Politics: All About Oil

Politics

I thought I'd talk a little about oil today, the ever-increasing cost of which is of great concern to many people around the world.

The availability of oil to the industrialized nations of the world has long been a cause for conflict. The great battles of WWII, in the deserts of North Africa and the oil-rich fields of Russia and the Middle East, were driven by the unquenchable thirst of industrialized Germany and the Western Allies.

Today there are still battles being fought over oil. The control of the supply of oil is central to the strategic long-term plans of the the industrialized world.

The fact that a large proportion of the current administration of the United States have close ties to the oil industry, and have deliberately led us all into another war in the Middle East, should come as no surprise to anyone.

The oil- rich countries around the world, who refuse to be exploited by the oil consuming giants of the West, are fast becoming "enemies" of the current administration. Venezuela is one of those oil-rich countries who have been added to the growing list of countries that are of "great concern" to the corporate and political interests of the United States. And Venezuela has been gathering allies in South and Central America. The nationalization of the oil industry's interests in the developing world is a real threat that the oil companies and the American government will have to address. But how?

When Chile, who elected Salvador Allende, a socialist, president in a free election, threatened to nationalize the country's mining industry, the CIA engineered a military coup by right-wing extremists. Allende was killed in 1973, and General Pinochet replaced him and became dictator. Does the same fate await the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia...and Mexico? There are voices from the right-wing of American politics who are publicly calling for such actions to be taken.

The oil companies have posted profits, since the current war began,that are inconceivably large, they have been given tax breaks that begger belief, and their friends in government have made it all happen.

You get what you pay for I guess. At the end of the day it is all about: