Sabrina Tavernise reports that Bush called upon American business to "take the lead in developing the vast energy resources of the Caspian," vindicating leftist anti-imperialist critics who have maintained since last October that the Afghanistan military campaign was about controlling oil supply, not combating terrorism.
As I reported last February, Halliburton, the world's largest oil services company - once headed up by Vice President Dick Cheney - received the Defense Department's no-cap, cost-plus award to build military bases to support troop deployments for the next nine years of the War Against Terrorism. American troops are now being deployed in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, while the U.S. military has maintained a presence in Uzbekistan since at least last summer. Halliburton is, thus, well positioned to begin oil exploration in the Caspian Basin.
While the Bush administration has - until now - been tight-lipped about the corporate interests behind the Afghanistan campaign, Bush's call for aggressive corporate initiative signals the commencement of an unbridled U.S.-based multinational stampede into the region.
Tavernise's article also notes Russia's enormous economic leverage over world energy policy. When OPEC pressed Russia - the second largest oil producer in the world - to cap oil production last fall, it refused to comply and prices plummeted. This would explain why Bush has muted his protests over the fact of Russia supplying nuclear technology to "axis of evil" member Iran.
Tavernise writes, "In their joint statement on energy today, President Bush and President Putin agreed to work together to modernize ports, pipelines and refineries to smooth the export flow." As part of the administration's stated project of reducing dependence on the Persian Gulf, this is critical. But since oil is a globally-traded commodity it doesn't matter so much whether it reaches the U.S. market as it does that increases supply in general.
The article has this gem from Leo Drollas, deputy director at the Center for Global Energy in London: "In terms of security of supply, it doesn't matter whether Russian oil goes to Baltimore or Rotterdam; it just matters that it's not left in the ground." Which dovetails quite nicely with Cheney's increase-energy-production-at-any- environmental-cost mania.
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