From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Apr 21 2003 - 15:50:16 MDT
--- Damien Sullivan <phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 20, 2003 at 11:58:07PM -0700, Olga Bourlin wrote:
> > Hmmmm ...
> >
> > http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,940250,00.html
>
> More interesting than the pipeline is the claim near the bottom that
> the US
> has been stocking oil reserves for Israel, at a cost of $3 billion in
> 2002.
> Add that to the foreign aid bill?
Oil reserves are kinda like a loan guarantee. It really doesn't cost us
much of anything, because it will get used sooner or later by us when
they no longer need the reserves. Israel isn't using that oil right
now, so it isn't really aid either. Call it more of an insurance
policy.
The only real cost to us is if we bought that oil at a high price and
wind up using it when the market value is low.
The real risk was, that given that Israel gets its oil from Russia, and
Russia opposed the iraq war, if they were feeling belligerent, they
could have cut off oil to Israel to exacerbate the situation. Given
that Russia's Iraq policy was driven by Russian oil companies that
supply to Israel, it was a real possibility, but ultimately depended on
how much they wanted to piss off a good customer over the long term. So
how ever real a risk it was, it was a low one.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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