In 1954 the French lost Vietnam at the battle of
Dien Bien Phu because the US did not send any
assistance. Actually at the end of WWII, the US had
given a good portion of the massive amount of weapons,
stored on Okinawa in 1945 for the final land invasion
of Japan, to Ho Chi Minh to assist his program to
"nationalize" French Indo-China, which is now the
independent country of Vietnam.

Thus General Giap of 'Nam war fame got his weapons
from the US, to drive out the French and later the US.
But it was all very carefully planned. The result was
that the French lost a vast oil-rich property, and the
US took over in South 'Nam. After the contrived Gulf of
Tonkin Incident in 1964, for 10 years US oil companies
did a secret seismic oil survey offshore of South
Vietnam from 1965 to 1975 under the guise of spent
bombs dropping and exploding in the sea in "designated
areas" from returning US war jets to the offshore
carriers.

Less than a decade later, in 1985 when the new
independent nation of Vietnam finally opened up the
offshore region for oil exploration, only Chevron knew
where to put their bids and get the oil-rich undersea
tracts. The Vietnamese had gotten a "free" oil survey
to make them one of the largest petroleum producers in
Asia and Chevron hardly paid a nickel, since Uncle Sam
had "paid" for the secret survey under the guise of
war. All the many other nations who also bid on
undersea oil lots only came up with very costly dry
holes. The French never even had a chance.

Also in 1954 when the French were being driven out
of the French north African colony of Algeria by
"home-grown nationalist" uprisings, again the US
refused to help. The result was the French lost the
colony in 1962 after 8 years of brutal war and the loss
of millions of casualties. When the newly independent
Algeria opened up the desert for oil prospecting, darn
if it wasn't Texaco-Mobile-Chevron who got all the
goodies and the French got nothing. Algeria is one of
the largest oil producers in Africa. The French were
starting to see a pattern.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991, Russia was ready and willing to sell its vast
supply of Black Sea and newly found Caspian Sea oil to
get some badly needed international cash. But how to
get the oil to the customers? The century-old Black Sea
oilfields were already filling up the narrow Bosporus
channel through the ancient city of Istanbul, Turkey
with a daily conga-line log jam of oil tankers. But the
Russians found another way to get the new found oil to
their big European customers, the French and Germans.
Just take oil barges and bypass the narrow Bosporus and
simply sail up the wide Danube River from the northwest
edge of the Black Sea.

The Blue Danube goes right up past Romania, the
old Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, Austria and right
into downtown oil refineries in Germany and France just
miles from the river. It was a good deal for the
Russians, the Germans and the French. Cheap Russian oil
coming direct from the producer, with no middle-man
charging high OPEC or US market prices. That is, until
the Serbian/Kosovo war in 1999.

While nobody was paying attention, the Clinton
administration bombed and dropped all the bridges
across the Danube in Serbia. Why did they do that? That
action instantly stopped all river traffic for the next
10 years. So now what are the Russians, French and
Germans to do? They are all losing money and their
economies hit a sharp downturn in 1999. The Russians
can't sell their oil to make quick cash and the French
and Germans need to buy oil from the "American
multi-national oil companies" at the higher
double-markup spot market world price.

In 1999, all three countries found a willing
go-between who would transport the oil for cheap. It
was Saddam Hussein right next door in Iraq. He needed
the cash he could make as an oil transporter. He
couldn't sell his own oil by 1991 UN edict, but he
could legally pipe Russian Black Sea and Caspian Sea
oil right through the Caucasus Mountains using existing
Iraqi pipelines to the Persian Gulf and then the cheap
Russian oil is sent direct to the customers in Europe.
Since it wasn't Iraqi oil, its all legal and the
French, Russians and Germans were fat and happy with
Saddam's minimal markup for transport. And if Saddam
slipped in some of his own oil in the process, who's to
know.

Then along comes G. W. Bush and stops the process.
No more oil is piped through Iraq. Russia, Germany and
France are furious, they are losing billions. They
don't want to go along with Bush on any war in Iraq.
Bush wants to "free" Iraq from that Saddam guy and then
the control of Rusian oil shipments through Iraq would
again be by Texaco-Mobile-Chevron. And even bigger is
Standard Oil. But where is Standard? In January 1988,
Standard merged with British Petroleum to form the
world's largest international oil explorer, marketer
and shipper. But the merged conglomerate mega-giant
took the name BP-America, later just BP, to make you
think its a British company. Not! Its still
multi-national Standard Oil but now wearing
"environmentalist BP-green" just to fool you.

But "the Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi's,"
justifies Bush, but the Germans and French don't care.
They don't want the Iraqi oil, only that cheap Russian
oil coming through the Iraqi pipeline. And of course,
without Saddam, the price for being the middleman who
runs the Iraqi pipeline spigot suddenly shoots up. The
Russians lose market share, the Germans and French pay
the higher world market price. The French are now
really pissed. They finally clearly see the devilish 50
year old pattern. The French, along with most other
countries in the world, see US President Bush and
British Prime Minister Blair as the guerilla hitmen
snipers for BP, nee Standard Oil.

That explains why the French want Bush and Blair
to take a long flying leap off a short pier. It wasn't
Americans or American policy that had gypped the French
for the last 50 years. It was the "American"
multi-national oil companies. Most foreigners don't
distinguish between the hated exploitative big-oil
companies and the Americans. To most foreigners,
America is the oil company. Now you know why the
French, Germans and Russians did not go along with the
UN resolution to attack Iraq. Would you willingly vote
to double the price of energy in your country? Now you
know why there is oil on your French Toast. Can you
blame them?

If you are not old enough to remember WWII, the
Vietnam War or the many 1954 "American oil takeovers"
in French Indo-China, Algeria, along with Venezuela and
Iran, then you probably would believe all that media
hype that the War in Iraq is about Iraqi oil. Not so.
Its about the only existing oil pipeline direct from
the southern Russian oilfields to the Persian Gulf. He
who owns that pipe controls the world price of oil,
simply by opening and closing the spigot. The vast
Russian oil reserves make the Saudi and OPEC oil fields
look lilliputian.

And if you did not know about that Iraqi pipeline
then you would believe that the "shock and awe" tactics
were aimed at shocking and fooling the Iraqi's. Not so.
It was aimed at you. While you were watching the
fabulous fireworks on TV as the bombs fell on Baghdad,
you did not notice what the British-American coalition
ground troops were really doing. Within hours the
troops had rushed in and taken control of the southern
pipeline terminal and tank farm facilities near the
Persian Gulf port of Basra.

Likewise the troops quickly took control of the
northern pipeline facilities at Kirkuk and Mosul in the
Caucasus mountains. That was to make sure that in the
confusion of war, the Turks did not rush in and take
control of the area. For decades the Turks have wanted
to wrest control of the Caucasus area from the Kurds so
that Turkey would become the only pipeline for Russian
oil. But that is not in the BP-Standard Oil plan.
General Tommy Franks knows who he is working for. He
made sure that never happens.

If you want proof of all this, just read today's
headlines. In the coming weeks, ignore all the
left-wing/right-wing hype and spin about what you are
supposed to think and feel about the horrors and
tragedy of war and evil dictators. Stay focused on the
actual events that occur, not the spin. Just notice
that the Iraqi War will end when that Iraqi pipeline is
securely under British-American a.k.a., BP-Standard Oil
control. For background information on the history of
the hidden oil wars that shaped the 20th century and
explain the current events in the 21st century read
"Black Gold Hot Gold." See above in the Brother
Jonathan Gazette.

----------- Marshall Smith
Editor, BroJon Gazette