At a 1996 energy conference in New Orleans, Dick Cheney, then CEO of Halliburton said "the problem is that the good Lord didn’t see fit to put oil and gas reserves where there are democratic governments."
The real problem is that the good Lord isn't good, and the warmongering one didn't see fit to put all his devotees on a separate planet from the rest of us.
Laying the blame on the divine is a stretch, but it seems that the vice president is right: democracy and oil do not mix. Just look at the United States’ top 10 oil suppliers. Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia are repressive regimes with deplorable human rights records. Mexico and Venezuela, while democracies, are marked by instability, inequality and civil strife. Iraq remains at war and under occupation. Only Norway, Canada and the United Kingdom are fully functioning democracies.
Why don’t oil and democracy mix? At least part of the answer can be found in Washington’s policy of providing military aid and training to leaders who guarantee an uninterrupted flow of oil, defending it against all threats -- even those coming from their own citizens. full article
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!