Obama: We'll make BP pay for spill

""British" Petroleum should sit back and put their feet up and watch the oil spill do damage to US waters and to the US coast-line."
Ian

You can't afford such luxury. The daily comments here get more and more aggressive. A lot of politicians and speculators (short sellers) want to see BP bankrupt in few weeks. I don't agree with them because in this case the US would be hurt too. But as I said it starts to be a real witchhunt here. Some people want to make a lot of money on this and disregard all other considerations.

I'm sorry but the US has made its own mess. They have set a precedent. So President Obama doesn't like BP, and US commentators are lining up to crucify "British" Petroleum. Amid all this jingoism, I have two words of my own to throw back across the Atlantic. "Union Carbide." Yes, US companies make mistakes too. In December 1984, deadly gases and toxins leaked from the pesticide factory operated by Union Carbide at Bhopal in India. The official death toll is almost 4,000 but it could be much higher, with many thousands left permanently disfigured. Has Union Carbide and the US government cleaned up the land around the plant, 26 years on? Er, NO. As for litigation, it continues to wend its weary way through US and Indian courts. So because of this precedent set by US companies and the US government, BP and the British government should halt all clean-up activities until Union Carbide and the US government clear up the mess in Bhopal in India and compensate all those affected and the families of those affected. Until then, "British" Petroleum should sit back and put their feet up and watch the oil spill do damage to US waters and to the US coast-line. Yes, this seems perfectly fair to me. A taste of their own medicine one could say. The US always expects the world to stop whenever they have a problem. Well not any more! They're supposed to be the most powerful country in the world so deal with it!

I'm sorry but the US has made its own mess. They have set a precedent. So President Obama doesn't like BP, and US commentators are lining up to crucify "British" Petroleum. Amid all this jingoism, I have two words of my own to throw back across the Atlantic. "Union Carbide." Yes, US companies make mistakes too. In December 1984, deadly gases and toxins leaked from the pesticide factory operated by Union Carbide at Bhopal in India. The official death toll is almost 4,000 but it could be much higher, with many thousands left permanently disfigured. Has Union Carbide and the US government cleaned up the land around the plant, 26 years on? Er, NO. As for litigation, it continues to wend its weary way through US and Indian courts. So because of this precedent set by US companies and the US government, BP and the British government should halt all clean-up activities until Union Carbide and the US government clear up the mess in Bhopal in India and compensate all those affected and the families of those affected. Until then, "British" Petroleum should sit back and put their feet up and watch the oil spill do damage to US waters and to the US coast-line. Yes, this seems perfectly fair to me. A taste of their own medicine one could say. The US always expects the world to stop whenever they have a problem. Well not any more! They're supposed to be the most powerful country in the world so deal with it!

""British" Petroleum should sit back and put their feet up and watch the oil spill do damage to US waters and to the US coast-line."
Ian

You can't afford such luxury. The daily comments here get more and more aggressive. A lot of politicians and speculators (short sellers) want to see BP bankrupt in few weeks. I don't agree with them because in this case the US would be hurt too. But as I said it starts to be a real witchhunt here. Some people want to make a lot of money on this and disregard all other considerations.