Gas Pump Rip-Off - Made In Washington
With the price of gasoline rapidly surging, and expected to reach anywhere
from $1.70 to $2 per gallon - depending on what part of the US you live in -
Americans will soon be grumbling as they wait in long lines for the
privilege
of getting ripped off, and looking for someone to blame. The oil companies,
OPEC, the US government - these are the likely candidates of Americans' ire,
and with good reason.
 

THOSE WERE THE DAYS
The alliance of oil-producing states, known as OPEC, has long been trying to
establish itself as a worldwide oil cartel, centered in the Middle East but
also including Venezuela and some African nations. Sitting atop the world's
largest reserves of crude oil, these nations have long sought to increase
profits and exercise a degree of control over the West by manipulating the
oil
supply. If OPEC cuts production, prices rise; if they open up the taps, and
let the oil flow, prices plummet. But not anymore.

A FAILED CARTEL
Mexico, a major producer, is not a member of OPEC, and the discipline needed
to maintain monopoly prices is not something that is encouraged by the
market:
if one breaks ranks, prices fall precipitously - and, what's more, the one
to
break first reaps the pot of gold, cashing in on inflated prices and
ultimately undercutting the cartel. It isn't a system built to last, not
even
for a few months: as the discovery of oil reserves in Central Asia, South
America, Indonesia, and Alaska increased the supply and sent the price of
crude plunging, the myth of the mighty OPEC was no longer enough to throw a
scare into the markets. For years now, oil prices have been falling, and the
major companies have had to undergo a series of mega-mergers even to stay
viable, never mind satisfy the demands of investors for a reasonably large
margin of profit.

TWO BUCKS A BARREL?
While OPEC did announce a production cutback this past April, the fact is
that, normally, this would not necessarily lead to such a major uptick in
prices as we are experiencing. For all of the reasons stated above, OPEC is
a
toothless tiger, good at growling but with not much of a bite. What, then is
the real reason for the outrageous surge in prices; what's behind the fact
that gas is rapidly heading toward $2 per gallon?

THE PAIN AT THE PUMP
To begin with, government regulations and "environmental" safeguards,
especially in California, act as government-mandated price supports. And as
much as we are told that inflation has for all intents and purpose been
abolished - in this the new New Era of the cyber-economy, which is somehow
exempt from timeless economic laws - I don't believe it for a minute. If
inflation is a thing of the past, how come the prices of such essential
items
such as housing, clothing, education, and medical care only seem to go up?
But
while inflation is undoubtedly a factor, no matter how much the economic
gurus
assure us that the monster has been slain, it is not the major reason for
the
sudden pain at the pump.

THE EMBARGO
The silence on this issue is deafening: we are led to believe, by
implication,
that the market itself is wreaking vengeance on us sinners: we drive too
much,
when we could help the environment and ourselves if we'd just get out that
bike. But come on, now, let's get serious: there is no real mystery as to
the
proximate cause of the sudden drop in the supply of oil. The sanctions
maintained on Iraq, which are killing 5,000 children a week and have already
decimated an entire generation, keep billions of gallons of oil off the
market. The last time gasoline prices spiked, in the Spring of 1996, they
settled down only after Iraq and the United Nations agreed on an arrangement
whereby Iraq would be allowed to sell $2 billion worth of its embargoed oil
over a six-month period. That was the signal for the price to slide rapidly
downward by several dollars per barrel. At pre-Gulf war levels, Iraq was
shipping 3 million barrels per day. The agreement allowed for the sale of
about 700,000 barrels a day, but this is sporadic and uncertain, subject to
the exigencies of America's ongoing struggle to bring the present Iraqi
government to its knees. No, it isn't the market that is causing this
artificial shortage, it is the most massive and violent form of government
intervention imaginable - the US government's merciless decade-long war on
the
Iraqi people.

OUR LOYAL ARAB "ALLIES"
Protesting the economic sanctions that forbid the importation of such
"weapons
of mass destruction" as paper and pencils, as well as essential food items,
Iraq has withheld oil shipments and is arguing within OPEC to curtail
production. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and even little Kuwait - whose precious
"sovereignty" we fought to defend - have all combined to hike the heretofore
sagging price of crude, although they may consider opening the spigots just
a
little wider in due time. Without the armed might of the United States, and
the persuasive powers of successive American Presidents - who have somehow
managed to convince the American people that our fate is tied to that of the
Arab sheiks and princelings - the decadent and tottering monarchies of the
Middle East would long since have gone the way of the Iranian Shah. Why are
we
defending a bunch of extortionists, who yelp for US intervention whenever
they
get in trouble, and then turn around and rob us at the gas pump the first
chance they get?

WHAT ARE HALF A MILLION CHILDREN WORTH?
But why is the US government putting up with this state of affairs? The
obvious question to ask is: who benefits? The biggest and most immediate
beneficiaries of the price hike are the oil companies, who stand to reap
mega-profits as the cost of their product rises over the summer, just as
many
people are going on vacation. During a televised interview with reporter
Lesley Stahl of "60 Minutes," [May 12, 1996], Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright was asked:

"We have heard that a half million children have died [as a result of
sanctions]. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And - and
you
know, is the price worth it?"

Madeleine Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price - we
think the price is worth it."

GIMME GRAVY
Certainly, from the point of view of the oil companies, it is "worth it."
But
this is just gravy: the real meat of the matter is how the sudden oil
shortage
will impact US foreign policy - and increase the chances of a major war
breaking out in the next few years by at least a factor of ten. The
machinery
is already in place: all that remains now is for the "crisis" to be suddenly
ignited. An explosion is sure to follow.

REINVENTING MERCANTILISM
In the process of "reinventing government," Bill Clinton and Al Gore created
a
special office deep in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy, a "Special
Advisor to the State Department and the White House for Caspian Basin
Energy."
In a frankly mercantilist policy, the purpose of this office has been, as
Ambassador Richard Morningstar put it, "enhancing commercial opportunities
for
U.S. and other companies." In terms of action, this means "bolstering the
energy security of the US and our allies and the energy independence of the
Caspian region by ensuring the free flow of oil and gas to the world
marketplace." Both John McCain and George W. Bush have endorsed this
Clintonian plan, fueled by campaign contributions from the Roger Tamrazes of
this world directly into the coffers of the Democratic National Committee,
and
if anything want to accelerate what is essentially a scheme to seize the oil
fields of central Asia on behalf of American and European oil companies.
Significantly, Morningstar, the first person to hold this newly-created
Ministry of Caspian Oil, has since gone on to become Ambassador to the
European Union, the junior partner in the plunder. As the phony,
government-created oil "shortage" reaches critical mass, the rationale that
the US must intervene in the Caucasus - or, perhaps, in Colombia - to
protect
vital oil supplies begins to make a twisted kind of sense to the outraged
American consumer. As an added rationale to go after Saddam Hussein, and up
the ante in the ceaseless war against Iraq, the contrived shortage will
stoke
the fiery rhetoric of the War Party, and play a major role in the next
foreign
policy "crisis."

URGENT TASKS
With major oil companies pouring millions into the campaign chests of both
major party candidates, another war for oil is almost certain if and when
one
of them winds up in the Oval Office. The only question is where, and under
what pretext, will it break out? In a White House where the Lincoln Bedroom
was rented out like a Motel 6, by the hour, and with an "opposition" party
so
obviously in the pocket of Big Oil as the Bushian GOP, it seems almost
inevitable that we will soon be exporting "democracy" to the steppes of
Central Asia and the jungles of South America - and subsidizing oil imports
with the blood of our soldiers. Our policy of global intervention benefits
the
few, while it hurts the many, not only here in America but all over the
world,
and this is the Achilles heel of the War Party, a weakness that could well
prove fatal. It is, of course, the job of this website to continually expose
and dramatize that fact, while putting it in context - a task that takes on
a
heightened sense of urgency with each passing day.
 
 

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