Why? I can do business with you, but if you aren't reliable I can choose to not do business with you. I don't have the right to do business with you and set the rules only as I see fit.
OK, you contract with me to come to you property and explore for oil, find it, drill for it, pump it, transport it, refine it, distribute it, and pay you a proper royalty. Then you inform me that you must cancel that contract and I must go,leaving all my equipment, company infrastructure, and all other assets in place, which you will now own and you'll keep all of the profits. It's breach of contract in either case. Under international law, Venezuela must pay Exxon fair market value for the infrastructure left behind.
Exactly Red, and my head tells me that these losses will be passed on to us, but damn, it's HARD to feel sorry for good ole Exxon-Mobile. They damn sure ain't worried about us.
Stealing from a US company isn't cool, but I think the US company bears a lot of the responsibility for taking the risk. Should we go to war or take any federal action every time Exxon is treated badly by a foreign government? I don't know the answer. But when the government becomes invested in a commodity it binds the free market and hinders innovation. We don't have a right to oil and by using force to get it we shouldn't be surprised there is a backlash. Host countries may act wrongly toward US companies, but the American people can't be expected to defend every foreign whimsy of US companies. Perhaps extremely large companies are an exception, and I guess Exxon would fit that profile. But if that is the case, we shouldn't beat around the bush. If a legitimate US interest has been wronged, specific action should be taken.
Kind of like us taking down Sadam to get the no bid contracts in Iraq. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Way to many double standards in this country.
Bush and Cheney planned this for years. It first came up in the boys room at Cheney's high school prom.
Cheney and many of Bush's cabinet members and aids go back a long way and have been planning quite a lot for a while. I don't know about Bush himself.
Did Bush and Cheney plan on the other companies bidding too? You know, the non-American companies? How diabolical of them. Bush should be renamed Dr. Evil. :lol: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041603115.html
