E-Paper
Damn you, Mr William Mellon!
In case you live in Delhi and had a terrible time reaching your workplace yesterday, blame it on William Larimer Mellon of Pennsylvania.
In case you live in Delhi and had a terrible time reaching your workplace yesterday, blame it on William Larimer Mellon of Pennsylvania. And here’s why. Mr Mellon may have first struck oil in Texas in 1901, but it was his company Gulf Oil that played a major role in the early development of oil production in Kuwait. In fact, throughout the Fifties and Sixties, it was rumoured that Mr Mellon’s company had a ‘special relationship’ with the Kuwaiti government.
Jump cut to August 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The then Iraqi dictator accused Kuwait of keeping oil prices low and pumping more than its quota from Iraq’s and Kuwait’s shared oil-fields. This ultimately led to the fear of Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in the world, being attacked by a petro-seeking Mr Hussein. For reasons that lie in commerce and subtle coercion, the Americans entered the war, driving out Mr Hussein’s invading forces and setting up a permanent ‘defence shield’ base in Saudi Arabia. Fast forward to Osama bin Laden and his grudge against American military presence in Saudi Arabia and we have a raison d’etre for 9/11, at least in al-Qaeda minds. And as you all know, George W. Bush invaded Iraq because he thought Mr Hussein was vaguely pally with Mr bin Laden.
And that’s why the Left and other anti-America, anti-Bush protestors all came out on the streets yesterday to make the Delhi office-goers’ journey miserable.
