15 Dec 2011

'US after eternal control of Iraq oil'


Having spent trillions in Iraq, Americans simply cannot give up the plentiful and very high quality oil they invaded the country for, says former Indian ambassador to Iraq.

Despite the US declaring withdrawal of its military forces out of Iraq, Washington has prepared to control the country's rich oil reserves in any case, Rt.com Tuesday reported former India's ambassador to Iraq in the 1990s, Ranjit Singh Kalha as having said.

It only takes USD 1.50 to take out Iraq's oil that is just below the surface, the Indian ambassador explained.

Therefore, “anybody who has access to this oil can be a game changer - as far as the politics of oil is concerned.”

The setback Americans encountered in Iraq is that once given “some symbols” of democracy, the Iraqi voted for a Shia-led government, said Ranjit Singh Kalha.

He argued that Today's Shia-led Iraq unlike Saddam's Iraq, in which the military and law enforcement was mostly Sunni, does not have the necessary experience of ruling to prevent sectarian violence so the country risks a full fledged civil war to start at any time after a complete US withdrawal .

The former ambassador said that to counteract such undesirable chaos in Iraq the US will have a 20,000 personnel embassy in Baghdad (the largest US embassy in the world) and also 1,000- personnel consulates in each of the Iraqi cities of Basra, Kirkuk and in northern Kurd-inhabited territory.

“Americans cannot afford to be completely absent from Iraq,” he said emphasizing that he does not see any lessening of American influence in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the American troops will not go far away from Iraq but will be re-deployed to next-door Kuwait, Ranjit Singh Kalha said. Source