Lighting Havana$ With C-note$

by pessimist

A common theme here on The Left Coaster is how well King George Warmonger takes care of the Topper$. In return, they take very good care of him. In fact, he's very much beholden to them for services rendered in preventing the consequences of his actions from catching up with him:

Global Eye

Bush lied.

He stole.

He murdered.

In broad daylight.

And he got away with it.

That's the story. But you'll never hear it at the Press Club.

The hoary adage that "there are none so blind as those who will not see" should be carved in stone at the National Press Club in Washington. Surely there can be no better motto for the cozy clubhouse of America's media mavens, who seem preternaturally incapable of recognizing the truth -- even when it stands before them, monstrous and unavoidable, like a giant Cyclops smeared with blood.

For just as they botched the most important story of our time -- the Bush Administration's transparently deceptive campaign to launch a war of aggression against Iraq -- the clubby mavens are now missing the crowning achievement of this vast crime: the mother of all backroom deals, a cynical pact sealed by murder, unfolding before our eyes.

The Administration's true objective in Iraq is brutally simple: U.S. domination of Middle East oil. The objective was revealed -- yet again -- in a recent Washington appearance by Iraqi Finance Minister Adil Abdel-Mahdi.

Like we didn't know that already. So why bring it all up again?

The (s)election of an Iraqi government was intended to create a legitimacy that wouldn't otherwise exist, and which would not be questioned when it took the following action:

Standing alongside a top State Department official, Abdel-Mahdi announced that Iraq's government wants to open the nation's oil fields to foreign investment -- not only the pumped product flowing through the pipes, but the very oil in the ground, the common patrimony of the Iraqi people. The minister said plainly that this sweet deal -- placing the world's second-largest oil reserves in a few private hands -- would be "very promising to the American investors and to American enterprise, certainly to oil companies," InterPress reports.

These are the spoils for which George W. Bush has killed more than 100,000 human beings.

The American media completely ignored Abdel-Mahdi's declaration, but this is not surprising. After all, it occurred in the most obscure venue imaginable: an appearance before oil barons and journalists at the, er, National Press Club. Where better to hide open confessions of war crimes than in the very midst of the Washington hack pack?

But there's yet another glaring truth that's escaped the media mavens, and most of the war's opponents as well. Even if the grand objective of oil control slips away somehow -- through a falling-out with Sistani, say, or civil war -- Bush has already won the game.

The war has transferred billions of dollars from the public treasuries of the United States and Iraq into the coffers of an elite clique of oilmen, arms dealers, investment firms, construction giants and political operatives associated with the Bush family.

This blood money will further entrench the Bushist clique in unassailable power and privilege for decades to come, regardless of the bloody chaos they cause, or even the occasional loss of political office.

The American power structure has been permanently altered by the war -- just as American society has been immeasurably corrupted by Bush's proud embrace of aggression, torture, lawlessness and militarism as national values.

What could possibly be worth so much that the loss of traditional American values would mean almost nothing in comparison?

The Payoff

World's largest oil companies gushing profits

Thanks to crude prices that averaged $41 a barrel in New York last year, the world's 10 biggest oil companies have earned more than $100 billion in profit for 2004, a windfall greater than the economic output of Malaysia. Together, their sales are expected to exceed $1 trillion for 2004, which is more than Canada's gross domestic product.

But even as fears of shortages grow throughout the world and prices remain high, the cash-rich oil companies are not pouring a large portion of their money into their basic business: digging for oil.

Instead, they are giving much of their cash back to shareholders.

For example, ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, earned more than $25 billion last year and spent $9.95 billion to buy back its own stock; Royal Dutch/Shell Group, whose revisions to its oil reserves have left many investors wary, pledged to hand out at least $10 billion as dividends to shareholders this year. And BP, which earned $16.2 billion in 2004, will return as much as $23 billion to its investors this year and next, mostly as dividends. At the same time, it is cutting capital expenditure for the first time in at least four years, to $14.1 billion in 2005 from $14.4 billion last year.

Other oil companies, such as the French firm Total, plan to report results next week. Altogether, profits in 2004 for the top 10 companies jumped by more than 30% from the previous year, when they brought in $80 billion.

One reason exploration spending is declining is quite simple - there's less oil left to drill for in places that are open for exploration, such as North America or the North Sea, while the bulk of the world's known reserves, mainly in the Middle East, are mostly shut off to foreign investors.

The threat of being run out of business due to these geo-political considerations is why King George Warmonger was crammed down out throats, for he would take care of their financial needs regardless of the costs to the rest of us. That was why he was hired to run, to be pResident, and has been carefully handled so totally in person and in the American media.

Even conservatives are beginning to use the F-word (fascist) in describing the actions of the Bu$h (mis)Administration. The longer we allow this situation to continue, the harder it will be to reverse the damage being caused for the profit of a few.

Copyrighted source material contained in this article is presented under the provisions of Fair Use.

FAIR USE NOTICE

This article contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of democracy, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this article is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes.