Pickens says U.S. firms 'entitled' to Iraqi oil

[NOW tense]

Source: Reuters

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2149238420091021

---

Entitlement is a bad quality.

[JuniperLea]

1. Blood oil...

Ugh.

[sakabatou]

2. Fuck you, Pickens.

[saigon68]

62. The Head Financier of the Swift Boat Veterans = a POS

NEVER FORGET !!

He is a scumbag Mother Fucker.

He gave millions to that POS operation run by Repuke Hateful, Racist, Nut Jobs

[knowbody0]

3. typical mindset of the tycoon

our oil under their sand.

barf

[rooboy]

4. Which means, the more soldiers that die, the more oil you can have. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

44. I wonder what the proper ratio should be

100 barrels per American death? 1,000 barrels?

I guess the details will be worked out in some boardroom in Texas.

[RC]

5. Sure, it's ours. We stole it fair and square.

All those iriqui's we kilt don't count anyway. It's their fault we invaded them for having our oil under their ground.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Let's ask the Iraqi people about that and see what they say . . .

I'll bet they tell the oil execs to go pick their boons.

[tridim]

7. Sounds like he needs some shoes thrown in his general direction.

[tazkcmo]

8. Typical. n/t

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Fuck that asshole.

welcher

[sandnsea]

10. If entitlement is based on lives sacrificed

We owe rest of the world just about everything we've got.

[Peace Patriot]

13. LOL! nt

[DissedByBush]

22. I'd say they owe us

We lost 53,000 in WWI protecting Europe
We lost 291,000 in WWII protecting Europe and the Pacific
We lost 34,000 protecting South Korea from a Chinese-driven communist takeover

Kennedy at least started our loss of 47,000 in Vietnam to protect them from another Chinese-driven communist takeover ("pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty").

That's almost half a million Americans dead when we could have just stayed out of it and let other countries get taken over by force of arms.

[sandnsea]

28. 2 mil in Vietnam, mil in Iraq

Nigeria, Latin America, Cuba, pollution in China, labor exploitation in Marianas, etc etc etc etc

You need to do some recounting or learn some real history.

[DissedByBush]

50. I guess we're effective

That's a good thing.

Of course all numbers would be lower if we weren't constantly cleaning up the mess the Europeans left behind.

And Cuba? Don't worry, Che and Castro killed enough innocents there. Now you're blaming pollution in China on us? How about the fact that communist countries tend to rape and pillage their own environments. Nigeria? That was a Portuguese colony and after that their own corrupt government and tribal rivalries. Latin America? That was messed up, Castro and the USSR sending their people in, us sending our people in to counter.

So I guess you're one of those "Everything's America's fault" kind of people.

Don't forget to blame the 73 million WWII casualties on us too.

[sandnsea]

51. Don't include me in your we

and clearly you weren't "dissed by bush" either.

[pnorman]

43. The first two wars were "TRUE" wars.

That means that what whatever their merits/demerits may have been, they were declared by Congress (as per our Constitution). All subsequent conflicts were in effect, "Executive Actions". That means that within a reasonable period of time, they MUST be "explained & justified" (and the "burden of proof" is on the President.) But have they really been?

In Korea, the original UN "mandate" was to restore thongs to the status quo --- ie: the 38th Parallel --- and then conduct the discussion within the UN framework. But MacArthur wanted to go to the Yalu River ---for starters! The real slaughter and destruction began from then. And for WHAT? Likewise, with other "conflicts".

pnorman

[proteus_lives]

56. Korea isn't as clear-cut.

MacArthur did overstep his authority at times but it was Mao and Stalin that keep the war going. After a year the leader of NK was begging for permission to end the conflict. But Mao and Stalin wanted to bleed UN forces and test the resolve of the West.

[Javaman]

67. LOL if basing your argument on body counts dictates what a nation should get

Russia should be ruling the world right now. LOL

Just their losses in WWII outstrips everyone else combined in the modern world.

Their losses in WWII range from 23 million to 45 million depending on which historian you speak to.

[Deja Q]

69. Plus the money we send to countries, food, et al... and 'government subsidy' to corporations that

offshore and/or need bailing out. America saved the global economy... the global economy that multinational corporations (since they don't deem themselves "American" despite taking lots of free money and perks and 'corporate personhood') and banks put the global economy into.

[pnorman]

41. I was groping for the right phrase, but I'll settle for yours.

Thanks!

pnorman

[L. Coyote]

54. wouldn't the Native Americans have a claim on two continents

Oh wait, the two continents are actually theirs to begin with!

Fucking genocidalists haven't died out yet, have they?

[Chemisse]

11. If anybody was entitled, it would be the families of those killed

Not you greedy assholes.

[Johnyawl]

14. thanks Chemisse...

...I was hoping someone would point this out.


:toast:

[northernlights]

35. + 1000

I was trying to think of the right words. You got it right.

[The Second Stone]

38. Pickens thinks he is entitled to the lives of American

service members to steal oil. Even under his twisted evil logic, it isn't his.

[Fearless]

12. Entitled to the resources of another nation... where have I heard this before...

:banghead:

[d_b]

15. what else are they entitled too, pick?

what a fucking joke.

[Erebus67]

16. If the oil companies agreed to give the families of fallen soldiers free oil products for life...

I might not feel like punching this guy in the head as much. If I actually thought the money that was made from that oil would go to pay for college educations for the fallen soldiers' children and things like that I might even agree with him. But we all know it will only go to line the pockets of people that sacrificed nothing.

[Arctic Dave]

25. Please tell me your joking.

You know how many people we killed in THEIR country. Why should US soldiers benefit from our illegal war and occupation.

[mike_c]

17. well, they did ask us to invade their country and kill all those folks, after all....

Oh, wait.... :crazy:

[BOG PERSON]

18. Yes, America deserves a reward for its efforts

:patriot:

[Brother Buzz]

19. The Fat Cat plan for all ventures

Socialize the cost and privatize the profit

The fact that it's not our oil is but a minor obstacle to these operators.

[livingonearth]

20. what the _%#@___!

The oil firms are entitled? Because our soldiers died and a lot of our tax dollars were spent? That's what Pickens says entitles them? That is absolutely sick!

[givemebackmycountry]

21. I heard this one awhile back...

"HEY! What's OUR oil doing underneath your sand?"

[Vidar]

23. Hanging's too good for the SOB.

[Cirque du So-What]

24. During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq

and in the early days following, how many times did we hear the neocons and their apologists say, 'it's not about the oil!'?

Guess what? It always WAS about the fucking oil (but WE knew that already).

[GreenTea]

26. The US illegally invaded Iraq, a sovereign nation, ALL based on lies & greed.....

And to have US military bases in Iraq in the region....to allow American corporations to make billions of dollars in profits from every kind of corporate no bid contract the republicans could think of and come up with to grab our tax dollars for republican corporations.

The US military using their weapons for fun & profit as the weapons makers got richer....

Saying fuck the Iraqi children and people, there's big profits to be made from OUR tax dollars....and the slimy republicans illegally invaded and lied about everything to keep the profits flowing and force their their sick republican ideology on all Americans as being patriotic....and passing all the corporate legislation they could for even more corporate deregulated profits and no-bid contracts....

Now this asshole Pickens is trying to justify American lives lost based on lies & greed, for more profits for the oil companies....Pickens is one sick republican motherfucker....

What about all the killings of Iraqis, the torture of Iraqis, the infrastructure (water, roads, hospitals, schools homes & other building) of Iraq purposely destroyed by US military bombings...

This is not considered by this rich old white greedy elitist republican man...it never crosses his mind that the brown-skinned people he see as nothing have suffered terrible by the republican corporate profit imperialistic war-monger fuckers like himself all because war is ONLY for corporate profits....and now he wants to steal more by using dead Americans blood!

[Lilith Velkor]

27. Velkor says Pickens 'entitled' to dine on feces and expire

Iraqi lives and money count, dipshit.

[WinkyDink]

29. Invaders are "entitled"? Hitler would be happy to hear this.

[polly7]

30. Considering that after the violent denationalization of Hussein's

oil, a Bush appointee was the first oil company in I believe ....... Pickens sounds ridiculous.

Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and Kurdistan's regional government said Saturday they've signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in northern Iraq, the first such deal since the Kurds passed their own oil and gas law in August.
A Hunt subsidiary, Hunt Oil Co. of the Kurdistan Region, will begin geological survey and seismic work by the end of 2007 and hopes to drill an exploration well in 2008, the parties said in a news release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


From Hunt's bio: "In October 2001 and again in January 2006, Mr. Hunt was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in Washington, D.C."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/09/bushlinked-texas-oil-man-_n_63659.html

[muntrv]

31. So, Boonie hasn't really switched from oil to natural gas despite what he says

on the tee-vee. How shocking!

[skoalyman]

32. there entitled to it in there company coffee pots

;)

[rhett o rick]

49. Sounds to me like he has more gas than most. nt

[classysassy]

33. Heartless

creep.

[Paladin]

34. Get Lost, Boone.....

[NashVegas]

36. Why Not Be Honest? The Spoils Of War

You really think the American sheep are going to fight any of them on this?

[unkachuck]

37. t-bone....

....you've got a lot of gall getting up before Congress and bitching about 'entitlements' like some goddam commonist....t-bone, what the hells the matter with you? Didn't your mama raise you right?

"We leave there with the Chinese getting the oil," Pickens said.

....well, I guess that makes us all suckers, now don't it?

[robinlynne]

39. maybe we should just give him the dead bodies of the fallen, instead of the dead dinosaurs?

[HowHasItComeToThis]

40. THE TROOPS ARE ENTITLED, NOT THE CORPS

GO BLOW YOUR WIND SOMEWHERE ELSE

[Mythbuster]

42. So I'm guessing that translates to...

If Pickens feels US energy companies are "entitled" to the Iraqi oil because US soldiers died fighting to get it for them, than that would mean the US energy companies bear a large part of the responsibility for the soldiers deaths. That, in turn, would translate to the dead soldiers families are "entitled" to some of the oil companies money. I wonder what Pickens would say to that?

PS, Fuck You Pickens!

[gratuitous]

45. And to think . . .

That way back in 2003, when we were protesting this war prospectively, the local newspaper picked out one of the "No Blood For Oil" signs amidst the protesters to pronounce the entire crowd as "naive." In the years since, the paper has backed off a little bit about the righteousness of the invasion, but has never followed up to apologize to the prescient people it maligne way back when.

[Solly Mack]

46. Wonder how many in Congress agreed....

[dysfunctional press]

47. how many oil company execs risked their lives on the battlefield...?

how much money did the oil companies pay toward the cost of the war..?

why should THEY be the ones to profit on the blood money and the resources of the iraqi people?

[rhett o rick]

48. So its not the troops that lost their lives that are entitled to compensation, but CorpAmerica.

sicko.

[Malikshah]

52. In return, are the orphans of Iraq entitled to you Mr. Pickens? Hows about we

drop you in Falluja with your statement emblazoned in Arabic on your pale sunken chest?

You sick excuse for a human. Shame on you.

[slipslidingaway]

53. I heard an interview yesterday with the CEO of a company building...

a business hotel in the International Zone.

CNBC video - interview with Robert Kelley, Global Summit Group CEO

"...I think everyday about the soldiers and marines that served in Iraq, some of them gave their lives... to create the new Iraq...what we are doing is trying to come behind them and help create the new Iraq..."

links here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6816667&mesg_id=6816667

Life is good.

:(

[L. Coyote]

55. This is a huge improvement on Christians entitled to Pagan continents

Ya gotta love the Change thingie :rofl:

[unhappycamper]

57. Pickens says U.S. firms 'entitled' to Iraqi oil

Source: Reuters

Pickens says U.S. firms 'entitled' to Iraqi oil
Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:18am IST
By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq's vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.

"They're opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world ... We're entitled to it," Pickens said of Iraq's oil. "Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars."

President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. troops in Iraq.

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2149238420091021

[Mass]

58. Surprise. Pickens has not changed after all. (not that I am surprised, but so many people here

and in Congress did not see anything wrong with the Dems coddling him.

[madokie]

59. No doubt that the oil is what they were after

they being bushco

[and-justice-for-all]

60. Uh, wrong! nt

[City Lights]

61. US soldiers died and US taxpayers funded the whole thing, so naturally, the US OIL COMPANIES

who should reap the benefits. :crazy:

That is some fucked up logic.

Hey Boonie, if you're going to turn stealing oil into an entitlement, couldn't you at least advocate that the entitlement be given to those who made the sacrifice?

[Zorra]

63. Yeah, like German firms were entitled to Poland's oil after Germany conquered

Poland in 1939?

That oil rightfully belongs to the people of Iraq. The fact that Bu*h invaded and conquered their country in order to steal their oil for giant oil companies doesn't make stealing their oil OK.

Or is this a case of "To the victor belong the oils"?

Well, I guess arrogance and entitlement are to be expected from an unfathomably wealthy scion of an oil family.

[truthisfreedom]

64. Say goodbye to the little bit of credibility you had with your massive wind farm plans, T Boon.

You just lost the last tiny glimmer of respect I had for you.

[fascisthunter]

65. so, our soldier's were dying for private interests, and you think that's just fine

well, I think the American people are entitled to a bit of justice. I'm sure Iraqis would appreciate seeing some justice as well, since it is their land, their livelihoods, your special interests cost them. You sir and the rest are entitled to being prosecuted by America itself.

PS - the oil companies paid SHIT for Iraq... the Iraqis did, you sociopath.

[Javaman]

66. Read my sig line. nt

[denverbill]

68. How many oil comany execs lost their lives there? What makes THEM entitled?

I thought the war was fought to free Iraqi's from an evil, WMD producing dictator. Only unpatriotic nutjobs claimed it was fought for oil.

[Prometheus Bound]

70. US troops killed more Iraqis than anyone else did, so US oil companies should get the oil.

[G_j]

71. that's pretty damn evil nt

[Regret My New Name]

72. Jeeez...

[daleo]

73. Form a platoon of oil company CEOs

Give them some M-16s and let them capture a few Iraq oil wells. Then let them fight their way out of the country with as many barrels of oil as they can carry. That would be fair.