“We Want To Keep The Oil”

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Presented without comment.  Because I have hella jet lag and haven't slept for more than a day, and have another day to go.

“We Want To Keep The Oil”

The Grayzone has an excellent new article out titled “US troops are staying in Syria to ‘keep the oil’ — and have already killed hundreds over it” detailing the many ways the Trump administration has openly admitted that it is keeping US troops in Syria to control the nation’s oil fields so that the Syrian government can’t use it to fund reconstruction efforts.

“We’ve secured the oil, and therefore a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,” Trump said in a recent press conference. “And we’re going to be protecting it. And we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.”

“We want to keep the oil,” Trump said in a cabinet meeting a few days earlier. “Maybe we’ll have one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly.”

“A purpose of those [US] forces, working with the SDF, is to deny access to those oil fields by ISIS and others who may benefit from revenues that could be earned,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper. As Grayzone’s Ben Norton accurately explains, “and others” necessarily means the Syrian government; preventing Assad from accessing Syrian oil is standing US military policy.

And that of course is the real reason US armed forces constantly remain in Syria despite all the empty babble about ending wars and bringing home the troops: it’s about control over a nation in a key geostrategic location which refuses to be absorbed into the blob of the US-centralized empire. Controlling its material wealth is an ideal way to do this.

Whenever I write about oil as a primary motive for US imperialism, I always get a bunch of right-wingers objecting that that makes no sense because the US has plenty of oil, and that it’s really about freedom and democracy or communism or Zionism or pedovore cults or Illuminati or whatever. What they miss, in their squirming attempts to avoid cognitive dissonance, is that it’s not about having and consuming oil, it’s about controlling oil. Control what governments can and cannot access crucial resources, and you can control which governments thrive and which ones don’t.

As Trump said, “We’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.” In no other international power dynamic would this be considered a rational thing for anyone to say. The idea of another nation invading Texas and seizing control of its oil fields and then Xi Jinping or whomever saying “We’re controlling their oil and we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future” is unthinkable, but a US president can just come right out and say this about a weaker nation and it won’t even be front-page news.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Donald Trump is the most honest US president of all time. By that I don’t mean that he’s an honest person; he of course lies constantly. I simply mean that while his predecessors have always made sure to dress their imperialist military campaigns up as benevolent humanitarian intercessions, Trump just stands there out in the open like “Yeah we grabbed their oil and it’s ours now, blow me.” There was once a time when claiming a war was really about oil got you branded a conspiracy theorist. Now the US president just outright says it.

...

[Guest]

Oh I can't see this thread getting comments at all.

[Dmitry Bedin + 25]

Whatever mango said so-named brave american troops will finaly get back home and will mind their own business. CIA could start new training of a new ISIS somewhere else on Earth, free US media will continue brainwashing of intelligent americans that US is a peacemaker in Syria and destroyed ISIS. No one will say that it was US caused to all desaster in the region and war for years. Yankee will go home but without roses, with ketchup on Hummers 😂

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,132]

And how in the Heck is someone going to invest in this oil and play pretend games you are going to see an ROI before one of 4 or maybe 5 factions swoops in and either takes it or destroys it?

Hey, I already thought I was a stupid ass fool to invest in Argentina(just hang in there for 3 more years and 5 for a really nice return)...  These oilfields in Eastern Syria would be the height of stupidity.  Just where is the oil going to go?  Turkey I suppose... through Kurd territory.  I know... sell it to the Syrians..... that will go over big.  yea....

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

1 hour ago, Dmitry Bedin said:

Whatever mango said so-named brave american troops will finaly get back home and will mind their own business. CIA could start new training of a new ISIS somewhere else on Earth, free US media will continue brainwashing of intelligent americans that US is a peacemaker in Syria and destroyed ISIS. No one will say that it was US caused to all desaster in the region and war for years. Yankee will go home but without roses, with ketchup on Hummers 😂

I bet you really wish you had another brain cell to rub against the one you have.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

I thought everyone was pissed off that Trump pulled 1000 servicemen out! What happened to that marrative?

[Boat + 1,315]

1 hour ago, Douglas Buckland said:

I thought everyone was pissed off that Trump pulled 1000 servicemen out! What happened to that marrative?

Allowing the Kurds to be whiped out by Turkey was the concern. 1,000 troops had little to do with it. Now if Trump and the US who armed the Kurds and have been fighting Syria and ISIL promise air support I am sure the Kurds can handle themselves. 
Not to mention the Kurds have been  instrumental in the fight in Iraq which is still a violent country.

Giving away a huge swath of land to Turkey controlled by an Ally who has sacrificed their blood and treasure makes Trump and the US look weak,dishonest, and flippant.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

There seems to be some confusion in regards to the term ‘Kurds’. There are many ethnic Kurds scattered around the region in question. 
The Kurds that were instrumental in defeating ISIS were the IRAQI Kurds, who inhabit their own, autonomous region of Northwest Iraq, which is known as Kurdistan.

The Syrian Kurds inhabit a self-proclaimed autonomous region in Syria.

They are not the same group of people, in the same manner that not all Hispanics are Mexican.

The US pulled out of the pissing contest between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds. The US still maintains an Consulate or Embassy in Kurdistan (Erbil).

[canadas canadas + 136]

Is this in any way related to Trump previously recognizing Israel's claim over the Golan Heights, especially given that a very large crude oil deposit was discovered there?  Is there any possibility that Putin and Russia are eyeing this deposit as a potential source for reconstruction funds for Syria?  Trump having the U.S. take over these eastern Syria crude oil fields and recognizing Israel's control over the Golan appears to be part of a crude oil puzzle.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

13 minutes ago, canadas canadas said:

Is this in any way related to Trump previously recognizing Israel's claim over the Golan Heights, especially given that a very large crude oil deposit was discovered there?  Is there any possibility that Putin and Russia are eyeing this deposit as a potential source for reconstruction funds for Syria?  Trump having the U.S. take over these eastern Syria crude oil fields and recognizing Israel's control over the Golan appears to be part of a crude oil puzzle.

First, I have not seen ANYTHING concerning an oil discovery, large or small, in the Golan Heights area. Do you have a link to any information concerning this?

Second, it was my understanding that Trump was getting crucified for pulling American troops OUT of Syria! Are you saying now that he is keeping them IN Syria to control their oil? Which is it?

This article seems to be long on horseshit and short on facts!

[canadas canadas + 136]

28 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

First, I have not seen ANYTHING concerning an oil discovery, large or small, in the Golan Heights area. Do you have a link to any information concerning this?

Second, it was my understanding that Trump was getting crucified for pulling American troops OUT of Syria! Are you saying now that he is keeping them IN Syria to control their oil? Which is it?

This article seems to be long on horseshit and short on facts!

https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/194012/billions-of-barrels-of-israeli-oil-tapped-the-golan-heights

Edited October 26, 2019 by canadas canadas

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

39 minutes ago, canadas canadas said:

https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/194012/billions-of-barrels-of-israeli-oil-tapped-the-golan-heights

This article does not make sense. First, it claims the pay zone is 350m thick, then later it talks about the risks involved, the possibility of the wells being, and the fact that they haven’t drilled an exploration well yet. IF YOU HAVEN’T DRILLED A WELL YET, HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PAY ZONE IS 350m THICK OR HOW MUCH OIL IS ACTUALLY THERE? This article sounds as if they were fishing for investors.

This article was written in 2015, to my knowledge, no major find has been found onshore Israel in the past 5 years. They may have drilled on the Golan Heights, but I assume that they did not find commercial volumes of oil.

The Leviathan field is the big news as far as Israeli oil and gas goes, and I assume that all their money is going there.

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,132]

Israel Golan Heights... It is Kerogen~tar just like the Green River formation in the USA. It is a joke and it extends far into Syria/Jordan... no one is "running" to it...

*** From my understanding, the Syrian oil discussed are long since discovered and exploited oil patches. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

This article seems to be long on horseshit and short on facts!

This article?? Or most threads?

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

Maybe the Trumpster should just get the troops out, all of them, then the Anti-whatevers can start whining again that he has pulled the troops out and be the WannaBe Warmongers LOL.

At the start of the ISIL crap, the world saw entire columns of tanks and vehicles loaded up with those scum bag schitts openly driving up and down, our leader at the time could have wiped all of that out in a matter of hours if not days using the air power.

Maybe the Trumpster can just send in Halliburton or some other company or the Demo-Engineering experts from the US mil to plug the wells in Syria so good that it will take a massive effort by anyone to try and unplug them to bring them online again. And if any groups try to attempt that until such time there is a resolution in the area, then just drone the hell out of them!! The it leaves the notion that the US is after their oil and we are keeping troops there and so on. If he keeps the troops its bad, if he doesnt , its bad , the Anti-whatevers will not be happy with anything that he does.

Edited October 26, 2019 by ceo_energemsier

[James Regan + 1,776]

15 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Trump just stands there out in the open like “Yeah we grabbed their oil and it’s ours now, blow me.”

Tom fantastic, best quote of the year - OP Grammy should be awarded for this statement. Its so true...

[James Regan + 1,776]

6 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

This article does not make sense. First, it claims the pay zone is 350m thick, then later it talks about the risks involved, the possibility of the wells being, and the fact that they haven’t drilled an exploration well yet. IF YOU HAVEN’T DRILLED A WELL YET, HOW DO YOU KNOW THE PAY ZONE IS 350m THICK OR HOW MUCH OIL IS ACTUALLY THERE? This article sounds as if they were fishing for investors.

This article was written in 2015, to my knowledge, no major find has been found onshore Israel in the past 5 years. They may have drilled on the Golan Heights, but I assume that they did not find commercial volumes of oil.

The Leviathan field is the big news as far as Israeli oil and gas goes, and I assume that all their money is going there.

Thats a healthy sized pay zone 350M Thick, how long, 1 Meter, not so good.....

[Danlxyz + 62]

Just don't use any of that Kerogen soaked shale to build a fireplace. A guy in Colorado did that and he got more than planned.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 10/26/2019 at 12:36 AM, Tom Kirkman said:

Presented without comment.  Because I have hella jet lag and haven't slept for more than a day, and have another day to go.

“We Want To Keep The Oil”

The Grayzone has an excellent new article out titled “US troops are staying in Syria to ‘keep the oil’ — and have already killed hundreds over it” detailing the many ways the Trump administration has openly admitted that it is keeping US troops in Syria to control the nation’s oil fields so that the Syrian government can’t use it to fund reconstruction efforts.

“We’ve secured the oil, and therefore a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,” Trump said in a recent press conference. “And we’re going to be protecting it. And we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.”

“We want to keep the oil,” Trump said in a cabinet meeting a few days earlier. “Maybe we’ll have one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly.”

“A purpose of those [US] forces, working with the SDF, is to deny access to those oil fields by ISIS and others who may benefit from revenues that could be earned,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper. As Grayzone’s Ben Norton accurately explains, “and others” necessarily means the Syrian government; preventing Assad from accessing Syrian oil is standing US military policy.

And that of course is the real reason US armed forces constantly remain in Syria despite all the empty babble about ending wars and bringing home the troops: it’s about control over a nation in a key geostrategic location which refuses to be absorbed into the blob of the US-centralized empire. Controlling its material wealth is an ideal way to do this.

Whenever I write about oil as a primary motive for US imperialism, I always get a bunch of right-wingers objecting that that makes no sense because the US has plenty of oil, and that it’s really about freedom and democracy or communism or Zionism or pedovore cults or Illuminati or whatever. What they miss, in their squirming attempts to avoid cognitive dissonance, is that it’s not about having and consuming oil, it’s about controlling oil. Control what governments can and cannot access crucial resources, and you can control which governments thrive and which ones don’t.

As Trump said, “We’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.” In no other international power dynamic would this be considered a rational thing for anyone to say. The idea of another nation invading Texas and seizing control of its oil fields and then Xi Jinping or whomever saying “We’re controlling their oil and we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future” is unthinkable, but a US president can just come right out and say this about a weaker nation and it won’t even be front-page news.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Donald Trump is the most honest US president of all time. By that I don’t mean that he’s an honest person; he of course lies constantly. I simply mean that while his predecessors have always made sure to dress their imperialist military campaigns up as benevolent humanitarian intercessions, Trump just stands there out in the open like “Yeah we grabbed their oil and it’s ours now, blow me.” There was once a time when claiming a war was really about oil got you branded a conspiracy theorist. Now the US president just outright says it.

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Syria It sounds like we made a deal with Erdogan to control this area for mutual benefit. 

Syria Stories https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T61xXOsPASDQppHZhwHbJ5RvqfOkJkir-pcmCQJZsEU/edit

Edited October 28, 2019 by ronwagn

[John Foote + 1,135]

20 hours ago, ronwagn said:

Are we tired of winning yet 😞 

 

[Marcin + 519]

22 hours ago, ronwagn said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Syria It sounds like we made a deal with Erdogan to control this area for mutual benefit. 

Syria Stories https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T61xXOsPASDQppHZhwHbJ5RvqfOkJkir-pcmCQJZsEU/edit

This reason of the Syrian war seemed very probable in 2013, at that time in 2013 I also thought it to be real reason for the war. Explanation, this pipeline will diminish influence Russia has over European Union, because Russia is the largest single exporter of natural gas to EU.

At present this is certainly not the case as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are at the state of economic war. Qatar will never risk exporting natural gas through Saudi territory. Saudi resources are too small for significant exports as they have huge and rising domestic demand.

My take is that it was just killing many birds with 1 stone:

1.Israel: decrease of Hezbollah&Palestine threat (no supply lines from Iran), securing water resources through permanent takeover of Golan Heights. Golan Heights are precious to Israel because rich in water and secure Genesaret Lake.

2. Wiping Russia out of Mediterranean, very important strategic feat.

3. Better control over Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran through Kurds issue.

4. Because of 1&3 weakening Iran, strengthening ally: Saudi Arabia

[ronwagn + 6,290]

Yep, I am just thinking of a shorter line from the Syrian oilfields. 

[Yoshiro Kamamura + 274]

Lying is an IQ-intensive luxury. Luckily, the US president does not need to resort to it. He has the big red button - once pressed, things really start to fly. 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

23 minutes ago, Yoshiro Kamamura said:

Lying is an IQ-intensive luxury. Luckily, the US president does not need to resort to it. He has the big red button - once pressed, things really start to fly. 

Okay, we get it....Yoshiro Hates Trump!

No need to keep reminding us.

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

35 minutes ago, Yoshiro Kamamura said:

Lying is an IQ-intensive luxury. Luckily, the US president does not need to resort to it. He has the big red button - once pressed, things really start to fly. 

Did GodZilla give you that inside info?