That was a great last line . Weapons of mass destruction, indeed. Thank you for this. We live in terrible but glorious times, full of potential for a Worldwide Awakening. Your writing adds momentum and clarity.
I do not know about you, but I believe we need to redefine "The Axis of Evil" (Bush) and "The Evil Empire" (Reagan). Psychological Projection: "In its malignant forms, it is a defense mechanism in which the ego defends itself against disowned and highly negative parts of the self by denying their existence in themselves and attributing them to others, breeding misunderstanding and causing untold interpersonal damage." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection).
In its militarized forms, it destroys the planet and kills a lot of people.
Excellent point - in fact, th entire enterprise we know as Western 'civilisation' is founded upon such projections - eery land they invaded, occupied and whose Indigenous peoples' they massacred, were called savages, and less developed than the europeans who were doing the actually massacring., occupying and enslaving....
The most honest and valid description of the role of oil in society over my lifetime. Well done. Big Oil, Big Egos, Big Money and Big B*llsh*t have dominated the narrative over the past 5 decades.
As my wife commented after I relayed your article to her with all the anger of the newly affronted - ‘I don’t think anyone thought it was anything else, did they?’ I feel like an ingenue sometimes.
Thank you for this detailed analysis spanning Bothe the so-called 'colonial' and post colonial periods. In fact, such words are just a fig leaf as they violence and intent to grab others' resources, never decreased, as you prove in your excellent article.
Very insightful information. It just shows the immense greed political leaders have towards profits and wealth......whereby in cases like this, it's acquired by controlling and having power over another country's natural resources.
Rachel, that was a brilliant summary of history. In 2003 I imagined a different future.
I computed what Iraq, with 26 million, people could turn itself into with the oil they could extract from the ground and sell to the world if the Iraqi people got full benefit of the oil income ( no corruption, no middleman, no defense needed, using only local labor.)
I titled the piece "I wish I had such a problem." I was referring to myself, as an engineer, who would take charge of the oil revenue and efficiently create with it, education, healthcare, infrastructure and Iraqi employment.
Here is the piece as it still exists at www.skil.org
In 1947 the Marshall Plan infused 12 billion dollars over four years to help rebuild the infrastructure of 16 western European countries containing 270 million people.
Iraq, by selling its oil, can conservatively generate $50 billion year for 30 years. Wisely invested in infrastructure and human resource development, Iraq can create a super Marshal plan 10 times more powerful.
Anyone in charge of distributing this money might feel like Leland and Jane Stanford when they set out to create Stanford University. They visited Harvard University (1890) and asked, "What does it cost to build and run all this." When given a number, they looked at their checkbook and said, "We will take two."
For example, $50 billion per year is enough to write each Iraqi citizen (man woman and child) a check for $2000. A family of six could get a $12,000 bump in income for each year in the plan. Sounds like a nice pay raise for you or me. However, for an Iraqi school teacher making $60 a year (under sanctions,) it would be like winning the lottery.
For Iraqi families that earned a $1000 dollars a year (the average before the wars and sanctions) $12,000 is still an unfathomable bonus.
If the plan did not provide direct payments to Iraqi citizens. If it employed them, at a very generous wage, creating public works, services, and education Iraq could be a pretty wonderful place to live 30 years from now when the oil ran out.
The first year 6 billion could create water, sewers, and roads for everyone. 3 billion would be enough, at Iraqi labor rates to pave every unpaved road and re-paving every paved road. In one or two more years 8 billion could convert every major road into an interstate.
A billion dollars for four 400 mw natural gas fueled power plants (that use the wasted "flame off" gas from existing wells) could double existing electric energy production. Providing very cheap electricity for the public and industry. With seven more billion and seven more years there would be 1.5 kWh continuous output per person. The same as in the US. Except the end user's cost of electricity could be far below any for profit system.
A billion the first year builds transmission lines and local distribution services to every home.
2 billion for communication systems will bring phones and data into every billion more puts a computer in every home.
5 billion (at several times what Iraq now pays its teachers) would be enough to put 40% of the population into K-12 schools.
1 billion could train the teachers to staff these schools.
24,000 doctors would be needed to have the same ratio as we have in the US. 1.5 billion could pay their salaries ($60,000 a year is a handsome salary in Iraq.) Of course Iraq has only 6,000 doctors. So $2 billion would have to be allocated to train 18,000 more doctors.
If you have been counting you will see this plan spends only 25 billion the first year. In theory 25 billion remains to build new schools, hospitals, colleges, and mass transit.
Just thinking about what to do with next year's 50 billion makes this" do gooder" giddy.
How can a country with this opportunity for making life wonderful have a problem?
I well remember listening to international weapons inspector Scott Ritter a number of times on my regional public radio station explaining in detail that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Shortly after that, Congress defiled the constitution in granting Bush carte blanche power to declare war. Only old, racist Senator Robert Byrd stood up and railed against this subversion. I find it hard to believe our government was unaware of what I heard on my radio from Mr. Ritter. Blood and oil mix very well.
That was a great last line . Weapons of mass destruction, indeed. Thank you for this. We live in terrible but glorious times, full of potential for a Worldwide Awakening. Your writing adds momentum and clarity.
I do not know about you, but I believe we need to redefine "The Axis of Evil" (Bush) and "The Evil Empire" (Reagan). Psychological Projection: "In its malignant forms, it is a defense mechanism in which the ego defends itself against disowned and highly negative parts of the self by denying their existence in themselves and attributing them to others, breeding misunderstanding and causing untold interpersonal damage." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection).
In its militarized forms, it destroys the planet and kills a lot of people.
BTW, John Pilger has made a very good documentary about the lies leading up to the the US invasion of Iraq: https://youtu.be/5mDuxFnn2RY?si=ZKKv8Z_4jFa8Hv9m
BTW,
Excellent point - in fact, th entire enterprise we know as Western 'civilisation' is founded upon such projections - eery land they invaded, occupied and whose Indigenous peoples' they massacred, were called savages, and less developed than the europeans who were doing the actually massacring., occupying and enslaving....
The most honest and valid description of the role of oil in society over my lifetime. Well done. Big Oil, Big Egos, Big Money and Big B*llsh*t have dominated the narrative over the past 5 decades.
As my wife commented after I relayed your article to her with all the anger of the newly affronted - ‘I don’t think anyone thought it was anything else, did they?’ I feel like an ingenue sometimes.
Thank you for this detailed analysis spanning Bothe the so-called 'colonial' and post colonial periods. In fact, such words are just a fig leaf as they violence and intent to grab others' resources, never decreased, as you prove in your excellent article.
Very insightful information. It just shows the immense greed political leaders have towards profits and wealth......whereby in cases like this, it's acquired by controlling and having power over another country's natural resources.
Rachel, that was a brilliant summary of history. In 2003 I imagined a different future.
I computed what Iraq, with 26 million, people could turn itself into with the oil they could extract from the ground and sell to the world if the Iraqi people got full benefit of the oil income ( no corruption, no middleman, no defense needed, using only local labor.)
I titled the piece "I wish I had such a problem." I was referring to myself, as an engineer, who would take charge of the oil revenue and efficiently create with it, education, healthcare, infrastructure and Iraqi employment.
Here is the piece as it still exists at www.skil.org
In 1947 the Marshall Plan infused 12 billion dollars over four years to help rebuild the infrastructure of 16 western European countries containing 270 million people.
Iraq, by selling its oil, can conservatively generate $50 billion year for 30 years. Wisely invested in infrastructure and human resource development, Iraq can create a super Marshal plan 10 times more powerful.
Anyone in charge of distributing this money might feel like Leland and Jane Stanford when they set out to create Stanford University. They visited Harvard University (1890) and asked, "What does it cost to build and run all this." When given a number, they looked at their checkbook and said, "We will take two."
For example, $50 billion per year is enough to write each Iraqi citizen (man woman and child) a check for $2000. A family of six could get a $12,000 bump in income for each year in the plan. Sounds like a nice pay raise for you or me. However, for an Iraqi school teacher making $60 a year (under sanctions,) it would be like winning the lottery.
For Iraqi families that earned a $1000 dollars a year (the average before the wars and sanctions) $12,000 is still an unfathomable bonus.
If the plan did not provide direct payments to Iraqi citizens. If it employed them, at a very generous wage, creating public works, services, and education Iraq could be a pretty wonderful place to live 30 years from now when the oil ran out.
The first year 6 billion could create water, sewers, and roads for everyone. 3 billion would be enough, at Iraqi labor rates to pave every unpaved road and re-paving every paved road. In one or two more years 8 billion could convert every major road into an interstate.
A billion dollars for four 400 mw natural gas fueled power plants (that use the wasted "flame off" gas from existing wells) could double existing electric energy production. Providing very cheap electricity for the public and industry. With seven more billion and seven more years there would be 1.5 kWh continuous output per person. The same as in the US. Except the end user's cost of electricity could be far below any for profit system.
A billion the first year builds transmission lines and local distribution services to every home.
2 billion for communication systems will bring phones and data into every billion more puts a computer in every home.
5 billion (at several times what Iraq now pays its teachers) would be enough to put 40% of the population into K-12 schools.
1 billion could train the teachers to staff these schools.
24,000 doctors would be needed to have the same ratio as we have in the US. 1.5 billion could pay their salaries ($60,000 a year is a handsome salary in Iraq.) Of course Iraq has only 6,000 doctors. So $2 billion would have to be allocated to train 18,000 more doctors.
If you have been counting you will see this plan spends only 25 billion the first year. In theory 25 billion remains to build new schools, hospitals, colleges, and mass transit.
Just thinking about what to do with next year's 50 billion makes this" do gooder" giddy.
How can a country with this opportunity for making life wonderful have a problem?
Jack Alpert Alpert@skil.org 2/24/03.
I well remember listening to international weapons inspector Scott Ritter a number of times on my regional public radio station explaining in detail that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Shortly after that, Congress defiled the constitution in granting Bush carte blanche power to declare war. Only old, racist Senator Robert Byrd stood up and railed against this subversion. I find it hard to believe our government was unaware of what I heard on my radio from Mr. Ritter. Blood and oil mix very well.