China is Iraq’s New Buddy–Writing off Iraq’s Debt and Getting Invited to Help Rebuild (And Don’t Forget–Their Oil Companies Are There, Not Ours)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

As the U.S. tries  to pull out the last of our troops in Iraq, here’s the irony of all ironies.  From Gulf News:

China could scrap Iraq’s $8.5b debt

Baghdad seeks investments from Beijing

Baghdad : China may write off all of Iraq’s $8.5 billion (Dh31.2 billion) of debt accrued under the rule of Saddam Hussain, Iraqi finance minister Baqer Al Zubaidi said yesterday.

“The Chinese government expressed readiness to write off $8.5 billion of debts owed by Iraq,” Al Zubaidi said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website yesterday.

Iraq is keen to see China play even a bigger role in the reconstruction of the war-torn country, the country’s top envoy to Beijing told the China Daily in an interview last week.

“After 2003, China has supported us very much and reduced Iraqi debts by 80 per cent, which is greatly appreciated,” Iraqi Ambassador to China, Mohammad Sabir Esmail, told the paper, referring to a $6.8-billion debt cut announced by China last month.

Esmail also invited Chinese companies to invest and operate in the country.

“I call on all Chinese companies to come and take up projects in rebuilding Iraq,” he told China Daily.

“China has many giant companies qualified to participate in rebuilding Iraq and… our country will remain a big workshop in the next 20 years,” he said.

Some Chinese firms, mainly in the energy and retail sectors, are already operating in Iraq.

These companies include oil giants such as PetroChina, Sinochem, CNOOC and Sinopec subsidiary Addax Petroleum.

MORE

Well, how about them apples?  All that killing of civilians, torture, multiple tours of duty, brain-traumatized U.S. soldiers returning home…and the Chinese are strolling into Iraq?

This comes on the heels of U.S. companies being shut out of oil contracts in December 2009:

U.S. Companies Shut Out as Iraq Auctions Its Oil Fields

By Vivienne Walt Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009

Those who claim that the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 to get control of the country’s giant oil reserves will be left scratching their heads by the results of last weekend’s auction of Iraqi oil contracts: Not a single U.S. company secured a deal in the auction of contracts that will shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Two of the most lucrative of the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts went to two countries which bitterly opposed the U.S. invasion — Russia and China — while even Total Oil of France, which led the charge to deny international approval for the war at the U.N. Security Council in 2003, won a bigger stake than the Americans in the most recent auction

MORE

So, it looks like Iraq has a budding friendship with China which continues to grab commodities with its masterful use of “soft diplomacy” (already doing the same thing in Africa) and now has a nice firm foothold right in the center of the action in the Middle East.

So, after seven years of mayhem and the draining of our national treasury, that’s the result.

Good work, Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Condi.

Condi is now regretting that the U.S. didn’t work more closely to rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam, but states that she’d still “liberate” the Iraqis and that George W. will be vindicated for his actions in the future.

More irony: she made her comments during a talk on “The Future of Asia” at the Chinese University of Hong Kong…

Sublime…

The Past Week: February 22-28, 2009 (Laura Bush Lives On; Budget Director Peter Orszag/Robert E. Rubin, Iceland Bankrupters; China Taking Advantage of U.S. Weakness As It Looks to Buy Foreign Oil Companies?; U.S. Deaths Spike in Afghanistan; Baracus Caesar Obamacus Meets Barackistanis)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

R.I.P. my camera, which died just after I finished taking yesterday’s pictures.  I’ve got to get a new one ASAP!!  I discovered today that a couple of my lantana plants are starting to send up shoots–which means, spring is really springing!!

***

While driving around a couple of days ago I heard a public service announcement for either the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs or The Big Brother program, I forget which one. Anyway, guess who was delivering the PSA?  Laura Bush!  Which got me thinking…I’m wondering when we start hearing from Michelle Obama?  I wonder what causes she will lend her services to??  Or is she too busy visiting all the governmental agencies so she can deliver hubby’s message of hope and change?

***

Truth is Gold had a really excellent post up on Friday called  Lest We Pay the Price Too Dear…Learn From History!

An excerpt, with permission:

I cross post today an urgent message, gleaned from three very well informed journalists who know their history well. Urgency dictates that I introduce them and furnish you with the links from which to read their messages in entirety.

The first, by Eric Margolis, reminds us of Afghanistan’s solid history of making mincemeat out of its invaders, from Alexander the Great in 327–325 BC, to the Soviets in 1989, disasters all.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis138.html

In the second, Kevin Barrett reveals in OpEdNews’s “Obama: Political Messiah, or Just Another Third World Dictator?” the facts behind the most recent resident of our White House and cites Webster Tarpley’s work in detail, Tarpley being among the foremost political and historical researchers of our time. Further research has substantiated the fact that indeed, Tarpley’s work is almost faultless in terms of his list of players and the historical context in which they exist.
The third of this terrifying trilogy is Christopher Bollyn’s work on Obama’s new budget director Peter R. Orszag.

SNIP

Orszag, for example, could start by explaining exactly what happened to the Icelandic economy. Orszag was, after all, the founder and president of the economic consultancy firm which advised the Central Bank of Iceland – before it went bankrupt. How did Icelandic banks become so indebted? Ask Peter Orszag.

MORE

Read the whole post.  Read about his links to Robert E. Rubin, Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury and recently resigned head of Citigroup.  It isn’t looking good…

By the way, the Central Bank of Iceland just hired an interim governor, an economist from Norway. One of the former governors of the CBI who was asked to resign has been offered a job at….the Norwegian Central Bank. And, a possible snag?

“Law professor Sigurdur Líndal told Fréttabladid that he doubts a foreign citizen can be hired to the position, explaining that the constitution states that no one can become a public official in Iceland without holding the Icelandic citizenship.”

Central Bank of Iceland

There’s that “citizenship thing” again…

***

Here’s some more news that will cheer you up…not.  Let’s catch up with some of China’s latest moves.  How will this play out?

First, China is on the prowl, looking to buy foreign oil companies.  From The Telegraph:

CHINA PREPARES TO BUY UP FOREIGN OIL COMPANIES

China is preparing to open a new phase in its race for the world’s resources by using its huge currency reserves to buy foreign oil and gas companies.

SNIPA conference of officials from the National Energy Administration has agreed to consider establishing a special fund for China’s state-owned companies to buy oil and gas firms overseas. The beneficiaries would be the Beijing’s three giant energy companies – Petrochina, Sinopec and CNOOC.

SNIP

The possibility of a Chinese state subsidy for overseas acquisitions may ring alarm bells in Western economies. Four years ago, CNOOC tried to buy an American oil company, Unocal, and succeeded in outbidding its main US rival. But the Chinese firm eventually withdrew its offer amid opposition from American Congressmen. They opposed the idea of a private US firm falling into the lap of a state-owned company, bankrolled by the Chinese Communist Party.

This time, China may calculate that Western governments are in a weaker position to object. They are, after all, spending billions on taking over their own companies, notably the banking sector.

MORE

More background on China’s increasingly bold investments abroad.

***

And what’s this? SPIKING DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN??

***

While visiting RBO, I happened to see this ANNOUNCEMENT about America’s new name, Barackistan.

New! Congratulations to Cinie of Cinie’s World who has found the perfect title for the leader of Barackistan — “Just Barely President, Baracus Hubris Maximus (hail Ceasar!)”. Psst! Baracus Ceasar Obamacus is good, too.

Thanks to Insight Analytical‘s Grail Guardian, America will be referred to as Barackistan and all you little former free-thinking, openly-voting Americans as Barackistanis.

RBO couldn’t think of any more fitting name for the White House/West Wing/Congress than Barackistan HQ.

Any questions?

***

Signing off from Free America…where we’re still “thinking freely”…

THE PAST WEEK

*By Kenosha Marge

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness–the Garden Waking Up! (Pic Heavy)

Obama Energy Plan Includes Nano-Generators That Bite

Canadian Banks On the Move Buying U.S. Banks While Bailout Recipient AIG Sells Canadian Life Insurance Business to Bank of Montreal (”Picking over the Carcasses”)

A Giant White Rabbit in Britain Reminds Us How “Logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead”…

The SCANNER–International/Political Edition, 2/24/09 (Which Deficit is Obama “Halving”?; Canada Rubs U.S. Nose into Its Stable Banking System; GM/Chrysler Beg for Bailout Help in Canada, Too; Half of Foreign Criminals in Canada Are Fleeing to the U.S. [???])

*Maudlin Mawkishness in the Age of the Gush

The Past Week: February 15-21, 2009 (”Efficiency” Experts Michelle and “3-Card Monte” Barack Obama…Michelle’s Legacy at U of Chicago Hospital Under Fire by ER Physicians; Hubby Plans to Halve the Deficit via “Efficiency” (Among Other Things…); Spring Garden Prep!