"We in America are still the beacon of democracy! Washington has finally done something right!" Swift Jr. couldn't help but praise after hearing this.
There are many conspiracy theories in the world today, such as the United States attacking Iraq not for weapons of mass destruction, but for Iraqi oil.
There is also the claim that the bag of white powder in the United Nations General Assembly was not dangerous goods, but a bag of laundry detergent.
It is also said that Saddam's officers, both high and low-ranking, had all been won over by the CIA, which is why the United States was able to conquer all of Iraq in two months with overwhelming force.
There are many such theories, some of which sound ridiculous and are not believed by many, like the laundry detergent incident.
However, some theories are widely accepted by most people, which is that the United States attacked Iraq for Iraqi oil and for the benefit of the oil companies behind them.
Given America's past behavior, people can guess this without even thinking. Therefore, many international media outlets have criticized it, and even many domestic media outlets in the United States have promoted this narrative.
As a result, this seemed to anger the U.S. government, so the U.S. government publicly announced that their invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Saddam's regime was to completely eliminate weapons of mass destruction and to bring peace, freedom, democracy, and happiness to the Iraqi people, and that they had no interest in Iraq's oil.
However, the public largely dismissed this statement as a joke and no one believed it.
But Huang He knew that in early August 2003, the U.S. government would officially announce its disposition of Iraq's local oil facilities, which was to return all these oil facilities to the local government and the local people.
This news caused a huge stir, and many people expressed that perhaps they had misunderstood America. This greatly boosted America's international reputation.
"But boss, if that's the case, then international oil prices and oil stocks should continue to fall, as oil would then be stably supplied!" Swift Jr. said.
"Heh, do you think the Iraqi people really have the ability to extract oil? Even if they do, can they sell it?" Huang He retorted.
Historically, the United States announced this and seemed to have done just that.
After announcing this policy, they quickly handed over Iraq's local oil fields to the local tribes, allowing them to establish their own oil companies to control the oil wells.
This approach made the world disbelieve that Americans could do such a thing.
But soon, people realized something was wrong.
Firstly, it was true that the oil wells and oil facilities were handed over to the locals, but the locals simply didn't know how to use these facilities!
Apart from a few cities that had some talent, the areas outside the cities in Iraq were basically controlled by local tribal organizations.
These tribes were good at fighting, but asking them to learn knowledge and culture to operate various oil well equipment and manage an oil company was pure nonsense.
As for the people who originally operated the oil wells, since they were Iraqi civil servants, they were directly labeled as unstable elements and were driven away by the U.S. military, forbidden from controlling the oil wells anymore.
So even though the U.S. handed over the oil wells to these locals, they couldn't operate them at all. Some tribes, thinking they were very capable, tried to force their way in, resulting in oil wells catching fire or even exploding in response.
Within a month, 10% of Iraq's oil wells had problems due to various incorrect operations, some even causing serious accidents, resulting in a large number of casualties, and black smoke from burning oil wells covered the entire sky.
As for the remaining 90% of the oil wells, most of them were not even started, as those local tribes were frightened by these accidents.
So, the Americans stepped in again, very enthusiastically offering their help, stating that since the locals couldn't operate the oil wells, Americans were willing to provide technical personnel and operators to run them.
The local tribes only needed to entrust these oil facilities to them for operation, and they would only charge 30% of the oil as an operating fee.
In the international market, a 30% operating fee was outrageously high, but the local tribes felt it was acceptable. After all, they couldn't control these oil fields and wouldn't earn anything from them. It was better to hand them over to foreigners for operation, and they would still get 70% of the oil, wouldn't they?
Thus, local tribes signed agency operating contracts with American companies. These American companies then brought in a few executives from the United States and rehired the previous oil workers who had been dismissed from Afghanistan, giving them slightly higher salaries than during Saddam's era. These technicians happily went to work.
So, after all this, the people extracting the oil were still the same, but 30% of the oil had fallen into the hands of American companies.
But were the Americans truly satisfied with earning just 30%?
No, how could they be satisfied with so little?
Soon, the local tribes discovered a new problem: although crude oil was extracted, they couldn't sell it. No oil dealers were willing to come to their territory to buy their oil. So, the extracted oil could only be piled up barrel by barrel on the local Gobi Desert. The cost of buying iron barrels for this oil alone was enough to bankrupt the local tribes.
So, the American companies that acted as oil agents once again stepped forward, still very enthusiastically telling the local tribes that they could handle selling the oil to buyers.
However, due to Iraq's inconvenient transportation, difficult logistics, and the presence of various anti-government forces, which made it very dangerous, buyers' purchasing desire was low, forcing them to sell at a reduced price.
When the elders of these local tribes saw the ever-increasing pile of oil barrels, they had no other choice but to agree to these American companies.
Thus, under the agency sales of these American companies, crude oil, which sold for over $30 a barrel in the international market, was sold to buyers for less than $5 a barrel, with a profit margin of a terrifying five times.
Of the $5 that was sold, $1.5 had to be given to the operators, leaving only $3.5 for the tribes.
But when the operating and maintenance costs were finally calculated, another $2.5 had to be deducted from the $3.5, leaving only $1 for the Iraqi people.
For a barrel of crude oil with an international selling price of $35, the locals ultimately earned only $1, while the remaining $34 had clearly all gone to American companies, a truly colossal joke.
And one couldn't even accuse the Americans of seizing Iraq's oil, as these oil fields belonged to the Iraqis, and the Americans were merely acting as agents for extraction and sales.
At the same time, because American companies were acting as agents for operation, sales, and acquisition, they didn't need to consider employee benefits, production safety, the local environment, or sustainable extraction.
They simply squeezed the oil from the ground and the workers on the surface, extracting as much profit as possible. In a chaotic country, no one would care how many oil workers died every day. As long as the company announced job openings, a large number of impoverished Iraqis would rush to work.
Oh, and what's even more laughable is that the $1 they finally earned was often returned to the Americans, not to buy food, but to purchase various firearms and weapons, and then to fight with other local tribes in Iraq.
And you couldn't refuse to buy them, because if you didn't buy them, others would, and those others would wipe out your entire tribe, then become the local tribe, gain ownership of the oil, and then humbly receive a $1 profit from the Americans.
Some might say, wouldn't the locals resist this situation?
Resist what? The entire Iraq was occupied by American troops. Not to mention whether the local tribes could win, but other countries' buyers dared not set foot in Iraq to acquire oil. The only ones capable of buying oil in Iraq were those American companies that had received government approval.
Of course, this mode of exploitation couldn't be maintained for long, because the exploitation was so severe that the locals couldn't survive, and even food became a huge problem.
So, soon, the Kurdish militias in the oil-rich Kurdish region rose up. Through armed negotiation, they tried to gain independence from Iraq while also seeking more oil profits.
On the other hand, organizations like ISIS also emerged, and their ambitions were even more terrifying.
The Americans also quickly discovered that although their oil companies were making a fortune from their troops stationed in Iraq, the government was losing heavily, with military expenses constantly being subsidized, and deficits continuously growing.
Unable to bear it, they began to slowly withdraw, and Iraq became even more chaotic.
The Iraqis of today can only hear from their grandfathers about the prosperous and strong era that Iraq enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s.
To get back to the point, precisely because he knew what tricks the Americans were playing, how they wanted to have their cake and eat it too, Huang He knew exactly how to profit from the stock market.
As the United States would soon announce the handover of oil to the local people, international oil prices and oil stocks would definitely continue to fall. This would be the time for Swift Jr.'s more than 20 billion U.S. dollars to enter the market.
Compared to Apple, the market capitalization of oil stocks was worlds apart. Pouring $20 billion into oil stocks would create absolutely no ripple. Swift Jr. could convert it all into stocks in a short period.
Next, all they had to do was wait for time to slowly reveal the truth, for American companies to gain complete control of Iraq's oil, and then international oil prices and oil stocks would enter a period of strong growth lasting over a decade.
Before the end of the second fund period, a threefold or fourfold increase would be no problem. Swift Jr. only needed to hold onto oil stocks with unwavering resolve.