Theos-Talk Archives (August 2006 Message tt00053)

Condemning and fomenting hatred of an entire national, ethnic or religious 
group because of the acts of their leaders is unconscionable and directly in 
contradiction of all the moral and ethical principles of theosophy.   

I thought this article by an internationally respected author/journalist 
might clarify the truths behind the current war in the Middle East and counteract 
the propaganda spewed into this forum recently by a notorious Neo Nazi Hitler 
apologist and Jew hater who sham-fully calls himself a "theosophist." 


BLOOD IN BEIRUT: $75.05 A BARREL

The failure to stop the bloodletting in the Middle East,
Exxon's record second-quarter profits and Iran's
nuclear cat-and-mouse game have something in common --
it's the oil


By Greg Palast
July 26, 2006

        I can't tell you how it started -- this is a war that's

been fought since the Levites clashed with the Philistines -- but I

can tell you why the current mayhem has not been stopped. It's the

oil.

        I'm not an expert on Palestine nor Lebanon and I'd rather

not pretend to be one. If you want to know what's going on, read

Robert Fisk. He lives there. He speaks Arabic. Stay away from pundits

whose only connection to the Middle East is the local falafel

stand.

        So why am I writing now? The answer is that, while I don't

speak Arabic or Hebrew, I am completely fluent in the language of

petroleum.

        What? You don't need a degree in geology to know there's no oil in

Israel, Palestine or Lebanon. (A few weeks ago, I was joking around

with Afif Safieh, the Palestinian Authority's Ambassador to the US,

asking him why he was fighting to have a piece of the only place in

the Middle East without oil. Well, there's no joking now.)

        Let's begin with the facts we can agree on: the berserkers

are winning. Crazies discredited only a month ago are now in charge,

guys with guns bigger than brains and souls smaller still. Here's a

list:

        -- Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's approval rating in

June was down to a Bush-level of 35%. But today, Olmert's poll numbers

among Israeli voters have more than doubled to 78% as he does his

bloody John Wayne “'cleanin' out the varmints” routine. But

let's not forget: Olmert can't pee-pee without George Bush's approval.

Bush can stop Olmert tomorrow. He hasn't.

        -- Hezbollah, a political party rejected overwhelmingly by

Lebanese voters sickened by their support of Syrian occupation, holds

a mere 14 seats out of 128 in the nation's parliament. Hezbollah was

facing demands by both Lebanon's non-Shia majority and the United

Nations to lay down arms. Now, few Lebanese would suggest taking away

their rockets. But let's not forget: Without Iran, Hezbollah is just a

fundamentalist street gang. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can

stop Hezbollah's rockets tomorrow. He hasn't.

        -- Hamas, just days before it kidnapped and killed Israeli

soldiers, was facing certain political defeat at the hands of the

Palestinian majority ready to accept the existence of Israel as

proposed in a manifesto for peace talks penned by influential

Palestinian prisoners. Now the Hamas rocket brigade is back in charge.

But let's not forget: Hamas is broke and a joke without the loot and

authority of Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah can stop these guys tomorrow.

He hasn't.

        Why not? Why haven't what we laughably call

“leaders” of the USA, Iran and Saudi Arabia called back

their delinquent spawn, cut off their allowances and grounded them for

six months?

        Maybe because mayhem and murder in the Middle East are

very, very profitable to the sponsors of these characters with bombs

and rockets. America, Iran and Saudi Arabia share one thing in common:

they are run by oil regimes. The higher the price of crude, the higher

the profits and the happier the presidents and princelings of these

petroleum republics.

        This Thursday, Exxon is expected to report the highest

second-quarter earnings of any corporation since the days of the

Pharaoh, $9.9 billion in pure profit collected in just three months --

courtesy of an oil shortage caused by pipelines on fire in Iraq,

warlord attacks in Nigeria, the lingering effects of the sabotage of

Venezuela's oil system by a 2002 strike... the list could go on.

        Exxon's brobdingnagian profits simply reflect the cold

axiom that oil companies and oil states don't make their loot by

finding oil but by finding trouble. Finding oil increases supply.

Increased supply means decreased price. Whereas finding trouble --

wars, coup d'etats, hurricanes, whatever can disrupt supply -- raises

the price of oil.

        A couple of examples from today's Bloomberg newswire

are:

        “Crude oil traded above $75 a barrel in New York as

fighting between Israeli and Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces in

Lebanon entered its 14th day... Oil prices rose last month on concern

for supplies from Iran, the world's fourth largest producer, may be

disrupted in its dispute with the United Nations over its uranium

enrichment ... [And, said a trader,] 'I still think $85 is likely this

summer. I'm really surprised we haven't seen any hurricanes.'''

        In Tehran, President Ahmadinejad may or may not have a plan

to make a nuclear bomb, but he sure as heck knows that hinting at it

raises the price of the one thing he certainly does have -- oil. Every

time he barks, 'Mad Mahmoud' knows that he's pumping up the price of

crude. Just a $10 a barrel “blow-up-in-the-Mideast” premium

brings his regime nearly a quarter of a billion dollars each week

(including the little kick to the value of Iran's natural gas). Not a

bad pay-off for making a bit of trouble.

        Saudi Arabia's rake-in from The Troubles? Assuming just a

$10 a barrel boost for Middle Eastern mayhem and you can calculate

that the blood in the sand puts an extra $658 million a week in

Abdullah's hand.

        And in Houston, you can hear the cash registers jing-a-ling

as explosions in Kirkuk, Beirut and the Niger River Delta sound like

the sleigh-bells on Santa's sled. At $75.05 a barrel, they don't call

it “sweet” crude for nothing. That's up 27% from a year ago.

The big difference between then and now: the rockets' red glare.

        Exxon's second-quarter profits may bust records, but next

quarter's should put it to shame, as the “Lebanon premium”

and Iraq's insurgency have puffed up prices, up by an average of 11%

in the last three months.

        So there's not much incentive for the guys who supply the

weaponry to tell their wards to put away their murderous toys. This

war's just too darn profitable.

        We are trained to think of Middle Eastern conflicts as just

modern flare-ups of ancient tribal animosities. But to uncover why the

flames won't die, the usual rule applies: follow the money.

        Am I saying that Tehran, Riyadh and Houston oil chieftains

conspired to ignite a war to boost their petroleum profits? I can't

imagine it. But I do wonder if Bush would let Olmert have an extra

week of bombings, or if the potentates of the Persian Gulf would allow

Hamas and Hezbollah to continue their deadly fireworks if it caused

the price of crude to crash. You know and I know that if this war took

a bite out of Exxon or the House of Saud, a ceasefire would be imposed

quicker than you can say, “Let's drill in the Arctic.”

        Eventually, there will be another ceasefire. But Exxon

shareholders need not worry. Global warming has heated the seas

sufficiently to make certain that they can look forward to a

hellacious -- and profitable -- season of hurricanes.

        *****

        Greg Palast is the author of the just-released New York

Times bestseller, http://tinyurl.com/otb8d ARMED

MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks,

the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches

from the Front Lines of the Class War. Go to: 
http://www.gregpalast.com/blog.cfm

http://www.gregpalast.com/section/articles


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