Robert Fisk: Oil, War and Panic: Fisk reports on oil exports in occupied Iraq. His conclusions: exports from the north are essentially blocked by sabotage; exports from the south at less than a million barrels a day are described by one expert as an 'inexcusable catastrophe.'

"Saddam had no plans to destroy the oil fields themselves, plenty for blowing up the export pipes. The Pentagon got it the wrong way round, racing its troops to protect the fields but ignoring the vulnerable pipelines... [the US] can't make the oil flow. The cost of making it flow could produce an economic crisis in the US. And it is this--rather than the daily killing of young American soldiers--that lies behind the Bush administration's growing panic. Washington has got its hands on the biggest treasure chest in the world--but it can't open the lid."

Robert Fisk: Oil, War and Panic: Fisk reports on oil exports in occupied Iraq. His conclusions: exports from the north are essentially blocked by sabotage; exports from the south at less than a million barrels a day are described by one expert as an 'inexcusable catastrophe.'

"Saddam had no plans to destroy the oil fields themselves, plenty for blowing up the export pipes. The Pentagon got it the wrong way round, racing its troops to protect the fields but ignoring the vulnerable pipelines... [the US] can't make the oil flow. The cost of making it flow could produce an economic crisis in the US. And it is this--rather than the daily killing of young American soldiers--that lies behind the Bush administration's growing panic. Washington has got its hands on the biggest treasure chest in the world--but it can't open the lid."