Entry 254, on 2005-11-23 at 15:39:12 (Rating 5, Politics)
According to a report I read at BBC News today, it looks like the Americans and British are intending on sharing the spoils of war by taking over Iraq's oil production. The Iraqis are likely to lose up to US$200 billion in the "deal" if it goes ahead. Many people suspected the main motivation for the war in Iraq was control of oil, and this certainly appears to confirm that theory.
The new Iraqi constitution allows increased foreign investment to help exploit the huge reserves there. Apparently the deals were already being negotiated before the law was even changed. And British and American interests have been pressurising the Iraqi administration into making the changes they wanted. So who still thinks the new government is free and independent?
So how can anyone find this acceptable? Apparently its OK for bullies like the US to invade any country based on fictitious evidence, destroy their infrastructure and production capability, then take it over themselves for the benefit of their own big corporations. It really makes you wonder who the bad guys really are. Actually, I know the answer to that, the bad guys are the huge multinational corporations and the corrupt politicians who work for them.
Comment 1 by George on 2005-12-02 at 09:51:34:
Don't you think the new Iraq government is better than the old one? They should be happy we have saved them from a dictator. The companies are just helping to develop the oil reserves - that's the way foreign investment works.
Comment 2 by OJB on 2006-06-16 at 13:17:48:
Well, like everything else, this isn't a black and white issue. There are good and bad points to foreign investment. Losing $200 billion and control of your own natural resources would be fairly major factors on the negative side, I would have thought!
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