Nigeria Has Weapons of Mass Destruction!
Iraq and Iran are sooo yesterday. The next battleground over Cheap Oil will be Nigeria. How soon is anybody’s guess.
This article by Scott Thill describes a new book — "Curse of the Black Gold: Fifty Years of Oil in the Niger Delta." The article includes a short video and an interview with one of the authors — Michael Watts.
Scott Thill describes Nigeria as: “Where all the major oil companies have done business, dirty and otherwise, for the last five decades, degrading the environment and depressing the general population along the way.”
As with so many Third World countries, oil exploration has created incredible wealth and splendor for a few, at the expense of the general population. Numerous oil spills (almost one per day) have wrecked the environment and devastated local economies.
(But rest assured now: if the oil industry is allowed to drill for oil off the coast of the United States, there’s all sorts of fancy new technology that will prevent oil spills and minimize damage to the environment. Trust us.)
The situation in Nigeria will be getting a lot worse. As the author says: “Increasing demand, ass-backward environmental policy and diminishing resources send nations and multinationals scattering for control of what's left of Earth's black gold.” And the indigenous population is getting more pissed off by the day. Insurgents have been attacking oil drilling facilities, sometimes taking employees hostage. And these attacks have been increasing.
Since 2006 the Bush Administration has been planning the United States African Command (AFRICOM). This is a Defense Department program for coordinating military operations across Africa. So far, not one African country has permitted the U.S. to use its territory for these operations. For now, the AFRICOM master plan is relegated to a base in Germany.
But as the author warns: “The United States won’t be outside Africa for long, as climate crisis and peak oil take further hold. And when it comes calling, it will most likely call on Nigeria first.”
cross-posted at Bring It On!
Labels: AFRICOM, Curse of the Black Gold: Fifty Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, Michael Watts, Scott Thill, United States African Command
posted by Tom Harper @ 5:58 PM
11 Comments:
If this administration doesn't find a reason to start a war there, the next one will. Death and mayhem are pretty much all we export.
Tom,
I thought that was a funny metaphor to start your post.
The thing is that President Putin February 10,2007 purposely let the cat out of the bag. I keep mentioning that speech he gave, and the words of President Jimmy Carter. To help evert danger.
The US, and the USSR had for over two decades, each sold nuclear ICBM's to whoever had the cash!
In other words we are in a failing economy a non existant recession turning depression, then on to a collapse. I will call myself the nut, but all the above is true, and to a degree I believe it is on purpose to put in a new form of "Curtain" style govt. Heck it is almost there now!
Don't forget about the 4th fleet patrolling the Caribbean, and South America. The Admiral that they put in charge; came from special ops. command???? Great more covert wars in South, and Central America's. For the oil, and mutiny on money, and banking. We need to wake people up, before stupid people start hitting their red buttons!
Peace and Freedom
Lew: Yup, exporting death and mayhem, and importing oil; that's us.
AHB: I'm afraid you're right that all these tragedies -- energy crisis, depression, Iraqmire -- are deliberate. No government could possibly be this inept. There's definitely some sort of sinister master plan being dreamed up by corrupt governments and global corporations.
It would be hilarious in the way that death and mayhem is if Nigeria continued to tell us to fuck off.
Of course, then we'd invade, but they'd have sack.
Hell, there's nothing inept about any of Cheney's plans, just the puppet that he chose. "See, BUSH was the one who screwed up! All these other Republicans are sharp as tacks!"
Randal: I think it would be better if every oil-producing country told us to fuck off.
There's only so much oil in the ground. (OMG, I just had an inspiration. That could be a song title. Let's see, who could sing it...Tower of Power maybe...)
At some point we're gonna have to get ourselves un-addicted to oil; might as well be now.
dear tom harper:
i came across your blog after having read some posts over at dkos diaries by "troutfishing" on the subject of The Family and finding a link to your post on the subject from 2005.
have you written anything else about the subject? i'll check back to this comment thread later to learn the answer to that question.
thanks for your efforts on the public's behalf.
karen marie (google-registration phobic)
Karen: Hi, thanks for stopping by. I haven't written anything else on that subject since then. I still get occasional visits from people google-searching for Abraham Vereide, one of the stars of that post.
My post was based on an article by Wayne Madsen. I don't think I've used anything by him for any other posts, but he seems to be pretty popular among liberal bloggers.
His style is kind of over-the-top; I wasn't sure at the time how much of his writing to believe (e.g. the close links between Big Business, several "Christian" leaders and the Nazis/Klu Klux Klan). But with all the net surfing I've done in these past 3 years, his article seems quite credible.
Funny you should mention Nigeria, just came from there. Feels weird being back in America (but not for long).
“The United States won’t be outside Africa for long, as climate crisis and peak oil take further hold."
The United States and China won't be outside anywhere for long as long as those people have oil. Fact. Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex...well it's in full force. And Granpa McWar will make sure it continues.
Sorry I've been on hiatus Tom, been traveling the world. With the economy down, I figure it's a good time to start finding my new home.
Jo
"The United States won’t be outside Africa for long, as climate crisis and peak oil take further hold."
As they say in Maine, a-yup. A series of oil wars in sub-Saharan Africa is just what we need. This makes for a logical follow on to our chronic and recurring Mideast military misadventures — the ones we seem to get worse at as we go along.
I'm sure Halliburton, Schlumberger, others of their ilk and arms makers of all kinds are rubbing their greedy hands in anticipation.
Jo: Welcome back. Travel is always great. I spent a couple of years traveling in Asia; never been to Africa.
Yup, we should've listened to Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex.
SW: "A-yup" is right. I've been to Maine a lot of times but not recently. After our slash-and-burn operations have burned the entire Middle East, Africa will be next. The more things change...
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