http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/904n1.html
              September 24, 2000
              Oil crisis: Call it the Curse of Saddam

              By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Toronto Sun
 

                 As oil climbs toward US$40 per barrel, motorists and truckers across Europe are in open insurrection,
              demanding fuel taxes be slashed. If petroleum prices keep rising and shortages develop, Americans, and
              even usually passive Canadians, may also stage a modern version of a medieval peasants' revolt.

              No wonder politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are running scared. The Curse of Saddam has struck.

              Western consumers take for granted that cheap oil is theirs by divine right. For them, "normal oil prices"
              means a return to the good old days before
              1970 when tame Mideast puppet rulers gave away oil at $2 per barrel in return for protection, and
              blondes.

              "How dare those Arabs raise the price of our oil!" is what many people angrily mutter - unaware, of
              course, that most of North America's imported oil comes from West Africa and Venezuela, not the
              Mideast.

              Angry western demands that oil producers lower prices are pure, unabashed economic imperialism. The
              Mideast, for example, imports over 50% of its food and 95% of its medicines from western nations -
              commodities even more precious and imperative than oil. Do we see our farmers lowering prices of grains
              or meats sold to the Mideast? Or Detroit, Silicon Valley or drug firms slashing export prices of goods they
              sell to oil producers? Of course not.

              We are simply demanding by right of might that exporting nations, many of whom rely on oil as their sole
              source of income, cut their prices so it costs us less to tank up our road hogs. The U.S. produces over six
              million barrels daily: why are there no calls for American producers to slash their wellhead prices?

              Amidst all the finger-pointing over who is to blame for high oil prices, and inevitable pre-electoral threats
              by the Clinton administration to bomb the usual Iraqis, it is simply amazing that no one has asked the most
              obvious question: does the 10-year embargo of Iraqi oil play a role in this mess?

              The answer is: of course. Before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, Iraq, which has the Mideast's
              second largest proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia - 120 billion barrels - exported over three million
              barrels per day and was expanding its petro-infrastructure to export up to five million barrels a day by
              2000.

              Today, under the decade-old UN sanctions, Iraq is allowed to export 2.3 million barrels daily. Iraq is
              supposed to get half the proceeds from that oil for food and medicine; the rest goes to the UN's
              bureaucracy and to Kuwait.

              INDUSTRY CRUMBLING

              But Iraq's actual exports are considerably lower because the U.S. has steadily blocked or delayed Iraq's
              purchase of equipment and spare parts for its crumbling oil industry.

              Now, ironically, western governments fear Saddam may throw world oil markets into a new crisis by
              halting Iraq's modest oil exports. World petroleum consumption has hit 76 million barrels daily. Oil is so
              scarce right now that even a minor reduction could trigger an international panic that could spill over into
              financial markets. In short, the West's punishment of Iraq has come home to haunt us.

              Another nice irony: during the made-for-TV Gulf war, Americans thrilled as they watched armadas of
              macho armoured vehicles sweep across the desert. This ignited consumer lust for tough-looking,
              road-warrior vehicles. A friend, psychiatrist Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, conducted in-depth studies of post-war
              American auto consumer psyches for Chrysler and discovered that both men and women wanted
              "aggressive" looking vehicles.

              BOOMING ECONOMY

              The result: the enormous upsurge in huge, menacing RV's and now, paramilitary Humvees - both major gas
              guzzlers. With nearly half the vehicles on the road getting 12-13 mpg, and with booming economic times, is
              it any wonder gas prices are sky high?

              If Iraq's oil industry was quickly refurbished and allowed to export at full capacity, there would be no
              shortage, and prices would fall sharply. This column predicted way back in 1991 that oil shortages would
              ensure if Iraq was kept out of the market. And so they have.

              But Iraq's Arab oil "brothers," Iran and Russia, don't want Iraq to resume exporting because prices would
              drop. Kuwait knows Saddam thirsts for revenge. Israel exerts intense pressure on the Clinton
              administration through its American lobby to keep Iraq bottled up. Britain wants Iraq shackled to protect
              its lucrative Gulf markets. No American politician wants to risk being called "soft on Saddam" or letting him
              out of his cage.

              None of the above care much that 5,000 Iraqi children die each month from disease and malnutrition
              mainly caused by the cruel western embargo. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says that's "a
              price worth paying."

              This column heartily disagrees. It would be far cheaper and more humane to lift the embargo, let Iraq
              export oil and bribe Saddam to be good, as Washington has done with nuclear-armed North Korea.

              Instead, consumers in Europe and North America are paying the cost, via high gas prices, of sustaining
              Iraq's long imprisonment and prolonging the suffering of its people.