US sounds alarm over Iraq fuel crisis

[Esslinger]

US officials in Baghdad fear that a fuel crisis, which has left Iraqi homes cold and dark and drivers waiting days for petrol, may inflame unrest before next month's election.

"If the current situation does not improve quickly, public confidence in the government may deteriorate significantly," a diplomat wrote this week in a note circulated among the US-led coalition occupying Iraq and obtained by Reuters.

Blaming sabotage, banditry and guerilla attacks on convoys, the note urged "extraordinary efforts" to ease shortages in Baghdad and elsewhere that have sent fuel prices soaring.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Iraq/US-sounds-alarm-over-Iraq-fuel-crisis/2004/12/11/1102625568801.html?oneclick=true

[ogradda]

1. How long until

it is admitted that all fuckery is loose over there?

[alcuno]

2. "banditry"

What a quaint term.

[Terry in Austin]

13. Must be a Brit thing

...like "petrol."

[Old and In the Way]

3. Are the Iraqi's better off today than they were when Saddam was in power?

Somehow, I have to believe a few well placed bullets/bombs could have addressed the Saddam problem without destroying their society (and ours) in the process.

[LynnTheDem]

5. What "Saddam problem" would that be?

The fact the Hussein was switching oil sales to the Euro?

[Old and In the Way]

6. Saddam problem....as defined by this administration.

Frankly, I always thought he was ruthless thug that ruled Iraq with an iron fist. But he was their thug. The people could have taken him out if they were so inclined, but never did. Perhaps they understood the dynamics of 3 culturally diverse populations cobbled together artificially after WW1 and the need for an autocratic ruler to keep the country from imploding?...like what's happening now.

Hard to believe, but Iraqi society was progressive, relative to the rest of the mid-East, in the 80's. Women had real rights, there was access to education and healthcare for all. They did quite well when evaluating their per capita income.

Perhaps it was Saddam's nationalism and his willingness to buck US interests in the ME. Or the threat he posed to the House of Saud. Ultimately, I think GWH Bush had to make a choice....Iraq or Saudi Arabia. Since he (Bush) wasn't getting any goodness from Iraq, Bush and his Saudi business partners probably set Saddam up for the big fall in the run-up to DS1.

[IndianaGreen]

9. I'll bet some of them wish that Saddam was back in power

The US has been kicking Iraq for well over a decade and nothing will improve until the last American is out of Iraq.

[Bouncy Ball]

12. There are Iraqis

who have publically, on the record, stated that if SH were on the ballot in January they'd vote for him.

Just goes to show how incredibly fucked up things must be now.

:cry:

[IndianaGreen]

15. How long before the obvious can no longer be ignored?

We lost this war and it is time to bring all the troops home.

[rainbow4321]

17. A Baghdad's family blogsite: shortages and hit list$

There is a family over there that has been keeping a blog for a while now. Their latest entry talks about the fuel shortage, etc... looks like they write the blog in their language and then someone translates it into English.

http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Monday, November 29th, 2004
Good evening…
The weather in Baghdad is very cold…. Electricity cut-offs are very long these days, and the water from the tab is too cold…I couldn’t wash my hear for three days, finally I decided to heat some water on the kitchen stove, then wash my hear on the wash basin. There is a petrol, kerosene, and cooking gas shortage, their prices have risen again in an annoying way.
Confrontations are still going on in various areas of Baghdad… Al-Doora, Al-Amiriya, Al-Gazzaliya, Haifa Street, Abu Ghareeb, and of course, around the Airport…between the Resistance, and the occupation forces, and with groups (I do not know who they are, should I call them resistance also?) who carry a grudge against the Iraqi Police and the National Guard.
They say the price list is like this:
Whoever kills an Iraqi Policeman gets $1000.
Whoever kills an Iraqi National Guardsman gets $3000.
I don’t know who laid this pricelist, and who pays… but fire is raging in Baghdad, and other cities in Iraq, (Mousel, Baquba, Al-Ramadi, and of course, Fallujah….).
And when confrontations burn up, the presence of the Iraqi police is reduced very much on the streets, presenting a precious opportunity to thieves and criminals to kidnap, kill, and rob.

[Barkley]

18. Great post rainbow4321, thanks - nt

[Why Syzygy]

23. I am party to a wager ....

an (imo) optimistic friend bet me that SH would be tried before the Ira#% people by August 2005 (I had read he would go on trial in October 2004). My claim is he will never be seen/heard from again. Ever.

What say you?

[Voltaire99]

25. Well said, IndianaGreen. (n/t)

[Barkley]

20. Iraq exported refined oil to its neighbors under Saddam

Iraq fuel shortage could spell chaos says US

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/214BAB07-D16C-4BD3-B806-D113B6F8B6D9.htmFriday 10 December 2004, 23:06 Makka Time, 20:06 GMT

[LynnTheDem]

4. "here is a country which has a resource. And it’s obvious, it’s oil."

"And it can bring in and does bring in a certain amount of revenue each year…$10, $15, even $18 billion…this is not a broke country.”

-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage


“There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”

-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz

“Well, the reconstruction costs remain a very -- an issue for the future. And Iraq, unlike Afghanistan, is a rather wealthy country. Iraq has tremendous resources that belong to the Iraqi people. And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to shoulder much of the burden for their own reconstruction.”

-Press Secretary Ari Fleischer

“If you worry about just the cost, the money, Iraq is a very different situation from Afghanistan…Iraq has oil. They have financial resources.”

-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

“I don't believe that the United States has the responsibility for reconstruction, in a sense…Reconstruction funds can come from those various sources I mentioned: frozen assets, oil revenues and a variety of other things, including the Oil for Food, which has a very substantial number of billions of dollars in it.

-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

"Iraq's oil revenues were bigger than we thought. And that money is -- it will benefit the Iraqi people. It's their oil, and they'll use it to reconstruct the country."

-Resident GW bush


When bushCartel are WRONG, they are VERY VERY WRONG...and they are ALWAYS wrong.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Or maybe they want to keep the Iraqi oil in the ground.

Makes that Saudi Oil a lot more valuable in the market today.

[billyoc]

8. "public confidence in the government may deteriorate significantly"

Oh, great, that's ALL we need! :eyes:

[daleo]

19. It could drop from 7% to only 1% - catastrophic!

I think the last public opinion poll I read from Iraq put confidence in the puppet government at about 7%.

[Just Me]

10. Blame Bush.

He delivered. He's responsible.

[MichiganVote]

11. You don't always have the fuel you want or would wish for....

Maybe the Iraqi's will accept the Physics argument Rummy the Dummy gave to American troops.

[goforit]

14. This is just so sad!!!...........Unfathomable!!!

[rainbow4321]

16. How about blaming chimp..is that an option?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=591626


A crippling shortage of petrol is overshadowing next month's election in Iraq, with drivers in Baghdad forced to queue for up to 36 hours for fuel.

Iraqis seldom talk about the election because of the fuel crisis. In the past three weeks the supply of petrol, diesel and electricity in the Iraqi capital has nosedived. Kerosene for heating is expensive and difficult to find.


The crisis in fuel supplies is worse than at any time since the invasion in March last year. Because of the lack of electricity many people in Baghdad use small generators, costing about $100, to power their electric lights. If they cannot buy petrol for the generator they must sit in the dark.

The drivers waiting outside Karada petrol station yesterday were aware of the irony that Iraq sits on the second-largest oil reserves in the world.

[Barkley]

21. US gov't pays $1.50/gal ($166 million/mo.) to ship gas into Iraq

That's what the AP reported last June:

“Iraqis pay just five cents for a gallon - thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer subsidies. Since Iraq has little capacity to refine its own gasoline, the U.S. government pays about $1.50 a gallon to purchase fuel in neighboring countries and deliver it to Iraqi filling stations. A three-month supply costs American taxpayers more than $500 million, not including the cost of military escorts.”

Associated Press
June 5, 2004
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_gas_060504,00.html

[grasswire]

22. and here in America, meanwhile...

...there isn't enough money to help those in poverty with their winter energy bills -- not even senior citizens and handicapped folks. Requests for aid are up 30 percent. And money was cut from the programs.

[daleo]

24. But at least gays can't get married

That should keep people warm, shouldn't it?

[Moderator]

26. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1061520