Take Back the Oil Companies!

In an era of oil scarcity we no longer have the luxury of allowing a handful of corporate plutocrats to decide the fate of the global economy. The industry chieftains have deliberately closed down refineries to lower production and enhance their profits. They have sluiced boatloads of cash into the political system to ensure that congress and the executive carry out their directives. Presently, there's not an inch of daylight between the Exxon boardroom and 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, they both operate off the very same script.

The oil industry is the primary beneficiary of Bush's war in Iraq. Industry executives had a place at the table when Dick Cheney carved up Iraq's oil fields for future distribution among America's elite corporations. Freedom of Information requests have provided "edited documents from the Cheney Energy Policy group. One of these was a map showing lease areas where oil drilling was planned (in Iraq). Another consisted of a list of 40 oil companies from 30 nations who were slated to get permission to drill for oil in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The problem for the US and Britain was that their oil companies were absent from this list of those who were to get concessions..The US and UK would thus be frozen out of what was clearly one of the greatest material prizes in world history." ("The CFR Debates" Lawerence Shoup; Z Magazine March 2006)

This explains why the industry backed a bumbling oil-man from Texas who showed neither interest in policy nor aptitude for leadership. Bush became the draught horse for executing an agenda that would replace diminishing Saudi reserves with the second largest supplies in the world, and then, conveniently remove France and Russia from the list of competitors.

2,400 American servicemen and 100,000 Iraqis have now sacrificed their lives on the altar of corporate profiteering. Bush has spread his energy war from Central Asia to the Middle East; increasing the incidents of terrorism by 4 fold. The American middle class is being crushed by soaring gas prices and government malfeasance while well-heeled oil moguls trundle off to the bank with the largest profits in history.

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