At Length

For Love of Oil
By James Preston Allen, Publisher

     It seems almost impossible not to be distracted these days either by the peripheral vision of LA Mayoral politics or concerns about having to dodge random gunfire on the 110 Harbor Freeway north of the 405. The nightly news seems to be increasingly filled with sexual molestation crimes and frequent, if not senseless acts of violence. There are times that you just want to roll over in bed, turn off the TV, pull the covers up and say, “wake me when it’s over!” Is this just the way the world has devolved? Is this the natural result of living in an ever expanding-overcrowded urban metropolis that is fed on the ethic of “survival of the fittest?” Or are we witnessing the self-emulating demise of the news media that feeds like sharks on the scent of blood, lust and sexual innuendo, in its ever-persistent rivalry for ratings.
     I watch the evening news with increasing contempt for the choices that are made on what to air. I read the daily newspaper with greater scrutiny for some scrap of unfiltered, un-spun evidence that some place there is still a slight shaft of truth that makes it through the cracks in the brick wall of political obstruction.  There is this increasing sense that the deck is stacked, the cards are marked, the dealer is on the take, and that we, the public, are the chumps being played.
      The obvious truth is that the price of our wars, both in Iraq and in Afghanistan is the price of oil–blood for oil—and we seem to be paying for it daily at the pump. The shaft of light is the financial report from British Petroleum (BP) for the first quarter of 2005 showing a profit of $5 billion. Another shaft of light is the rather quiet release of the CIA’s final report on the search Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq . After two years of extensive digging by our best intelligence experts they have found “nothing” and you know it would have been huge headlines if they had. This was the very premise on which we launched this war! And now we have this brief mention from the CIA that says, “Oops!”
     Except for a brief mention of the “Oops!” report, the news media compliantly, obediently moves on to the next scandal, failing to investigate the larger crimes––the crimes of Bush, Cheney, Halliburton and the Carlyle Group. The shaft of light that appeared this week, the picture of President George Bush kissing the 81 year-old Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah on both cheeks and holding his hand as they walked to Bush’s Crawford Texas ranch house. This was not just adept diplomacy. It is the sign of a much deeper relationship that goes far beyond a first or second date with the House of Saud. 
     In his book House of Bush/House of Saud author Craig Unger writes, “The two parties conferred intimately on war, oil, funding for Afghanistan ’s mujahideen (led by Osama bin Laden), illegal arms deals, banking, and much more. By the time George W. Bush was elected, the House of Saud had transferred astounding sums of money to the House of Bush involving dozens of companies—among them, the Carlyle Group… the significance of the Bush–Saud relationship goes far beyond money, and even beyond the fact that Saudi Arabia possesses the world’s largest oil supply.” He concludes Saudi Arabia is responsible for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and, “the terrorism that threatens America today.”
     So one may just wonder about Bush’s handholding with the Crown Prince and just how far that goes along the lines of politics making “strange bedfellows.” But you can just hear some Texas rancher saying, “What the hell is Geeorge dewen keessen that A-rab?” One thing’s for sure it goes far beyond the love of oil. If one didn’t notice it, the current rise in the price of gas at the American pump started its record price climb just after Bush was installed the first time and has hit its record peak after the second. The billions in profits now flowing to the multi-national oil companies is a windfall profit that only an elite few will enjoy or fully understand. Not incidentally, the alternative energy sector is the only part of the energy industry not to heavily favor the GOP. 
     For the rest of you, I’d like you entertain a short math equation on the profits of war; take the $5 billion in first quarter BP profits and divide it by the number of dead American soldiers in Iraq who were fighting to protect us from missing WMDs. This equals the modest quotient of just $3,176,620 per life. My suggestion is that we multiply this number times the number of oil companies doing business in Iraq times the total number of casualties and back bill them for every quarter our troops have been fighting to protect their oily profits. This would go for Halliburton and the Carlyle Group also and when we have finally billed them so much that they scream “bankruptcy” we apply the new American bankruptcy laws to them that Congress just passed for us a few short weeks ago.
     I’ll bet that in short order we would have $1.50 a gallon gasoline and all the EV1s that Americans could buy. Of course in a perfect world we would also impeach Bush and Cheney­—giving them long prison terms for corruption and treason, but things are oh-so-less than perfect now aren’t they?