Christian Parenti should have told Iraqis that, as the US ruling class and governing elite refuse to invest in the US electrical grids and therefore can't even secure power supply for Americans, Iraqis will be waiting for a long time for electricity under the US occupation. Iraqis can't expect anything better from the British either: <http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1032274,00.html>.
The colonizers and the colonized -- locked in power-lessness. The title of one of Mark Twain's most famous satires on imperialism comes back to us as an ironically literalized metaphor: "To the Person Sitting in Darkness."
As for Iraqi oil, apparently, the Empire is unable to extract and exploit it expeditiously:
***** New York Times August 11, 2003 ENERGY Riots Continue Over Fuel Crisis in Iraq's South By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ROBERT F. WORTH
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 10 - Riots over severe fuel shortages continued today in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, as some officials who have studied the matter warned that fuel shortages could recur in other parts of the country.
United Nations officials said there was a "near certainty" that Iraq would face winter shortages of kerosene, a vital fuel for heating homes in northern Iraq, because of the same refinery problems that have led to the gasoline shortages.
Officials of the civilian administration here have begun to shift the refinery mix to increase production of kerosene, but tonight officials said they did not know whether the process of stockpiling the kerosene needed for winter use had begun.
A private security guard in Basra employed by the civilian authority was shot and killed by unidentified assailants today, the second day of rioting over gasoline shortages.
Motorists in Basra have faced fuel lines several miles long and waits of more than 24 hours. Black-market prices for gasoline there have soared as high as 1,000 dinars, about 60 cents a liter, or 50 times the official price. That is also 10 times the black-market price in Baghdad, where fuel lines have gotten much longer in recent days, United Nations officials monitoring the fuel situation said.
The Basra fuel shortages have caused power failures at hospitals and harmed aid efforts, American officials have said.
In addition, the United Nations Joint Logistics Center said the current shortage of liquefied petroleum gas, an important cooking fuel, was a nationwide "crisis" that was "almost certain to continue," even as officials hope that new imports and production from a plant in southern Iraq will increase supply. Gas canisters that normally cost 250 dinars have been fetching up to 4,000 dinars, or about $2.40. . . .
Oil production is not the problem behind the shortages, as Iraq's oil fields, even in their current poor condition, produce far more oil daily than is needed for domestic consumption. Instead, the shortages have been caused by factors mostly related to problems with the electricity grid and the woeful state of the refinery in Basra, United Nations and occupation officials said.
Those factors, they said, include looting and sabotage, a shortage of the fuels that power generators that supply electricity to refineries and the dilapidated and obsolete condition of the refineries. Compared with modern refineries, they produce proportionately far more heavy fuel oil than the gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene that are in such demand.
In Basra, all four primary electricity transmission lines supplying the refinery have been cut by saboteurs, said occupation officials, who noted that all of those factors have been worsened by increased demand caused by the hot weather.
According to United Nations estimates, Iraq's three major refineries - at Basra, Bayji and Baghdad - have been producing an estimated 18 million to 22 million liters a day of gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel combined. But to meet demand, they need to produce between 37 million and 40 million liters. There are about four liters to a gallon.
Occupation officials said smuggling had worsened the problem. They are cracking down on tanker trucks and barges secretly taking fuel out of the country, including the seizure this weekend of a ship that officials said was carrying at least 1,100 metric tons of diesel fuel. . . .
Tonight, another occupation official said the kerosene supply depended on whether the refineries had adequate electricity.
Summer demand for kerosene is about six million liters a day, according to the United Nations. But that demand will grow to more than 30 million liters a day during the coldest parts of the winter. To meet that demand, Iraq needs to have 500 million liters of kerosene in storage in about three months, United Nations officials said.
But they said that kerosene stockpiling is behind schedule and that the "current high level of demand for diesel may prevent kerosene production needed for future consumption in winter." . . .
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/11/international/worldspecial/11BAGH.html> *****
It's time to rewrite Mao: political power grows geometrically out of the maintenance of power lines and electricity grids. This new dictum holds true in Iraq, as well as California.
At 6:33 PM -0400 8/28/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Later, off air, he said that a (Coxian) U.S. pullout at this stage
>would result in total chaos.
It's already a total chaos -- otherwise, Iraqis whom Christian Parenti met wouldn't be pining for what they don't have and what foreign occupiers can't supply: water, electricity, and basic security.
At 6:33 PM -0400 8/28/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>The position of the Iraqi Communist Workers Party, one of the rare
>secular leftist outfits left in the country, is for the UN to take
>over from the U.S. - with no U.S. involvement at all.
That is no surprise, as the Iraqi Communist Party is a member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
***** Iraqi Communist Party joins Washington's puppet administration in Baghdad
By Peter Symonds 29 July 2003
. . . It was not until 1968 that the Baath Party seized power, taking advantage of the infighting and unpopularity of the previous military-backed regimes. Conscious of his government's political isolation, Baath leader Hasan al-Bakr turned for support to the ICP, offering it three ministerial positions in the cabinet. The overture was also aimed at cementing a relationship with the Stalinist bureaucracy in Moscow, which was the country's main military supplier and a potential source of aid.
Although the ICP declined the offer, it had no fundamental opposition to the proposal. Under pressure from Moscow, the ICP leadership had already begun to accommodate to "progressive Nasserist elements" in the previous military regimes. As the Baath government increasingly turned to the Soviet Union for support, it was not a huge political leap for the ICP, at Moscow's insistence, to join with the party that had slaughtered its members just years before, and declare it to be progressive.
The impetus was provided by the Baath regime's decision to nationalise the oil industry. The move, aimed at capitalising on higher oil prices in the early 1970s, required close cooperation with the Soviet Union, which provided markets and technical expertise. Moscow, in turn, was keen to exploit the relationship and pressed the ICP to openly support the government. In April 1972, the ICP issued a statement declaring that recent developments had "marked a turning point in the people's struggle" and indicated its willingness to join the Baath-dominated National Progressive Front. In May, two senior ICP leaders were appointed to the Baath cabinet and, two weeks later, the oil industry was nationalised.
The ICP remained in the National Progressive Front for seven years. It bears political responsibility for all of the Baath regime's crimes against the working class as well as its repression of the Kurds and Shiites. The Baath Party used its predominance not only to insist that the ICP uncritically accept its policies but to extend its influence into areas where it had never had support, such as the trade unions. The ICP clung to the Baath Party right to the bitter end, even after the regime launched a fresh wave of repression against the party in April 1978. It only quit the front in 1979. . . .
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/iraq-j29.shtml> *****
The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. . . . -- Yoshie
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