To the Victor Go the SpOILs

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GEORGE W. OBAMA: The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are using the phony pretext of “humanitarian intervention” to justify using military force in Libya to overthrow the Gaddafi regime and install a friendly puppet government that will give Western petroleum firms like ExxonMobil, BP, and Total unfettered access to that country’s oil reserves at rock bottom prices.

Now that it is becoming increasingly evident the oil wells of Libya will soon be liberated from the clutches of that wicked madman, Muhammar Gaddafi, a flurry of articles have popped up on news websites everywhere explaining the real reasons why Barack Obama, our peacenik Democratic president, spent $896 million bombing that country to smithereens.

For example, a piece headlined, “Big Oil Should Win With Gadhafi Gone,” posted on InvestorPlace.com, an investment newsletter, hints Uncle Sam is meddling in Libya’s internal affairs because the baby-eating tyrant who has led that country for 42 years has been a longstanding oppressor of U.S. petroleum firms ever since he nationalized the oil industry in 1969.

But now that Obama and the good Christian gentlemen of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have galloped into Libya on their pretty white ponies to civilize the heathens, InvestorPlace.com notes “ExxonMobil’s luck–and that of several other big players in oil–in Libya might be changing now that dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s rule seemingly is at an end.”:

A new regime in Tripoli might bring some needed changes to Libya’s oil fields, where foreign companies are required to provide 90% of their output to Libya’s state-run oil company. If they can renegotiate these deals on more advantageous terms, that should benefit a plethora of companies, including ConocoPhillips and its partners Marathon and Hess, which returned to Libya in 2005 after a 19-year absence to their exploration and production interests in the Waha concessions. Prices for these shares and Occidental Petroleum, which also has a big Libya investment, fell Monday, presenting a buying opportunity because any improvements in Libya will benefit them as well.

Given Western petroleum firms–especially U.S. ones–stand to make quite a bundle after Gaddafi’s downfall, InvestorsPlace.com advises readers to seize the moment and acquire as much ExxonMobil stock they can afford, urging them to not “miss one of the biggest opportunities for the oil industry in a long time. Though the gains in Libya will not be immediate, they will come.”

In another article entitled, “The Scramble for Access to Libya’s Oil Wealth Begins,” published on the New York Times website, reporter Clifford Claus observes that freedom-loving “Western nations–especially the NATO countries that provided crucial air support to the rebels–want to make sure their companies are in prime position to pump the Libyan crude.”:

Eni [an Italian oil company], with BP of Britain, Total of France, Repsol YPF of Spain and OMV of Austria, were all big producers in Libya before the fighting broke out, and they stand to gain the most once the conflict ends. American companies like Hess, ConocoPhillips and Marathon also made deals with the Qaddafi regime, although the United States relies on Libya for less than 1 percent of its imports.

“Colonel Qaddafi proved to be a problematic partner for international oil companies, frequently raising fees and taxes and making other demands,” he adds. But now that this avowed enemy of free market plundering by foreigners will soon be swept aside, Claus writes that “a new government with close ties to NATO may be an easier partner for Western nations to deal with.”

And when the “new government” forms, it most assuredly will embrace the God-given right of Western petroleum firms to steal Libya’s oil wealth. After all, as the International Business Times points out, the “rebels” seeking to topple Gaddafi are fully backed–if not bought and paid for–by the Central Intelligence Agency, MI6, and “French, Italian and British military advisers.”

The good news is USA Today reports “Libya’s oil industry should be able to recover fairly quickly after fighting ends,” as increased output “would stabilize prices and be good news for motorists, who could see modest price drops immediately”–no doubt benefiting limousine liberals who soon will be driving their gas-guzzling SUVs to $250-a-plate fundraisers for the Obama 2012 Campaign Committee.

But as Reuters mentioned earlier this week, not everybody shares the same giddy enthusiasm about the latest turn of events in Tripoli. Countries like Russia, who placed all of their bets on the wrong horse, now fear its “energy firms are likely to be barred from resuming work in Libya if NATO-backed rebels succeed in overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi.”:

“We have lost Libya completely,” Aram Shegunts, director general of the Russia-Libya Business Council, told Reuters. “Our companies won’t be given the green light to work there. If anyone thinks otherwise they are wrong. Our companies will lose everything there because NATO will prevent them from doing their business in Libya.”

The Russians, although very shrewd imperialists, just have to understand that in this lawless world of the 21st century, if you’re a rogue superpower armed to the teeth like United States and led by a president who is nothing more than a snake oil salesman for Wall Street’s biggest thieves and robbers, not only does might make right, but to the victor go the spoils.

About Duane Roberts