Iraq: Anointing Us With Oil

Here is a real shocker: “Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/world/middleeast/12oil.html

It seems only slightly odd that all this oil has mysteriously gone missing and in the interim, big oil here in the States has had to endure record-breaking profits (namely Exxon-Mobil); poor bastards… Said 100,000 – 300,000 barrels of oil translates roughly into $5 - $15 million. “…such a large discrepancy indicated that there was either a major smuggling operation in place or that Iraq was incapable to generate accurate production figures.”

Now I’ve talked some serious trash about The New York Times, but THIS is the kind of investigative journalism we MUST see more of if the Bush crime family is to be brought where it belongs: its knees. It seems as though in the past this kind of story would be relegated to the back pages, but today it is front-page material. However, why is the past tense being used in the above citation? I know the journalist doesn’t intend to imply that such illicit activities no longer occur.

I realize at this point in time any such speculation that the administration is directly responsible for such an egregious discrepancy; they are most certainly at the very least indirectly responsible. It is this administration’s duty to ‘rebuild Iraq’s oil and electricity sectors,’ which it most certainly has not done, nor has it done anything else except maybe paint a few schoolhouses that can’t be utilized anyway for fear the teachers and students will be exploded.

While this article does not implicate anyone specifically, I cannot emphasize enough how the Bush administration must be held responsible. ‘Oh well, what the hell… There’s nothing we can do about it,’ is NOT a legit excuse. After all, doesn’t this kind of activity fall under the Halliburton umbrella of oversight (i.e. unimaginable lack thereof)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton#Iraq_controversy