Thanks to U.S., China Now Enjoys Lion's Share of Iraqi Oil

Boone Pickens has always said that America needs – and deserves – an energy plan. The only problem is no one in Washington has been willing to step up to the plate and demonstrate the type of leadership necessary to put such a plan in place.

In the same breath, Pickens has also singled out the one country that is aggressively pursuing an energy plan. That country is China. Over the last decade, the People’s Republic of China has made multi-billion-dollar investments overseas, and, in the process, secured valuable energy resources in North America, South America, and Africa that will sustain the Chinese economy for decades to come.

Perhaps the most astute investment by the Chinese has been in the Republic of Iraq following the downfall of Saddam Hussein. In the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion – which cost Americans more than $1 trillion as well as tens of thousands of casualties – guess who now enjoys the lion’s share of Iraq’s oil exports?

That’s right – the People’s Republic of China. Keep in mind that that Chinese did not contribute a single soldier or a single dollar to this incredibly costly effort. Dozens of other countries did, including Japan, Nicaragua, Denmark, and Mongolia, but not the Chinese, who have more active military personnel than any country on earth.

Yet according to this front-page story in The New York Times, no single nation has enjoyed a larger share of Iraqi oil exports that China:

Since the American-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one of the world’s top oil producers, and China is now its biggest customer. China already buys nearly half the oil that Iraq produces, nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, and is angling for an even bigger share, bidding for a stake now owned by Exxon Mobil in one of Iraq’s largest oil fields.

“The Chinese are the biggest beneficiary of this post-Saddam oil boom in Iraq,” said Denise Natali, a Middle East expert at the National Defense University in Washington. “They need energy, and they want to get into the market.”

And, to make matters worse, guess who protects the shipments of Iraqi oil to China? That’s right – American taxpayers.

“We lost out,” said Michael Makovsky, a former Defense Department official in the Bush administration who worked on Iraq oil policy. “The Chinese had nothing to do with the war, but from an economic standpoint they are benefiting from it, and our Fifth Fleet and air forces are helping to assure their supply.”