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The REAL Reason for New U.S. and French Military Involvement In Iraq
Why is Obama now re-committing the U.S. military to Iraq? Why is France strongly backing military action?
Obama says it’s to protect minorities. That’s nothing new. Obama is the fourth president in a row to bomb Iraq … while claiming it is for humanitarian purposes.
But the architects of the Iraq War (the one which started in 2003) themselves admitted it was about oil.
But what about now? Why are the U.S. and France deploying military force in Iraq now?
Well, ISIS captured some key oil fields in the Kurdish region of Iraq on August 3rd.
Mere days later, the U.S. started bombing ISIS.
And the strikes were targeted in protecting oil resources. As International Business Times notes:
Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby tweeted: “US military aircraft conduct strike on Isil [Islamic State] artillery. Artillery was used against Kurdish forces defending Erbil, near US personnel.”
Two F-18 fighters dropped laser-guided 500-pound bombs on the mobile artillery target. Militants of the Islamic State were using artillery that has been abandoned by the Iraqi army when it fled to shell Kurdish forces defending the regional capital of Kurdistan.
US airstrikes were very small and very targeted and the Peshmerga Kurdistan forces are waiting for more strikes by the US fighter jets, according to reports.
Similarly, the Military Times reported yesterday:
The Pentagon’s top war planner … Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville, the director of operations, or “J-3” for the Joint Staff [said] “I think in the immediate areas where we have focused our strikes, we have had a very temporary effect … and we may have blunted some [ISIL] tactical decisions to move in those directions further east toward Erbil,” Mayville said.
“However, these strikes are unlikely to affect ISIL’s overall capabilities or its operations in other areas of Iraq and Syria,” he said.
Obama authorized the airstrikes for two specific purposes. One mission is to prevent an ISIL advance into the city of Erbil ….
It should be noted, initially, that months of murder, mayhem and brutality by ISIS on Christians and other minorities didn’t cause the U.S. or France to intervene militarily for “humanitarian” reasons.
And notice that the airstrikes were very targeted on protecting Erbil … the regional capital of Kurdistan.
The U.S. and France have never lifted a finger to protect the Kurds. Indeed, the U.S. has actively betrayed the Kurds and let them be slaughtered. For example, during the Gulf War, the U.S. called on the Kurds to rise up against Saddam (implying that he would protect them), but then let Saddam slaughter the Kurds en masse.
So why are the U.S. and France moving now to protect Erbil?
Because Erbil has now become a major oil center. The Kurdish government estimates that the region is the world’s 9th largest oil producer.
Oil companies from around the world operate in Kurdistan, including (major oil companies are indicated in bold, U.S. and French oil companies in italics):
USA
- Exxon Mobil
- Chevron
- Aspect Energy
- Marathon Oil Corporation
- Hillwood International Energy
- Hunt Oil
- Prime Oil
- Murphy Oil
- Hess Corporation
- HKN Energy
- Viking International
France
- Total
Canada
- Forbes and Manhattan
- Western Zagros Resources
- Talisman Energy Inc
- NIKO Resources
- Ground Star
- Shamaran
South Korea
- Korea National Oil Company (KNOC)
Turkey
- Genel Energy
- Petoil
- Dogan
Britain
- Gulf Keystone Petroleum
- Sterling Energy
- Heritage Oil
Anglo-French
- Perenco
UAE
- TAQA
- Dana Petroleum
Austria
- OMV
China
- China acquired a significant presence in Iraqi Kurdistan after Sinopec Group bought Addax Petroleum in 2009.
Hungary
- MOL
India
- Reliance Industries
Papua New Guinea
- Oil Search
Russia
- Norbest
- Gazprom Neft
Norway
- DNO
Iraq
- Oil Search (Iraq) Limited
- Kar Group
- Qaiwan Group
Spain
- Repsol
Independent
- AFREN
Yup … with Chevron, Exxon, Marathon, Hess and Total operating major facilities in Erbil, the latest Iraq war is also about oil … as confirmed by the New Yorker, New Republic and Vox.
For those who don't believe that Iraqi oil is driving foreign policy, take a look at what Brookings wrote in June:
It should be obvious that a key consideration for the United States arising from [the seizure of huge swaths of Iraq by ISIS] is its potential to affect Iraqi oil production.
***
Any significant disruption of current Iraqi oil production or long-term diminution in its expected growth could have major repercussions for the U.S. economy.
Kurdistan also possesses approximately 89% of all Iraqi natural gas reserves. And so the West - including France - is eager to protect Kurdish hydrocarbons from falling into the hands of ISIS.
Postscript: Indeed, virtually all U.S. wars involve a fight over hydrocarbons.
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They should run the air strikes from Turkish bases. They're not too far from ISIS supply bases. The pilots can give a dip-wing salute as they fly over.
But then the Navy wouldn't get their bit of the war. They were pretty much left out of the first one.
Give the Navy credit please, they took out that hotel full of reporters in Baghdad.
if they maintain pressure on this part of the world for oil this is REALLY cos now the amount of ressources available is getting low. to me, they KNOW that it now worth to declare war to gain position because time is almost up.
Declare war?!
"We don't need no stinkin' declaration of war!"
I remember when ZH had an article recommending investing in Kurdistan oil companies..........just like Puerto Rican municipal bonds.......everything is turning into doodoo
Perhaps the advice was good, then someone complains "those bastard ZH readers are buying all our oil stocks, can you talk to the folks at the CIA to see if they can do something to get the to dump their shares, you know, maybe arrange something with the folks in Alcaeda".
The goal is a reduction o Iraqi exports (to Asia)
And a increase in the amount of refugees that will be feed into the euro scarcity engine.
This current mission is nothing.
Just wait for Operation "Jed Clampett". Yeehawwww!
Ya' think? Only the typical, clueless citizens don't know this.
"The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells."
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power
http://www.amazon.com/The-Prize-Quest-Money-Power/dp/1439110123/ref=sr_1...
Nice touch with the Amazon referral link, you get what, 20cents per sale?
as a card carrying member of the oil industry i am glad we are bombing the shit out of IS (seriously).
as a resident of a non-US country, i am glad i am not paying for it.
as a Christian i am glad it is being done and i say pull the Christians out on C-130s and carpet bomb IS from Erbil to Damascus and then do it one more time for good luck.
as a man who thinks Obama is an idiot i love the irony he is putting boots on the ground and dropping bombs from a carrier named after the Bush family.
Check out videos 3 and 4 of the VICE News IS update. Fuck, I thought Saudi Religious police were creepy mutherfuckers...they ain't got nuthing on these fucking psychos
https://news.vice.com/video/the-islamic-state-part-3
BTW-Lebanon is in a world of shit...IS wants their women as they are the best looking of all of the Arab women.
The Pentagon has an oil department ?
Very Christian attitude and the very reasons I stopped attending church services and Bible study.
Oil and LNG are weapons. We should learn to use them against our enemies. And yes, we do have enemies!
Decades ago, they used these weapons against us and we did nothing. Unless you really want to consider putting inefficient solar panels on the White House and wearing another sweater doing something.
We have left this playing field to them. As everyone knows (or should know) when one team leaves the field, the other plays unchallenged and wins the "game".
Well, yeah, rah-rah. But it's public knowledge the US is financing, training, and directing 'them.' It would be more efficient and less expensive to dispose of 'them' and get on with the job of more energy.
Damn it, Washington.
WAR = STIMULUS
No more, no less, banks need a bailout, off to war.
Definitive Analysis: War Is Bad for the Economy
That depends.
If your competitors (allies and enemies alike) suffer more than you do then you can come out the other end with a significant advantage - as was the case with the US after WWII. Of course this situation also allowed Japan and Germany to "start from scratch" with more modern everythingand eventually these countries became very strong competitors with the US just as the US was getting prosperous and lazy.
War can also be a boon for various micro economies while at the same time depressing the larger, macro-economy. This is essentially the premise of the war-for-oil argument.
Besides, you're not even considering the old days (WWII and before) when it was still fashionable for nation-states to win wars. Of course one state can conquer another state/land/people and have the spoils be accretive to the victor's economy in excess of the losses incured while waging war. It used to happen all the time. It looks like it's happening now for ISIS...and probably for Russia too.
MIC needs the stimulus, a constant stimulus, large or small.
ALL wars are about resources. Bankers don't need wars in order to make money: seems that they've done quite well post-Lehman, and while there have been wars going on they're small in comparison to others in previous times. Of course, those with money have extra leverage with which to profit; always the case...
Well that second Nobel PP is just a formality now, although the IDF and ISIS must have pushed him close...
Here's probably another reason:
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/08/how-isis-saved-obama-for-mome...
What about the restoration of the Petrodollar? Nine months before the 2003 invasion, Sadam started accepting Euros for his oil and immediately started making 17% more than by accepting dollars. Accepting non-dollars for oil is also what got Gaddafi killed by our puppet - NATO.
Claiming that we have a right to take over Sadam's oil fields because we fear he's going to disrupt supply is just an excuse for our theft. He depends on selling oil as much as we depend on buying it.
We have oil in Alaska if we want it without having to conjure up false flag attacks like 9-11. If you follow the money, who did benefit from the Iraq War? The US benefitted from the restoration of the Petrodollar and it supported our Military Industrial Complex. We lost most of our manufacturing, so weapons, the Petrodollar and the Global Reserve Dollar skimming racket is keeping America afloat.
Of course the comotose public, having been chemically dumbed down by our hidden Jesuit and their Rothschild banker agent's poisoning agenda, could not figure all this out. And of course because this toxic injury produces anxiety and depression, they didn't even try. The poisoned sheeple just brought out the flags and did what they were told.
Maintaining the Petrodollar's strength/standing, yes, that's pretty much it.
With sanctions lifted (due to run out and no reasons existing to continue them) Saddam would have likely operated outside of OPEC and that that would have been been a HUGE threat. OPEC is basically a US creation: look up Texas Railroad Commission.
"We have oil in Alaska"
Not if you extract it. One of the Forbes' back in the 70s stated that the US should have a policy of preserving its oil and using oil from the rest of the world. One could see this as a smart strategy, though it would amount to declaring a nationalization of US oil (read "not capitalist").
In the end "growth" will always run out. There is NO defense against this end, never has been and never will.
George, what is your opinion on these 2 articles?
French Report ISIL Leader Mossad Agent Simon Elliot, aka Al-Baghdadi, son of Jewish parents, Mossad agent: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/08/04/french-report-isil-leader-mossad/
and
ISIS in Iraq stinks of CIA/NATO ‘dirty war’ op: http://rt.com/op-edge/168064-isis-terrorism-usa-cia-war/
The shit is textbook CIA, Read CIA Legacy of ashes.
So it boils down to we can make fuels from a lot of different stuff. Coal is one really good input. Sewage and most muni waste are also pretty good. Two birds one stone. Some plastics too. The input costs on these should bring solid returns for big cities with waste issues. Flare gas. Money from waste is a good thing. I like coal for the enegy density and the rare earth elements that would need to be removed.
The technology is in use today in South Africa. Velocys is working on a production based FT system that looks pretty good to.
So were these wars for oil even about fuel? Because we dont really need oil from anywhere. War for oil is a chainyank imo. A line of BS to tell the kiddies marching off to war. My guess is its not about the energy its about the monopoly of it.
Waste to fuel is a great idea and workable EXCEPT FOR ONE PROBLEM. The do-gooders then say, Not in my Backyard.
Everyone finds and excuse to want to put it somewhere else. Kind of like the Kennedys fighting wind power on Nantucket Sound. I saw beautiful wind turbines spinning on Crete. Workable and no one saying they looked hideous
and that they were going to vacation somewhere else.
"Waste to fuel is a great idea and workable EXCEPT FOR ONE PROBLEM."
Huh?
"Waste" is something that is not desired. If it's desired then it's NOT waste. The veggie-oil folks (who tend to spawned from the do-gooders) were claiming the wonders of "free waste oil," up until the locks were put on the "waste oil" and it started to command a price. Yeah, all we have to do is to open up more McDonald's and all our energy problems are solved!
" I saw beautiful wind turbines spinning on Crete. Workable and no one saying they looked hideous
and that they were going to vacation somewhere else."
Yeah, right. Because you saw something somewhere that means that it can work everywhere... Well, me MUST create this all so that you have the energy to be a world-traveler!
The ecoterrorists will never allow an expansion of coal....
The greenies are controled oposition from day one. Stick a green label on a pile and watch the money roll in. As a hands on guy this crap aint funny. It never was. Experts said hydrogen powered cars would be the future. Utter crap. They said hybrids next also wrong. They said 100 mpg was not possible too. We have been getting our chain yanked on energies so much it boggels the mind. VW xl1 is based on thirty year old tech and gets well over 100 mpg. Instead they are pushing electric cars. An envirornmental disaster is going to be the result. Elon get stuffed ya twat.
PHDs presented these dumb ideas hand in hand with gov help. The math dont work on any of these scams and they absolutly knew it did not from the start.
Here is some simple math for ya. If that hybrid system got 100 miles of extra travel and only was 100lbs you would still be better off with three gallons of gas even in a car getting just 35 mpg. That 100 miles of range takes about 600 lbs of batteries that are not going to be recycled. There is no good way to deal with these Li batteries.
One after the other these dumb ideas are trotted out as golden. By experts. Ethenol,E cars,hybrid,hydrogen,wind,solar and the list goes on and on. Crap science and they know it.
This is another group I would love to debate on a level field.
Obama's War On Coal isn't about environment. It's shifting electricity production from coal, which the US has in abundance, to oil, which will keep us engaged in the Great Game over in the ME. Which is the power base of the oil companies. And the only talking poinit of right wing slugs.
Look at the board of the Sierra Club (the stalking horse in the US Courts) and you'll see Corporate America at play. The Gulf oil spill showed BP basically running the government for their benefit. It isn't all in emergencies. It's like letting the insurance companies write the law and run Obamacare.
Barry's a blatant sock puppet for the banks, so we tend to not notice he's a front for other industries.
And the small-minded will NEVER understand that the real problem is perpetual growth on a finite planet. Lots of folks out there serving the purpose of obfuscating this FACT...
BTW - How's that "just a little pregnant" thing going? Small govt, yeah, as though one has EVER existed (never in a growth environment).
Enter ebola.....
With China-SinoPEC and Russia Gazprom involved, ISIS is commiting suicide to rattle the jewels (oil and gas) of the Global Oligarchs.
They can have their Caliph and even Syria but this is far too big for them to swallow. If this escalates, Isarel/Hamas, Ukraine, Turkey, etc will all be sideshows.
US will be well funded to first control the jewels and the rest (petro dollar hegemony, etc) can be sorted out later.
As expected, EC is not stepping up and when the dust has settled, it shall has to resign to its fate as a peripheral player to be used by US & Russia.
"The US, IS and the conspiracy theory sweeping Lebanon"
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28745990
Duh Bulls in a China shop vs. ze Russian Bears!
(EXECUTIVE BOX LOUNGE: The Owners will work out a deal, especially to the extent that it involves compromising video and vague discussions about carpentry, focusing on nail guns. No worries.) DOWN ON THE FIELD: The fans grasp their $20. foam middle fingers tight, scratch each other's asses (it gets hard to tell who's is whose) and anxiously await the kickoff! This could be a doozy folks! So sit back, relax and eat!
INTERRUPTION TO THIS BROADCAST BY PSEUDONYM, A FIREBRAND GROUP OF TENNIS MOMS FROM THE HAMPTONS:
A Major Political Operator just announced that if he doesn't make "a cool billion" off this "humanitarian endeavor" in 8 months, "...all bets are off."
"This shit will not go down without our piece of the action." -said a Pseudonym source confidentially by the pool...
Obama is the fourth president in a row to bomb Iraq … while claiming it is for humanitarian purposes.
If they would have done it at a different time in the past they would have wiped out all humanity for humanitarian purposes.
Kind of makes sense.
I see the price of tinfoil is going up.
Obama doesn't want to explain why he has an Erbil up his ass.
Is that why he keeps buying cats?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN9-y8CbjPI
These 'George Washington' posts are turning Zero Hedge into a joke, and a toilet.
Surly
Kudos for observing how GW's posts
attract asinine individuals
who make laughable accusations backed only by toilet innuendoes.
Yes wer2late. I'll bet we're even late4lunch more often than not. And about that toilet humor, don't be assinine!
Fu*k you man, GW posts are half the reason I even started visiting this place. (Jim Quinn is the other half.)
I get all this good original info, and still know WTF is going on in the rest of the world..... The Live feed throwins when there are major breaking events are only the icing on the cake.
Welcome:
George, George, George... no reason to resort to that. Just let the rest of us clobber the shit out this Surly Son Of A Bitch... and, really, let's just laugh at him/her/it, as the name pretty much demands that we do just that!
Now see i was gonna wait for his friends to show up so i could whack um all at one time.
OK its a fancy still.
http//www.fischer-tropsch.org
War ? For oil you say? humm,,, Just about everything that burns can be turned into clean fuel.
No bullshit its been around from ww2.
And it takes energy to round stuff up.
Further, I could make a monkey come out your ass (sorry, not personal, just wanting to inject some humor into this), and while this is possible I don't think that it's something that you (or I, really) would want to do. That is, just because something is possible it doesn't mean that it SHOULD be done.
There's scalability and sustainability to consider. And if growth is expected then that pretty much tosses "sustainability" out the window.