[Peace-discuss] Democrats' plan to fund the war (& control the oil)

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Cheney's recent trip to Iraq seems to have been a visitation to whet 
their almost blunted purpose to pass an oil law.  And as he indicated, 
he knew he could count on the Democrats to fund the war with a principal 
"benchmark" of success being that law! --CGE]

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10) - Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) released 
the following statement after the passage of the U.S. Troop Readiness, 
Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations 
Act of 2007:

"There has been a broad deception about the content of the hydrocarbon 
law, a deception which has taken in members of Congress and the media. 
Misdescribed tactically as a revenue sharing plan, it is in fact a 
radical plan to privatize Iraq's oil.

"The law before the Iraq Parliament contains 3 vague lines about revenue 
sharing and 33 solid pages of a complex legal restructuring, 
facilitating the privatization of Iraq's oil resources. The sharing will 
not be 1/3 of 100%. The sharing is more likely to be 1/3 of 20% at most, 
after private oil interests take their cut. The stage is being set for 
theft on a historic scale.

"Iraq may have as much as 300 billion barrels of oil to be tapped. At a 
market value of $70 a barrel, the value of its oil may approach $21 
trillion.

"In the past twenty four hours the Vice President made an extraordinary 
trip to Baghdad to urge the Iraqi Parliament to stay in session to pass 
a "hydrocarbon law" which provides for "revenue sharing." Today, 
President Bush explicitly mentioned that he could come to an agreement 
if it included a benchmark for "sharing oil reserves." This is the tone 
of the legislation which the House passed tonight.

"The legislative debate between the Congressional Democrats and the 
Republicans misses the point of the key issue regarding the invasion, 
occupation and long term US presence in Iraq - - oil.

"The attempted theft of the oil assets of Iraq under the guise of a plan 
to end the war will keep the war going long into the future.

"This is the time to be taking steps to end the U.S. occupation, 
stabilize Iraq, and give Iraqis full control of their oil assets."

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