Fueling Anger in Iraq

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47474-2003Dec8.html

The line of cars waiting to fill up at the Hurreya gas station on Monday snaked down the right lane of a busy thoroughfare, around a traffic circle, across a double-decker bridge spanning the Tigris River and along a potholed side street leading to one of Iraq's three oil refineries.

At the end, almost two miles from the station, was Mohammed Adnan, a taxi driver who could not comprehend why he would have to wait seven hours to fuel his mud-spattered Chevrolet Beretta. "This is Iraq," he noted wryly. "Don't we live on a lake of oil?"

Despite its vast underground oil reserves -- estimated to be the world's second-largest -- Iraq is a country starved of petroleum products. Not only is gasoline in short supply, but so too are diesel, kerosene and propane.

Over the past few weeks, lines for gasoline and other petroleum products have grown to lengths unimaginable even by the standards of the U.S. energy crisis in the 1970s. Some are miles long, forcing drivers to wait all day for a turn at the pump. Many Iraqis have taken to spending the night in their cars. Others have resorted to buying gas on the black market for 20 times the pump price.

[whathappened]

1. maybe jr. has something to do with this

i see alot of american war machines over there and it looks like they are running and need fuel , is he making them wait tell we fill our war machines first and they can have what is left

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Surely no one thought the oil was intended for the Iraqis?

then again, maybe there are those who did.