The BBC (via Daou Report) is reporting that beseiged oil minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum has resigned, and that the government has suspended him from duties for 30 days. “The government” has called on Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, who already heads the oil council, to become Iraq’s Oil Minister. (Chalabi got a whopping 0.89 percent in the election.)
As Media Girl blog noted on Dec. 27 about a WaPo article, “[Chalabi] wins less than 1% of the exile voters and is shut out of parliament, but he’ll still have ‘an important role‘. Isn’t that a comforting thought?” More from the BBC:
Mr Bahr al-Uloum had publicly objected to fuel price rises. [ED: No! Must make money! Bad Bahr! Bad! Economy good! Iraqis must pay! Bad, bad Bahr!] Iraq’s largest oil refinery has been shut since the weekend following death threats to tanker drivers. A ministry spokesman told reporters that “production in the north, centre and south is about to suffocate”.
The closure has jeopardised power supplies across northern Iraq and is costing the ministry $20m (£12m) a day. […]
Mr Bahr al-Uloum, the eldest son of independent Shia cleric Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, is a petroleum engineer who previously served as oil minister in the first post-war cabinet between September 2003 and June 2004.
Perhaps most important in this story is the last paragraph: “Although billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure since Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled, fuel and electricity production have not reached the levels maintained before the invasion.”
In a handy summary box, the BBC cites stats from the Brookings Institute:
- Daily crude oil production: 2.07m barrels
- Daily export: 1.25m barrels, leaving 0.82m for domestic consumption
- Pre-war production peak (estimated): 2.5m barrels
- Current production goal: 2.5m barrels (revised down from 2.8-3m in Feb 2005)
Lowering expectations. We’re used to that. The press taught us that that was the way to view George Bush and his administration.
A couple time-travel thoughts from some people in the know:
– ‘Iraqi Power and US Security in the Middle East’, a study issued in February 1990 by the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College
“Secure supplies of energy are essential to our prosperity and security. The concentration of 65 percent of the world’s known oil reserves in the Persian Gulf means we must continue to ensure reliable access to competitively priced oil and a prompt, adequate response to any major oil supply disruption.” [And if we’re the disruptors in the region, what then?]
– from ‘National Security Strategy of the United States’, White House publication, March 1990 (Both quotes from “The Fire This Time“)
No wonder that, “[s]ince the election of the Shia slate that will hold power for four years, dedicated to an Islamic state allied with Iran, [President Bush] and his advisers have fallen eerily silent,” writes Sidney Blumenthal. An “election of the Shia slate that will hold power for four years, dedicated to an Islamic state allied with Iran” — and which Larry Johnson predicted here on December 9th in “A Very Shia Christmas” — is hardly conducive to goals like stability and oil production, or the administration’s own “special” goals for the region.
I can’t help but wonder why we are attempting reconstruction while the war is still going on. How can that be anything but a waste of money?
I know we’ve destroyed the Iraqi infra-structure, but how can we possibly rebuild it now?
This comment was in response to this:
As long as we are still there, in a state of war, how can we begin reconstruction? We’re still destroying it, or participating in the destruction. Aren’t we?
Yes! Great point, Katie… I don’t know that I’ve read that elsewhere.
Historically, haven’t other major reconstruction projects been undertaken after the war was over?
E.g., the Marshall plan? And, even then, weren’t Marshall’s plans heavily criticized?
YES! Of course reconstruction starts after the war.
As supposedly this is. After the war.
Remember? It took Bushco years to admit that the war wasn’t over. Really, they just admitted it a few months ago.
Supposedly, all this “insurgent” stuff was just “clean up”. Not war.
Now, that we’ve admitted that the war isn’t over and won’t be anytime soon, we should halt the reconstruction. Except, we’ve got those contracts. So we’re probably committed to it.
The Greatest Generation fought in D-Day, and once they grew up, they seem to my inexpert eyes to have decided that every difficult foreign policy problem was a Normandy Nail that the United States would hit with the D-Day hammer.
They started with Vietnam, the first war the Greatest Generation actually ran, and since then the military/industrial/intelligence complex seems to have become imprinted on WW2. They managed the Cold War like a variant of WW2, and because of the size of the mass economy this approach mobilizes, Ike seems to have recognized that by the 1950’s it had outgrown our system of government. I’m fully convinced that our system hasn’t the authority to adapt our defenses to the threats and scale of threats we now face, at minimum until a major depression wipes out much of the economy.
So the Iraq war was over when the troops got into Bagdad standards because by D-Day standards it had crushed the official opponent of the corporate war machinery. The American military system can’t run on mere bribes by the billions. It needs trillions, and trillions can’t be generated from distractions like some guys with knives, car bombers or occupation guerilla insurgencies.
To be really dark about it: God help us if we fail to collapse before a competent Republican rises and figures out how to keep galactisize the Maginot Military complex while partnering with corporations and foreign dictatorships for enough security to protect the people from the comparatively minor threats facing them in the real world.
I don’t think this is a problem the people can fix. I think we need some seriously high placed decisionmakers to make some of the hardest personal decisions people have ever had to make.
Since the US couldn’t install Chalabi as Prime Minister (heck he can’t even get elected to Parliament), they need to install him into probably the 2nd most important position in the country. He who controls the oil ultimately controls Iraq.
Why do our leaders always feel these bizarre commitments to the worst, most horrible people?
Here’s a zinger for you … I read Bob Baer’s book on which “Syriana” is based.
When Baer worked for the CIA, he had a lot of dealings with Chalabi and got info from him at times. My impression is that he respected both Chalabi’s mind and his knowledge despite being an expatriot. I also got the feeling that Baer didn’t trust him.
(Darcy is reading Baer’s book now, or I’d grab it and find the passage, then type it up for you.)
I just finished Franken’s book – The Truth – and in it he suggests that Chalabi and Sadr have formed an alliance. Sadr gives up violence if Chalabi can help him get into politics. In return, Sadr and his men support Chalabi’s ambition.
Who “appointed” Chalabi as the new oil minister? And Bushco is getting what they deserve. It’s called Karma.
Why, “the government,” silly… didn’t you read the story?
Who are you calling silly Susan…lol!
It’s I being silly with you 🙂
But, really, who IS “the government”?
I love it when friends can giggle over tragedies together!
Ouch! Now I feel guilty.
It’s just that I found those words in the BBC article so peculiar … like the poor reporter was thinking, um, how do I describe this faux patchwork of a government? Oh! I’ll call it “the government”! Wow!
Ahh, Susan, I didn’t mean it in a bad way at all. Really, if we can’t giggle about it all once in a while we won’t have any options except cracking-up.
We’ve got to laugh.
Absolutely Katie! If I didn’t laugh I would be in tears all the time. It’s all so tragic!
We do need to giggle….
one tiny way that I gauge how Iraq is going is when Diane 101 hears from her Iraqi friend
another is when we see a new post from Baghdad Burning
then there are the unending, daily casualty reports of both U.S. soldiers and civilians
— I’m listening to a BBC News radio report on the gas situation in Iraq — the last line, “Even the black market is running out.” Sigh.
P.S. And what has become of the four peace activists who were kidnapped? (mustn’t forget them)
Too bad Bushco’s “karma” is going to splatter all over us regular folks.
ReddHead at FireDogLake has her take on this as well.
Quiz: Who dubbed the region “Messpot”?