Blood For Oil For Israel
Way back, well, actually not that long ago, but so much has happened …
Commenter Amanda R recommended a book, which I did read and wrote a post about. It attracted 47 comments, so, lots of interest. I’ll recommend that post again as background, since I don’t intend to repeat myself. Glancing through the post, it’s a decent summary of a complex history:
… I’ve been reading Charlotte Dennet’s Follow the Pipelines: Uncovering the Mystery of a Lost Spy and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil.
Here’s a thumbnail sketch. The British Empire, motivated by the necessity for oil both to fuel a modern fleet—the backbone of the Empire—as well as for modern explosives, and to control access to the then biggest source of oil (the Middle East) by Big Power competitors, sought to make the port of Haifa the focal trans shipment point for Middle East oil. A network of pipelines was planned, prominently including the Kirkuk to Haifa pipeline (shut down since 1948). Yes, the Brit imperialists did have ideas of a compliant Zionist Palestine safeguarding the Empire’s oil terminals, but we all know by know that Zionists are far from compliant and have their own plans for the Middle East. The Brits did try to exclude even the US, but …
The long and the short of it all:
… the American Empire has more or less stepped into the shoes of the British Empire, in terms of attempting to control the Middle East—only with a lot more firepower. Western neocolonialism continues for the time being.
…
Naturally, the pipeline became a target for Arab nationalists, who resented the looting of their resources through the lopsided “mandates” and “zones of influence,” with the attendant sweetheart deals for the oil companies. In the end, after the establishment of the state of Israel, the Iraqi government, having asserted its independence from Britain, stopped oil shipments.
During WW2 the issue of Jewish emigration to Palestine became a major issue. The West hoped to send Jewish refugees to Palestine in furtherance of the scheme to establish a Western aligned country that would help preserve Western influence in the region over the energy resources. The Arabs, led by King Ibn Saud, were adamantly opposed to increased Jewish emigration to Palestine. Exactly how this worked out isn’t entirely clear, but the British and Americans declined Jewish appeals to bomb rail transport to Auschwitz—on frankly dodgy grounds. This had nothing to do with Ibn Saud. What appears to have occurred is that the Roosevelt administration feared that the additional Jews who were saved might end up in the US, due to Arab opposition to Jewish emigration to Palestine. So the US took no steps at all to end the killing at Auschwitz, despite having bombed neighboring areas. Of course, the rest of the story is that the West did end up facilitating the emigration of Jews to Palestine, against the wishes of the actual inhabitants of the country.
From 1948 on the IPC pipeline, Kirkuk to Haifa, has been shut off. However, that doesn’t mean that the dream has died. In fact, it appears that the war on Iraq was motivated in large part by Neocon dreams of resurrecting the pipeline by installing a “friendly”, i.e., puppet, Iraqi regime that would cooperate. And they told us it was about weapons of mass destruction.
In other words, not much has changed from the standpoint of Middle Easterners. The Anglo-Zionist Empire continues to attempt to control Middle East energy resources over the heads of the actual inhabitants of the region. The pipedream of crazed Zionists somehow becoming compliant guardians of Anglosphere interests has backfired spectacularly, winding up in a sort of Anglo-Zionist conglomerate that has kept the region in constant turmoil. That doesn’t mean that the Anglo-Zionists haven’t benefited—they have. The destruction of Iraq did lead to a bonanza of cheap Iraqi oil for Israel, up to some point in 2023. But the Neocon destruction of Iraq and the attempted destruction of Syria—still ongoing—also led to the empowerment of Iran which, in turn, arguably has made the entire BRICS project feasible.
In the meantime, US geopolitical power projection capabilities have been frittered away on Neocon forever wars. Lots of stupidity to go around, and worse: US moral standing in the world has been irreparably trashed. A reckoning is coming which, if mishandled, could lead to global war. Here’s the bad news—the heirs of this spectacular screwup are still running things in the Imperial City on the Potomac and the Zionist Project has morphed into a genocidal war on the region, which was always implicit in the project. Zionists are pulling the campaign finance levers in the US for all their worth—just listen to the two candidates’ rhetoric.
The reason I bring this up is because I’m recommending an hour long interview Larry Johnson has done with Gary Vogler
Wage Wars, Steal Oil — A Conversation with “Iraq’s” Oil Minister
Okay. You read the headline and now expect me to be chatting with an Iraqi official — i.e., an Iraqi Shia born in Iraq. Nope. Meet Gary Vogler.
Gary Vogler is a 1973 West Point graduate, retired army reserve lieutenant colonel, retired ExxonMobil executive with 21 years, five months of Iraq oil planning at Pentagon followed by 75 months in Iraq under DOD – appointed Oil Minister during first 10 days in Baghdad in April 2003.
Did you catch that? He was in Iraq for more than seven years, and he was in charge of Iraq’s Oil Ministry. Gary started off his stint in Iraq believing that the US invaded to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. He worked initially under L. Paul Bremer aka “Jerry” Bremer. Years later — 2014 to be precise — Gary came to the realization that the premise for the invasion was to secure oil for Israel. When he presented his concerns to Jerry, Bremer shut him down and ended the friendship.
Here’s the blurb from Vogler’s book along with the Amazon link:
Israel, Winner of the 2003 Iraq Oil War: Undue Influence, Deceptions, and the Neocon Energy Agenda
It has been two decades since the decision was made to invade Iraq. Even with 4,489 killed in action, 32,223 wounded in action, and more than $2 trillion sunk into Iraq between 2003 and 2011, our country has seen no benefit. Gary Vogler believes that those impacted by that war deserve an honest response to the question “Why did we do it?” This book details the truth about one part of that honest response: the Israeli oil agenda.
This book recounts how neoconservatives inside the Bush administration worked secretly with the Israeli lobby and the Israeli government to satisfy Israel’s energy needs. Israel has significantly benefited since the 2003 Iraq War, while our country has incurred significant costs. The events, assessments, and conclusions described in this book are from Mr. Vogler’s personal experience.
That also tells you why I’m writing this post about a book that covers substantially the same ground as the latter parts of Follow the Pipelines. Follow the Pipelines gives you the big picture, including the history going back to WW1. Vogler gives you the inside story from the Iraq war onward. In the interview:
Oil Wars: Exposing US Foreign Policy in Middle East | Gary Vogler Interview
Vogler exposes the “Israel Cabal”—yes, he and LJ use that term. He names names: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith (“the f*cking stupidest guy on the face of the earth” according to Gen. Tommy Franks), Scooter Libby (lawyer for Marc Rich). Vogler is the guy with the inside knowledge. The guy who can tell us about Wolfowitz spending up to two hours every single freaking day in closed door consultations with officials from the Israeli embassy (can you say, Mossad?). The guy who can tell us that the gas fields off the coast of Gaza—in other words, that belong to the residents of Gaza—are the largest in the Eastern Mediterranean. They’re being seized by Israel. If Israel can pull off their war on Lebanon, they’ll be seizing more offshore gas fields.
It’s an outstanding interview—do yourself a favor and listen to it. Then ponder the shame of America, the millions of destroyed lives, global destruction in the service of an anti-human ideology. And then consider that the heirs to that Israel Cabal—the Nulands and Blinkens and Hochsteins (yes, he gets mentioned)—are still very much in charge of the geopolitical policies of the Anglo-Zionist Empire. And the big question confronting Americans is: Who luvs Israel more, Kama Sutra or The Donald?
Interesting stuff going on otherwise. There has been talk about the US sending a THAAD battery to Israel, to be manned by US personnel. Here’s what’s interesting about that. There already was a THAAD battery in Israel.
MenchOsint @MenchOsint
There are rumors circulating that an American Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defense system, designed to intercept high-altitude targets, will be deployed in Israel.
What about that one that was deployed in 2019 ? Is it not doing the job any more?
Does that mean there will be two THAAD batteries in Israel now? Maybe not. Iran says that, along with two Arrow 3 sites, they also took out that THAAD battery in their recent strike.
iranmilitaryvlog @irmilitaryvlog - 9:06 UTC · Oct 12, 2024
IRIB yesterday revealed that Iran's armed forces managed to knock out a transportable Raytheon long-range, very high-altitude X-band radar positioned near the 'Nevatim' airbase belonging to the THAAD system without detection before raining down ballistic missiles on their target. [Reliable reports are that Nevatim was hit by 20 Iranian missiles.]
Quote: H. E. Mehr | حمید ابراهیمی مهر @Hemehr ... Embedded video
That ensured that Iran’s missiles would have an easy time getting through—which they did. Huh! No wonder the Israeli NatSec cabinet debate on attacking Iran collapsed in disagreements without any decision, no wonder observers said Netanyahu’s hands were shaking while making a statement about that “ineffective” Iranian strike.
Axios:
Israel's request to deploy THAAD system indicates that its stocks of Arrow and David's Sling missiles are largely depleted due to the Iranian missile attack
Iran has said that if the US helps Israel, Iran will attack US assets. Sounds like that will include US personnel manning THAAD in Israel—in case anyone had the notion that those US personnel would somehow serve as human shields for THAAD:
U.S. Defense Official to CNN: '
"Around 100 U.S. troops will deploy to Israel to operate the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery"
Iranian Foreign Minister: "US put their troops' lives at risk by deploying them to operate Air defense system (THAAD) in Israel." "While we have made tremendous efforts to contain an all-out war in our region... We have no red lines in defending our people and interests"
Here’s MoA’s conclusions about what’s going on—in italics are my insertions of breaking relevant news:
The Zionists are reluctant to go further than a few meters into Lebanon because their ground forces are taking high losses. A full ground attack would be extremely costly.
Mega Geopolitics @MegaGeopolitics
BREAKING:
Hezbollah has hit a training camp for Golani Brigade in Binyamina, south of Haifa with a drone. Israeli media reports 67 wounded and 4 death israeli soldiers.
At the same moment, Hezbollah issued its warning for all settlers near Haifa, Tiberias and other northern settlements to leave the area as the Israeli army uses civilian houses as military bases, making them legitimate targets for Hezbollah Rockets/Drones.
Megatron @Megatron_ron
BREAKING:
Netanyahu ordered a halt to the bombing of Beirut
After a call with Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military and defense establishment not to carry out any further attacks on targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
The Zionist entity is also reluctant to attack Iran. Its security cabinet could not agree on an appropriate way to hit back for Iran's recent missile attack with some 180 ballistic missiles. That attack did real damage on two military air ports. It also hit other strategic assets.
The THAAD AN/TPY-2 transportable radar directs high attitude missile defenses. There is, as far as is known, only one in Israel. such a radar system, if bought now, costs about $300 million. The one in the Negev desert is under U.S. control.
If, as IRIB claims, that radar was indeed hit, the strike has blown a huge hole into Israel's missile defenses. This would explain the reluctance in the security cabinet to go for an all out attack on Iran. Any Iranian response, which would come as assured as tomorrows sunrise, would hit Israel extremely hard.
If Iran’s hypersonic missiles can take out Arrow 3 and THAAD sites and can elude our AEGIS destroyers, what chance do you think our bases in the region and our Carrier Strike Groups would stand against a determined Iranian attack?
Meanwhile, while the world is looking the other way, Israel’s occupation forces do what they do best—commit genocide against civilians:
Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal
The evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent could not be more clear. Embracing a plan concocted by Giora Eiland, who previously called for spreading epidemics among the population of Gaza, Israel is starving and bombing out 400,000 people to ethnically cleanse the north of Gaza. In the long run, it will fill the area with Jews only settlements. But for now, it aims to create a blood spattered wasteland. And it clearly has a green light from the Biden-Harris admin, which is noticeably quiet as it supplies the necessary tools to execute this monumental, live-streamed crime.
By eliminating Gaza, Israel gets the offshore gas fields. With Anglo-Zionist approval.
"It has been two decades since the decision was made to invade Iraq. Even with 4,489 killed in action, 32,223 wounded in action, and more than $2 trillion sunk into Iraq between 2003 and 2011, our country has seen no benefit."
$2 trillion is a tiny fraction of the cost of the wars in the Middle East since 9/11.
According to a 2021 report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs' Costs of War Project at Brown University, from 2001 through Fiscal Year 2022, the U.S. spent (including FY 2022 budget requests) a total of about $5.8 trillion in reaction to the 9/11 attacks, including the estimated direct and indirect costs of spending in post-9/11 war zones, homeland security counterterrorism costs, interest payments on war borrowing and costs for medical care and disability payments for veterans.
Future veterans costs are estimated to likely exceed $2.2 trillion in additional federal spending. All told, the Watson Institute estimates that the total budgetary costs and future obligations of the post-9/11 wars is about $8 trillion in current dollars.
These figures also do not include many of the incidental costs and non-financial consequences of over twenty years of war, such as the cost of death gratuities for the survivors of the 7,040 men and women in the U.S. military killed in these wars and compensation to the civilians injured and killed. Nor does it include U.S. spending for humanitarian assistance and economic development aid in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Biden Administration subsequently requested additional funds for FY 2022 which are not included in the 2021 estimate, nor does the estimate include funds expended or requested for FYs 2023, 2024 and 2025. It does not include spending by the dozens of U.S. allies, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Germany and France. The estimate also does not include spending by state and local governments for counterterrorism or services for post-9/11 war veterans.
Eight Trillion Dollars!
And more! These figures and estimates do not include the additional costs to the United States (to us, the taxpayers) of supporting Israel since October 7, 2023. Nor, of course, do they include the costs of the war in Ukraine. Or billions of dollars of U.S. defense spending at home and around the rest of the world.
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/BudgetaryCosts
Very revealing and fascinating conversation, as well as the reference to Amanda’s book. The other day, the soft-spoken Matt Hoh put it this way, but now we know what “greases” the wheels: “ Israel is “us” over there; Israel is the West in the Middle East.” What a diabolical mess. Now we know why GWB, the oil man, was chosen to up the ante and invade Iraq.