Jim Holt on Iraqi Oil

He alleges
that the war in Iraq was botched for a reason: it will be easier for us
to steal their oil if they do not have a functioning government.
 Some excerpts:

Indeed, the US may be
‘stuck’ precisely where Bush et al want it to be,
which is why there is no ‘exit strategy’.

The value of Iraqi oil, largely light
crude with low production costs, would be of the order of $30 trillion
at today’s prices. For purposes of comparison, the projected
total cost of the US invasion/occupation is around $1 trillion.

The draft law that the US has written for
the Iraqi congress would cede nearly all the oil to Western companies.
The Iraq National Oil Company would retain control of 17 of
Iraq’s 80 existing oilfields, leaving the rest –
including all yet to be discovered oil – under foreign
corporate control for 30 years.

How will the US maintain hegemony over
Iraqi oil? By establishing permanent military bases in Iraq. Five
self-sufficient ‘super-bases’ are in various stages
of completion. All are well away from the urban areas where most
casualties have occurred. There has been precious little reporting on
these bases in the American press, whose dwindling corps of
correspondents in Iraq cannot move around freely because of the
dangerous conditions.

There is more, of course, but you get the idea.