File: German – 3min58sec -1552

Speaker 1

Whatever is valid for the entire industrialized world is particularly valid for the United States as well. Oil moves everything and this in a very cheap way, with about 40 Eurocents for a liter of gasoline.

Do you risk blood for oil in Iraq, only so that cheap oil can furthermore remain a part of the American dream? More than 100,000 people who demonstrate in Washington are of this opinion. They say that the only American interest in Iraq is about the access to the oil. The Bush Government contradicts. The American interest supposedly only regards Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. There are experts in Washington to be found who consider one or the other side as correct. It primarily is about Saddam Hussein. But then, it is about the most important raw material in his country. And this is mineral oil of the finest, in fact.

While the U.S. troops are practicing hard at the Iraqi border for an invasion in Kuwait, a race comes in behind the scenes around the reorganization of the Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. And it is primarily about business regarding the new construction of the obsolete Iraqi oil infrastructure. If Saddam Hussein is no more at the power, then whoever may follow him should have a friendlier attitude towards the Americans. That is at least how the US – oil companies calculate when they are designing concepts for new business in Iraq. However, one is likely to put the competition in charge of dishonest motives. If countries like Russia or France are warning against a war and are demanding more time for the weapon inspectors, then one likes to turn the spear over here in America and say: Look here, for us Americans it is not all about the oil. However, that is the case everywhere else.

One thing is certain. With every year, the hunger of energy strongly increases in the USA, with a growth rate which is approximately twice as high as the one in Europe. Therefore, from the side of the Government, the USA essentially are only given one single vision for the future of the energy. There is always a need for more energy. 

The energy concept of the United States was drafted by U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney who himself has a background from the oil industry. It is an open secret that it had been dictated to him into the feather by industry lobbyists. It foresees enormous rates of increase as far the demand of energy is concerned. There are more than 1,000 new power stations foreseen within the next twenty years. A gigantic nature protection area in Alaska is also affected by the request for increasingly more oil. The Bush Government firmly holds on to their plan drill there for oil.

This is an advertising campaign against energy consumption. It is directed against cars that are using huge amounts of gasoline here called Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). It is said in this campaign that money for oil would support the terror at long last.  But until now, the campaign hasn't been too much heard of. Big cars remain big in fashion trends. And as much as the Government knows about how one can extract oil, process and sell it, as little it knows about how one could reduce the demand for it. The young George Bush tried his first business attempts in the oil fields in West Texas at the time. Although he had been of little success with his oil companies, well-meaning patrons always punctually appeared to buy him out of his troubles. Safety adviser Condoleeza Rize, next to vice-president Cheney, had to do with the oil business as well. The petroleum company Chevron once even named a crude oil vessel after her. With an investment in Iraq, however, the Bush Government also takes on a considerable risk. It is not at all sure that their friends in the oil business could profit from an Iraq war at all. The opposite may be the case as well.

The Americans, by the way, are not especially squeamish as far as the origin of their oil is concerned. They also have bought large amounts of it from their arch-enemy Iraq in the permitted context under the UNO sanctions within the last few years.

Now in America, it is not a taboo to use power as a means to succeed with one’s interests. In particular that is the case when the interests also consist of ensuring that the oil supply continues to flow as unhinderedly as possible.