www.counterpunch.org An American Crisis by JOE QUANDT

Let us have no illusions.

In Baghdad, once I'd gotten to know someone fairly well, they'd often ask me point blank: "The war, Joe... when is it coming?" And searching my eyes, it was clear that they weren't looking for comfort. They wanted the unmitigated truth.

They need, of necessity, to ask these hard questions. The 8-year war with Iran in which 200,000 died; the Gulf War, which took possibly another 300,000 besides wrecking the entire infrastructure; 12 years of U.S.-enforced U.N. sanctions, which have cost them an additional million lives-23 years of sustained economic and military conflict have simply made the Iraqi people immune to illusions, in the matter of war.

Let us, like the Iraqis, have no illusions.

I was in the states at the end of September when the House of Representatives handed the president a gun. I was in Baghdad when the Senate loaded it for him. History repeats itself, as the power to make war is now invested in the person of one, fallible man. Was not the American Revolution fought to prevent a king from making war at his subjects' expense?

As the "Old Europe" of Germany and France makes waffling attempts to assert their independence from Washington realpolitik, Eastern European nations are lining up to take their places at the table. Washington will not lack for lackeys, because power makes money makes power makes money, and this is the first lesson of politics. Have no illusions; other nations will not come to our moral rescue. It may seem ridiculously obvious to you that if the inspectors remained in Iraq for the next 75 years it would still be just plain cheaper than any other solution.

You may be angry at how deeply your civil rights are being slashed at, and recreated in the image of a neo-conservative New World Order.

Or you grasp all too well that it is U.S. arms sales around the world that make inevitable the endless cycle of big and little wars to come, for the next hundred years.

Maybe it's equally clear to you that any future U.S. treaty is a thing of convenience, to be abrogated when its purpose has been served... That the International Criminal Court, the Kyoto Accords, bans on nuclear and conventional weapon testing, research into alternative energy sources, all of these are only impediments to "preserving the American way of life"...

That the War on Terrorism is simply a convenient place to focus American fears now that Communism is dead, and the Pentagon needs a new justification for its ever-expanding budget...

That this war on terrorism, the war in Afghanistan to secure right of way for the natural gas reserves of central Asia, the war for the oil of Iraq, the not-so-coincidental turmoil in Venezuela...these are only the opening gambits in the U.S. bid to secure the fossil fuel resources of the entire planet, in order that we may dictate terms to the rest of the industrialized world.

Ask the shoeshine boys, the art dealers, the doctors, the cafe operators, the hotel staff, ask anyone in Iraq why the United States is coming there. They have no illusions. "It's the oil, we know," they say, shrugging their shoulders as though this is a commonplace, known to every child.

In ancient Assyria, war was not dressed up in Patriotism or the tattered gown of Democracy or a distorted Moral Righteousness fabricated from the loving words of long dead Holy Men. War was an undisguised grab for the wealth of another state, the losers impaled or sold into slavery. And you had to face your "enemy".

Will the government of Pakistan, a nation that possesses nuclear weapons, be destabilized? Will the Israelis use the occasion to push the Palestinians into Jordan? Will Turkey finally move on Iraqi Kurdistan? Will the Shia'a majority of southern Iraq link up with Iran or simply demolish itself in endless revolt against the American invaders? How many more Saudi terrorists will be inspired to action? How long before the New Hiroshima, and what unfortunate land will suffer it?

Hundreds of thousands would die in such a war, but that is academic, an historical footnote, statistics. Lives mean nothing to this administration, yours, mine, or the Iraqis'. Have no illusions.

Dare we note that, should the Iraqis put up a stiff resistance, the American military machine will merely back up, and then, oh my fellow citizens, then we will see a demonstration of Weapons of Mass Destruction such as the world has not previously witnessed.

Debate or forget all of the above, but be assured of one thing: the present crisis is over nothing less than the American Soul.

So why, in a world pitching giantly out of control, would you bother to raise your tiny voice, against a din of violence, waste, fear, greed, and "gut feelings", that seeks to drown out any rational consideration of events? We raise our voices because we are Americans...unlike the Iraqis, we can still raise them. We raise our voices because we have children...and parents...and loved ones...and cherished ideals that we'd like to hang onto, and we realize that everywhere an American bomb falls, an Osama bin Laden seed is sown.

We raise our voices because the right of assembly has not yet been taken from us. We raise our voices because our government's arrogant denial that all the peoples of this planet are beautiful and necessary parts of creation, this arrogance is now attributed to the American people as well, and soon it will be unsafe for us to travel outside of our borders.

We raise our voices because the incontrovertible result of war is more war.

We raise our voices because we have galloping inequities in our schools, in Corporate America, in our inner cities, and the 100 or 200 or 900 billion dollars we would squander on further brutalizing our brothers and sisters in Iraq would be better spent otherwise than in financing the theft of that nation's natural resources, to fill the pockets of the conglomerate that is running this country.

Writing in the early Baghdad evening, I often watched the sun setting over the Tigris River. There, in the Cradle of Civilization, one was, perhaps, more keenly reminded of the flickering and snuffing out of civilizations, and by a small leap, to grasp the historical illogic of war as a problem solving device.

We raise our voices because we must. Because our hearts tell us that the clock is ticking, not quite as loudly as it's ticking for the Iraqis, but time is running out on the American Dream. Have no illusions: An attack against Iraq will be one of the cataclysmic events in American history, on a par with The Civil War and the Great Depression. Would it not signal to the world that democratic principals and Jeffersonian humanism have no more significance in the American ethos than they did in Nazi Germany? And to send that message is to invite a return to international barbarism, but on a scale we must shudder to contemplate.

We raise our voices because there's a drunk at the wheel. Approaching the wall, the catastrophe ever more imminent, we begin to see, with growing and terrible clarity, who and what drives the American State. There is precious little time left in which to grab the keys and avert this self-inflicted disaster.

We raise our voices in the certainty that even should the dreaded Battle of Iraq come, it need not, must not, will not stun us into silence.

And the clock is still ticking...

Joe Quandt is a 52-year old actor/cab driver/activist/teacher/poet living in the Albany, NY area. He traveled to Baghdad on the 49th Voices in the Wilderness delegation, during the month of October, 2002. He can be reached at: Ytonthemoon@aol.com

Yesterday's Features

CounterPunch News Service Slow Lerner: It May Not Help Kids in Iraq, But It Sure Got Michael Lerner Airtime

Andrew Murray Tony Blair Versus the British People

Ben Tripp President A**hole

Peggy Thomson My Close Encounter with Saddam

Gary Leupp Meet Mr. Blowback: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, CIA Op and Homicidal Thug

Saul Landau Bush and Corporate Fraud

Adam Engel A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture

Anthony Gancarski Jacksonville in Crisis

Rick Giombetti Specific Threats to Democracy

Jean-David Levitte A Warning on Iraq from France: Make War the Last Option

Ian Gurney Whose Side is Bush On?

Maria Engqvist Did the FARC Shoot Down a US Military Plane in Colombia?

Ron Jacobs This Madness Must Cease

Josh Frank Call to Washington: Stonewall Bush

Website of the Day Rock Out Against War

www.kansascity.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 17, 2003 CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Oil output could reach 2.8 million barrels day within a month, when restrictions on sending tankers to Venezuelan ports are lifted, the head of Venezuela's state-run oil company said Monday.

Foreign shippers were warned against loading in Venezuelan ports during a two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez. The work stoppage ended on Feb. 3 in all sectors except the all-important oil industry.

Ali Rodriguez, president of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, accused striking employees of scaring off shippers by telling them new, inexperienced workers at docks and loading terminals presented a risk.

"Due to a publicity campaign some companies fear sending their tankers," Rodriguez told a press conference.

Some major companies in the shipping and oil industry, however, have decided to return to Venezuela. Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to resume loading this week while refiner Valero Energy Corp. has chartered a tanker to load 2 million barrels of crude.

In order to boost production as planned, stockpiled oil filling storage tanks, a bottleneck which leaves no space for freshly produced crude, must be exported.

Once exports pick up, oil output could jump to 2.8 million barrels per day - Venezuela's quota as set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - by mid-March, said Rodriguez.

Speaking during his Sunday radio program "Hello President," Chavez said oil production has already reached 2.1 million barrels per day. However, ex-PDVSA staff claim total output stands at roughly 1.4 million barrels per day.

Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States, was producing 3.2 million barrels per day before the strike. Output fell as low as 200,000 barrels per day in December.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term, is continuing efforts to regain control of PDVSA.

To squeeze out dissent, Chavez has fired one-third of the company's 37,942-strong work force. He claims most of PDVSA's employees have returned to work.

Strike leaders deny the claim, saying thousands refuse to return until Chavez rescinds the firings and agrees to early elections.

At negotiations mediated by the Organization of American States, government representatives have rejected opposition demands that dissident PDVSA workers be allowed to return to their jobs.

Using tear gas and rubber bullets, National Guardsmen dispersed dozens of protesting oil workers in western Zulia state on Monday. One protester suffered injuries when shot with rubber bullets. Dissident employees also staged an anti-Chavez street march in the capital.

Chavez has balked at a proposal to hold early elections as a means of ending the nation's political stalemate. The opposition must wait for a binding recall referendum halfway through his term, or August 19, Chavez says.

Meanwhile, Venezuelans continue waiting in mile-long lines outside service stations due to gasoline shortages and reduced refining capacity caused by the strike.

Venezuela imported 11 million barrels of gasoline between December and January for the domestic market to deal with shortages. Another 12 million barrels of gasoline will be imported this month.

Normally, Venezuela refines about 250,000 barrels of gasoline per day for domestic use. Approximately 150,000 barrels are currently being refined.

boston.com By Tom Cohen, Associated Press, 2/17/2003 12:26

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) Along the Athabasca River of remote northern Alberta is an engineer's dream miles of gigantic projects turning once unrecoverable oil from Alberta's tar sands into black gold.

Trucks as big as houses rumble on tires 10 feet tall and buckle under 100-ton loads of oil-rich sand dropped in by towering shovels. The brown-black earth is turned into slurry, then travels by pipeline to plants where it ultimately will be refined into crude oil, diesel and other fuels and chemicals.

Such synthetic oil projects those involving more than conventional drilling often bear a stigma as high-cost, low-yield investment turkeys. The Alberta oil sands, though, have reached high-level production at a workable cost with reserves that will last decades.

And the global terrorist threat and instability associated with conventional oil sources such as the Middle East have made Canadian oil a crucial component of U.S. hopes for a secure energy supply.

''Sept. 11 was a watershed event for the oil sands,'' said Patrick Bryden, a research analyst for FirstEnergy Capital of Calgary who considers the Canadian resource ''a strategic asset for North American oil supplies.''

The U.S. domestic supply has matured, while supplies in the Middle East and former Soviet Union are tainted by uncertainty of access, Bryden noted. Political unrest has raised questions about Venezuela, a major U.S. supplier.

''When the going gets tough, the dependable oil is going to come from Canada,'' Bryden said.

That means the oil sands and the mega-projects that use surface mining or more technologically advanced steam-driven extraction methods to produce almost 1 million barrels of crude or refined oil each day.

Production is expected to reach 1.8 million barrels a day by 2010, with known recoverable reserves of 315 billion barrels, comparable to Saudi Arabia.

Overall, Canada produces 2.3 million barrels a day and exports 1.4 million, all to the United States, making it one of the top four suppliers of foreign oil with Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico, according to Greg Stringham, vice president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, an industry lobby group.

The Canadian oil comprises 15 percent of total U.S. imports, and industry figures expect that to increase. Suncor Energy chief executive Rick George said the U.S. market currently buys 30 percent of his company's production, and that figure eventually will rise above 50 percent.

President Bush mentioned the oil sands when referring to energy policy last year, thrilling industry figures although he used an outdated phrase.

''Bush came out and called them the tar pits. That's fine with us, as long as he recognizes the huge size and potential there,'' Stringham said.

The tar reference comes from Canadian explorers who saw Indians using the thick, black substance known as bitumen bubbling from the Athabasca River banks to seal their canoes.

Decades of persistent but mostly futile research followed, with initial entrepreneurs trying and failing at conventional drilling in the early 20th century.

Scientists figured out as early as 1920 how to mix the black, sticky oil sand with hot water and caustic soda, then shake it up to separate the components, with the heavier sand sinking to the bottom and the bitumen rising to the top.

It took until 1967, though, for Suncor to develop the first major project, and others including Syncrude, ExxonMobil, Imperial and Shell have since put up money to get huge operations going, with a boost from government incentives that helped write down the investment more quickly.

Stringham said total investment in the oil sands which include the Athabasca River, Cold Lake and Peace River regions around Fort McMurray, 210 miles northeast of Edmonton was $11.3 billion from 1996-2001, with another $4.6 billion on new projects under construction and at least $16.6 billion more in potential projects through 2010.

Such figures are appropriate for the oil sands, where gigantic mining and refining complexes sprawl across the formerly barren landscape, spewing plumes of steam and smoke that cloud the sky.

At Suncor's Athabasca operation, some of the world's biggest trucks able to haul 360 tons collect oil sand from electric shovels so huge they need tractors just to haul around the power cables.

A road sign warning of high voltage power lines reads: ''Maximum vehicle height 15 meters (50 feet).''

''I never thought I'd see a day when I'd consider a 100-ton truck a smaller truck,'' said Len Hale, the Suncor general manager of mine operations.

To industry figures, the known reserves of the oil sands put the emphasis on technology to lower the cost of getting the oil out, rather than the exploration necessary for conventional drilling operations.

''All the oil sands operators are relentless about trying to drive that cost down,'' said Hart Searle, external relations manager at Imperial Oil Ltd., which has a steam project in the Cold Lake region.

Production costs now range from about $7 to $11 a barrel, depending on the project, with the current oil price up above $30 a barrel.

Most production comes from the surface mining by Suncor and Syncrude, but more steam operations are planned because they can get to deeper reserves and hold down production costs.

Environmental groups call such major investment in oil technology shortsighted, prolonging the focus and dependence on an environmentally harmful industry.

Research and development money should go toward technology such as hydrogen-cell power to eliminate combustion engines, said Robert Hornung, policy director of the Pembina Institute, a nonprofit environmental research and advocacy organization.

Then there is the Kyoto Protocol, ratified by Canada in December, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

With oil sands projects expected to emit up to 20 percent of Canada's total greenhouse gases by the end of the decade, the Kyoto limits could mean significant costs for producers, Hornung said.

Stringham of the petroleum producers lobby group noted some planned projects are on hold due to rising costs and the Kyoto factor, including a $2.3 billion open-pit mining operation by TrueNorth Energy, a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc.

''There's several of them that are kind of pausing,'' he said, ''still doing the engineering and spending the hundred million dollars, but not ready to pull the trigger on the billions needed to launch the project.''

abcnews.go.com The Associated Press LONDON Feb. 17 —

A Venezuelan man arrested at London's Gatwick airport for carrying a live hand grenade in his luggage was ordered Monday to appear in court next week on terrorism charges.

Hasil Mohammed Rahaham-Alan, 37, identified himself during Monday's hearing and said he lived in Caracas, Venezuela. He did not enter a plea and his next hearing was scheduled for Feb. 24.

Rahaham-Alan was arrested last week during a huge security alert when the army placed more than 400 troops at Heathrow airport west of London and stepped up security at other airports.

Rahaham-Alan had a Venezuelan passport and arrived on a flight from Caracas, police said. Officers said they found a grenade in his luggage and shut Gatwick's North Terminal for several hours.

He was charged Sunday night with possession of an explosive, possession of an article for terrorist purposes and carrying a dangerous item on a flight.

In a separate hearing, a 33-year-old Algerian man was jailed for four months for having a fake passport.

Karim Kadouri and two other men were arrested in November under the Terrorism Act amid media reports that terrorists were planning a poison gas attack on London's subway system.

The government denied the reports.

pacific.bizjournals.com Howard Dicus   Pacific Business News

It isn't going to please those Hawaii residents who are now paying $2 a gallon for gasoline, or shippers bracing for next month's increase in the Matson fuel surcharge, but global oil production actually rose last month.

The Monday edition of the Middle East Economic Survey says OPEC oil production rose 2.2 percent from December to January, to 25.7 million barrels per day.

This means crude oil prices rose on world markets because of war fears despite the fact that supplies were actually improving. The benchmark crude in New York has risen to the neighborhood of $38 a barrel, the highest level in years.

Venezuela got more production back on-line as it recovered from a general strike, and output was boosted by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But more than half of the January increase in production came from Iraq, the Survey reported.

This means Iraq has materially profited from the prolonged crisis over its alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Sign up to receive free daily business updates by email every weekday afternoon.

Use Search Watch to watch for related topics, companies. Receive free Industry News via email. Choose from 46 different industries.

The American Automobile Association, which surveys retail gasoline prices daily in three Hawaii cities, on Monday reported an average $1.81 a gallon for self-serve regular unleaded gas in Honolulu, up 9 cents from a month ago.

In Wailuku the average price was almost $2.11 a gallon, up 13 cents in one month.

In Hilo the price was just under $1.90 a gallon, up 2 cents in the past month. Prices tend to be closer to $2 a gallon or more on the Kona side of the Big Island and on other islands.

Matson Navigation Co. said on Friday that next month it will raise its fuel surcharge from 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent, and CSX Lines said it is reviewing its own costs. Meanwhile, with jet fuel also rising, American Airlines says its cargo division is raising its own fuel charge.