies argue "increasing state ownership and rising resource nationalism" are long-term threats to global oil supplies. In this piece by NPR, an Iraqi oil expert argues that Iraq needs foreign investment, and that the new legislation would actually make it more difficult for foreign firms to invest.
But Iraqi Raed Jarrar writes in his In The Middle blog that the legislation is a direct intervention in Iraq's domestic politics and would result only in more violence in Iraq. No other Middle Eastern nation has privatized its oil reserves, Wright points out. Not surprisingly, most Iraqis want to retain control of the country's oil.
This story from The Plain Dealer in Cleveland seems to show that both sides have a point: Iraq does need foreign-based technology and companies to get its oil fields back in production, but the price may be the nation loses control of its greatest asset.
10:25 AM ET | 05-29-2007 | permalink
