donderdag 25 januari 2007

The Empire 157


Telkens weer als neoconservatieven trots spreken van 'onze, de westerse Verlichting,' weet ik meteen dat we met propagandisten te maken hebben. De geschiedenis wordt nog steeds bepaald door de schaarse grondstoffen.
Al vier eeuwen geleden, aan het begin van de burgerlijke samenleving, schreef de Britse filosoof Hobbes over 'een voortdurende en rusteloze begeerte naar macht en nog eens macht, die pas ophoudt met de dood. En de oorzaak hiervan is niet altijd dat iemand hoopt op een intenser genot dan hij reeds bereikt heeft; of dat hij geen genoegen kan nemen met een gematigde macht; maar omdat hij niet de macht en de middelen om goed te leven... kan verzekeren, zonder het verwerven van meer.' Het is juist die drijfveer die absoluut centraal staat in een kapitalistische parlementaire democratie. De rest is naief wishful thinking of domweg ordinaire propaganda. Zolang de grootste bullebak niet door het internationaal recht aan banden kan worden gelegd, bestaat er geen functionerend recht, dan bestaat alleen nog het natuur recht, het recht van de sterkste. De geschiedenis laat keer op keer zien waar dit op uitloopt.

'Iraq: Oil Will Determine US Success or Failure
Nicola Nasser, Arab News

While the Iraqis were busy counting their death toll of more than 650,000 since March 2003, stealthily and suddenly the US occupation’s oil prize rang louder than the war drums to alert the regional oil producers as well as the major world consumers to guard against the looming threat coming out of Iraq.
Without a decisive military victory, the US occupation of Iraq seems to be about to grab its oil prize. This prize has been the dream of the successive US administrations; on Jan. 18, it came one step closer to reality when Iraq’s Oil Committee approved the new draft hydrocarbon law, sent it to the Cabinet within a week and, when approved, will go to the Parliament immediately thereafter.
The early draft of the law was prepared by BearingPoint American consultants, hired by the Bush administration, and sent to the White House and major Western petroleum corporations in July, and then to the International Monetary Fund two months later, while most Iraqi legislators and public remained in the dark.
The approved production-sharing agreements (PSAs) favor investing foreign oil companies with 70 percent of oil revenue to recoup their initial outlay, and then companies can reap 20 percent of the profit without any tax or other restrictions on their transfers abroad.
The Republican-Democratic electoral wrangling, no matter how ferocious it was or would become over internal issues, could not overlap a “red line” consensus on never compromising the US national oil strategic interests, which both parties are determined to defend regardless of how much American or non-American blood would spill in their defense.
The bipartisan Iraq Study Group Report articulated that consensus concisely in a straightforward language. It is noteworthy that Bush who ignored the essential recommendations of this report had selectively adopted recommendations 62 and 63. Recommendation 63 stipulates the US should “assist” Iraqi leaders in privatizing the national oil industry into a “commercial enterprise” to encourage investment by the multinational oil companies.
Recommendation 62 urges the US government to help draft an Iraqi oil law that “creates a fiscal and legal framework for investment” and, in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to “press Iraq to continue reducing subsidies in the energy sector...until Iraqis pay market prices for oil products.”
Bush made his first public demand of the Iraqi government to pass the oil law in December. In July last year, his Energy Secretary Bodman announced in Baghdad that senior US oil company executives would not enter Iraq without passage of the new law. Petroleum Economist magazine later reported that US oil companies put passage of the oil law before security concerns as the deciding factor over their entry into Iraq. Passing an oil law has been also a key demand of the United States in providing further military support to Baghdad’s “national unity government.”'
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Geen opmerkingen:

Peter Flik en Chuck Berry-Promised Land

mijn unieke collega Peter Flik, die de vrijzinnig protestantse radio omroep de VPRO maakte is niet meer. ik koester duizenden herinneringen ...