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01/04/2006:

"The Guerilla War on Iraqi Oil"

...Currently, the resource war is concealed behind a propaganda smokescreen created by the establishment media. Their task is to characterize the conflict as a war on terror and to limit their coverage to the random incidents of violence by fanatical jihadis. It’s rare when the media reports on the guerilla war that has subsumed Iraq and which threatens a worldwide economic downturn.

There’s simply no way that the Bush administration can prevail in its original intention of controlling Iraq’s oil if a small army of guerillas focus their energies on disrupting production. Millions of dollars of infrastructure can be destroyed in a flash by one determined fighter with a bomb or a Kalashnikov.

The success of the armed resistance is quantifiable in terms of the reduction in oil exports. In 1990, Saddam was exporting 3.5 million barrels per day. During the 1990s, there was a gradual decline due to sanctions and neglect. Since the invasion of 2003, the oil sector has taken a nosedive directly attributable to the blowing up of pipelines. Production is now at an all time low, less than half of what it was just prior to the invasion. The development of oil fields and the transport of petroleum are proving to be incompatible with the unpredictable outbursts of violence.
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