Iraqi Oil Squeeze

I guess we have all come to terms with the realization that Iraqi oil is not going to pay for the Mesopotamian Cakewalk.

But just the same, I was a bit irritated today as I maxed out my card at the pump, that Iraqi Oil is not flooding the market, to counter the effect of the predatory investors, who are now driving up oil to almost twice its actual value on the International markets.

Senator Warren and Levin have asked for an inquiry into all this, and where the oil money is going,

Now I don't expect many answers to come out of that investigation. As Mark Twain noted a long time ago: just as pro is the opposite of con, progress is the opposite of congress.

But when we are sitting on the world's third largest oil reserve, it is a bit strange that one of the legacies of the Iraq War is that oil has more than quadrupled in price.

However, it is silly to think Iraq would want to help the US, when they can sell their oil to our government's favorite payday lender, the People's Republic of China.

Last week it was announced that Iraq and China are close to signing a 1.2 billion dollar oil development deal that would add 500,000 barrels per day to the country's 2.4 million barrel daily output.

Meanwhile, Baghdad sneered that they were blocking any deals the Kurds pulled to get their oil out on the market.

Today President Bush bemoaned the high price of oil, but said there was nothing he could do. He went kowtowing to our friends in Saudi Arabia, and they politely told him to buzz off.

Even Laura did a little butt kissing:



However, in a Hail Mary move, the Decider is dispatching Dick Cheney to the Kingdom.

I'll pause briefly for a hearty laugh.

But couldn't Sonny and Grumpy lean on the corrupt government we are propping up in Iraq? We realize they need to skim off some for their Swiss Bank Accounts—but gee whiz...

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani is the new rock star of OPEC. Although the sheiks and tin horn dictators are jealous of Shahristani's “enviable position as the creator of wealth for the Western world,” they can not help but fawn over him as the man with “the key to the magic of Iraqi Oil.”

Of course, we all know the war never had anything to do with oil. But just pretend it did—is Dubya so totally incompetent he can not close the deal?. Do we have any clout with the oil minister?

With the US now spending 12 billion a month on the war, its total estimated cost now an astounding three trillion,, and our national deficit pushing ten trillion, the government of Iraq has a budget surplus, and is banking over fifty billion a year in oil profits.

And the recent spike in oil prices has been a windfall for the Maliki government.

Not only do Americans devote an hour of work a day to pay the taxes needed to support the Glorious War, when we go to the pumps we are lining the pockets of oily politicians in Baghdad.

The American people got suckered into, and are paying for, this war in more ways than just dollars

Is it asking too much that we get a share of it's spoils?