The BP Disaster: “A Monstrous Ecocide — The Result Of Our Reckless Oil Ride”

Interesting article in Common Dreams, “This Oil Ride,” by Linh Dinh, gives a quick history of oil, ala, British Petroleum. Of the disaster in the gulf, Dinh writes, “The raped earth spewing what we’ve been demanding so relentlessly for over a century now. A monstrous ecocide, this is too fitting an end to our reckless oil ride.” Here is an excerpt :

• 1861-The first major oil well in the world in Pennsylvania.
• 1908-The Anglo-Persian Oil Company discovered oil in Iran. Later known as British Petroleum, in 1954.
• 1913Ford Motor Company perfected the assembly line.
• 1927-The Turkish Petroleum Company struck oil in Iraq — the biggest shareholder, British Petroleum.
• 1933-In New Jersey, the first drive-in theater opened.
• 1944-The G.I. Bill helped returning veterans to buy homes,
• 1953-The C.I.A. orchestrated a coup against the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, after he had nationalized British Petroleum.
• 1956-President Eisenhower began the largest public works project in history, the Interstate.
• 1963-The C.I.A. orchestrated a coup against Abdul Karim Kassem of Iraq. Kassem had begun nationalizing foreign oil companies i.e., British Petroleum.
• 1990-The Gulf War ignited. Eyeing Kuwait’s rich oil fields, Iraq attacked its tiny neighbor. Iraq was bankrupt after its eight-year-long war with Iran. During this previous conflict, the U.S. openly backed Iraq even as it sold weapons to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.
• 2000-Saddam Hussein announced that Iraq would now only accept euros, and not dollars, for its oil exports. This prompted the U.S. to invade 18 months later.
• 2009-Thanks to the U.S. invasion, British Petroleum could do business again in Iraq after 37 years.
• 2010-Floating 5,000 feet above the ocean floor, a British Petroleum rig was drilling 30,000 feet into the earth’s crust when it exploded, then sank over its drill hole. 210,000 gallons a day are spilling as I’m writing this, and they won’t be capped any time soon. This is no tanker breaking up, my friends, but the raped earth spewing what we’ve been demanding so relentlessly for over a century now. A monstrous ecocide, this is too fitting an end to our reckless oil ride.