War Oil and US White Privilege
By Terrance Nelson
Roseau River Anishinabe
Censored News
Brenda,
It is critically important for our people to
understand what we are up against. Your posting of the Native leaders
from US and Canada joining forces in opposing the Transcanada pipeline
is good but Native Americans and First Nations people must understand
how deceptive and manipulating the oil companies and Governments are. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Iraqi oil was already divided up. Under
Freedom of Information, 1000s of new documents are surfacing in the
UK about the real reasons for invading Iraq.
An article out of the UK contains the following paragraphsBP (British Patroluem) was concerned that if Washington allowed TotalFinaElf's existing contact with Saddam Hussein to stand after the invasion it would make the French conglomerate the world's leading oil company. BP told the Government it was willing to take "big risks" to get a share of the Iraqi reserves, the second largest in the world.
Over 1,000 documents were obtained under Freedom of Information over five years by the oil campaigner Greg Muttitt. They reveal that at least five meetings were held between civil servants, ministers and BP and Shell in late 2002.
The 20-year contracts signed in the wake of the invasion were the largest in the history of the oil industry. They covered half of Iraq's reserves – 60 billion barrels of oil, bought up by companies such as BP and CNPC (China National Petroleum Company), whose joint consortium alone stands to make £403m ($658m) profit per year from the Rumaila field in southern Iraq.
The link to the entire article is http://www.independent.co.uk/
Americans need to wake up. When we were in Iraq in 1998, we naively thought that the issue was economic sanctions and that if Americans could see the impact of economic sanctions on the people of Iraq, there was a chance that the sanctions could be lifted. This was between the first and second Iraqi wars. Saddam was still there and gasoline in the United States was under $1 a gallon. At the American Indian Movement gathering in South Dakota two months ago, I paid $3,85 a gallon for gasoline. Today, average Americans are getting angry. Now they are asking questions about the real price of oil.
When President Obama was in Israel last week talking about bombing Iran, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu was spouting the same lies as when the second war against Iraq was being pushed, "weapons of mass destruction". Economic Sanctions are used to soften up the country for war. The use of devastating economic sanctions against North Korea is not creating friends or allies in other nations. What is strange about this is how China positions itself in the use of economic sanctions against other countries. China needs to continue to export to the United States, so it has to maintain a balance of its positions but China cannot continue to support the United States for long. The Arab spring has nothing to do with the desire for democracy or freedom, it is about creating dissension amongst people. As long as wars are created in OPEC nations, there will be deals made on who gets the spoils of war.
The Jews in North America need to question the Israeli government on this new war against Iran. Iran is now purchasing pharmaceuticals from India, a country considered friendly to the United States. The flow of accumulated hard American currency from a nation considered hostile to a friendly country is one of the objectives of the Iranian economic sanctions. Jews in America have to understand that anti-semitism in Egypt and other Arab countries is extreme but it will become far worse if a war against Iran is started by Israel. Iran is not only the head of OPEC, it is the leader of over 120 countries in the Non Aligned Movement. Iraq was led by Saddam and they feared him. The world hated Saddam. The difference is that in Iran, there is real spiritual devotion to the leadership. This is not going to be an easy war against Iran. Jews in America need to understand how much more they will be hated once this war starts. Who gets the blame for a collapse of the European economies, it won't be Iran, the blame will be put on Jews in Israel and United States?
In the Godfather movie, there is a scene where Micheal Corleone is in Cuba before the revolution led by Castro succeeds and he sees a man blow himself up on the streets rather than allowing himself to get arrested. After watching the man kill himself, Micheal Corleone says to the assembled Mafia Godfathers, "they (the rebels) can win". I think that the United States and Israel starting a war against Iran is a big mistake. This is not a war that will be easily won. This is war that could be fought for decades to come.
We as indigenous people are not in some cave 5,000 miles away in Afghanistan fighting against drones and bombs dropped from five miles up in the air, we are in the very heart of the North American economy. We contribute our natural resource wealth to the Canadians and Americans but oil companies pay nothing except a few jobs and training, there is no percentage royalty payments to the rightful owners of the oil. They continue to steal everything as they have all over the world. We cannot be naive about what they will do to continue to take oil without paying the people who own it.
My presentation to the White Privilege Conference as a Keynote Speaker is scheduled to for 7:15 p.m. in Seattle Washington Friday April 12, 2013. I intend to give the American audience some things to think about regarding oil. I am always well prepared and unlike others, I have first hand video from Iraq and I visited Iran in October 2012. I get an hour to speak to the audience. I will use power point, video and all kinds of graphs on economics. I have spoken to four thousand people several times before and I can hold an audience attention. It is time for Americans to wake up and question the insanity of new wars that only profit big oil and the super rich, while killing innocent civilians.
In Iraq, the United Nations found in 1995 that 567,000 Iraqi children died in the first five years of economic sanctions but no one was ever charged with war crimes and economic sanctions continue to suffer and kill human beings. If we as indigenous people in North America want to change the way we have been treated, we need to understand just how brutal that the oil companies really are. The CEOs continue to sleep well even if there is blood on their hands. Politicians like Harper and now Obama will support the oil companies over our rights as the people. We need to understand that when we make statements of standing together to fight big oil. If we are naive, we could be treated like the starving African children that North Americans see on t.v. In North America, they just sigh and turn the channel.
Terrance Nelson
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