We blow up your house, you pay for the repairs

[khaosworks]

JULY 12, 2003
U.S. May Tap Oil for Iraqi Loans
By Warren Vieth
Times Staff Writer
July 11, 2003

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is considering a provocative idea to pledge some of Iraq's future oil and gas revenue to secure long-term reconstruction loans before a new Iraqi government is in place to sign off on the proposal.

The plan, endorsed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States and some of America's biggest companies, would help avert a looming cash crunch that has the potential to stall the postwar rebuilding effort. One U.S. official rated the proposal's prospects at 50-50.

But the plan is drawing fire from some administration officials, lawmakers, policy analysts and prominent Iraqis who say it would mortgage the Persian Gulf nation's most treasured resource, prevent future leaders from deciding how to spend their oil money and put U.S. taxpayers at risk.

"Iraqis believe their oil should not be touched by foreigners, that it should remain in the hands of the Iraqi government and that no one has a right to do anything before an elected government is in place," said Fadhil Chalabi, executive director of the Center for Global Energy Studies in London and a former Iraqi Oil Ministry official.

"As an economist, I believe in what they are proposing. You couldn't come up with a better formula," Chalabi said. "But Iraqi politics and the way they look at these things are not encouraging. It could create problems later on. Better to wait until a government is formed."

That may be too late, in the view of the plan's supporters. The Export-Import Bank and an industry coalition that includes Halliburton Co., Bechtel Group Inc. and other major companies that are interested in winning contracts in Iraq are warning that unless steps are taken soon to secure new funds, the reconstruction well could run dry.

"Common sense says get Iraq running. How do you get the country running? By using its own oil revenue 100% for the benefit of the Iraqi people," said Export-Import Bank Chairman Philip Merrill. "If you want to wait three or four years, be my guest. But that means the country is going to be running on the dole of the United States."

Many experts agree that Iraq is headed for a possible cash flow crisis as reconstruction costs escalate, initial funds are depleted and the resumption of oil exports is delayed due to damage caused by looting and sabotage.

But they part company over whether the U.S.-led occupation administration in Baghdad has the legal or moral authority to pledge future oil revenue as loan collateral before the issue can be debated by elected Iraqis.

"Unless a reconstituted Iraqi government or the U.N. Security Council authorizes the plan, it appears to violate international law," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles). "We do not have the right, without additional authority, to impose financial obligations on the future government of Iraq."

The really sad part is that it makes economic sense and that a reconstituted Iraqi government whose strings are yanked mildly by Washington would probably say yes to the proposal, but the Bush Adminstration is either too locked into the security problem (not helped by Bush's "Bring it on"... I'm still laughing my guts out at the sheer hubris of that statement) or too scared by the possible candidates that it's still dragging its heels on getting the Iraqis their own ruling body.

The neocons have painted themselves into a corner with this one. On the one hand, they know that if they set up their own running dog candidate the country will explode. On the other hand, they can't pay off their corporate masters who want to suck the oil revenue out of Iraq without having the same kind of political fallout. The saddest part of this is that if the money for reconstruction doesn't come out from Iraq, it has to come up from the American taxpayer. And the popularity of that move with the voters is obvious. You can hear the GOP squirming uncomfortably in their seats already, thanks to Mr Tax Cut.

This shows the short-sightedness of the neocon vision. They actually believed that once you got rid of Hussein, the Iraqi people would start drinking Starbucks. The necons, being the ultimate expression of American insularity and arrogance believed that they could actually impose American culture on a native people and have the native people happily bend over and take it up the ass. The world is starting to realize that a majority of Americans actually believe this crap and are having their collective eyebrows raised by, oh, about three meters.

Dubya, buddy - listen to the Brits when they tell you that the way you're handling security in Iraq is all wrong. The Brits have had two hundred years more experience of being a colonial power than you, and if you want any experts in keeping the native populace cowed and in chaos and unable to riot against you, they're the guys.

In the meantime, I wish you luck in figuring out a way to rape Iraq quietly. Not.

"Bring it on" indeed. Christ on a pogo stick.