Follow the oil

It is stunning to have Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon Mobil, embedded within the administration. Previously it was George Bush, a major owner of Exxon since it was Standard Oil, calling the shots with us unaware of his connection. The Kuwait war in ‘90 was about Saddam privatizing Exxon and BP Iraqi oil. Afghanistan in ‘02 was about getting Kazakhstan oil, which Exxon had acquired in the IMF bankruptcy of Russia in ‘91. That oil needed to pass through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India and China the two main oil growth markets.

The silk road was always about a pass-through tariff, and Exxon was having none of that. Iraq in ‘03 was about Exxon selling massive amounts of oil to the military while controlling one-fourth of the world’s oil. They ran it up to $110 a barrel. Exxon’s back in the saddle again.

John Hoffmann

Carbondale