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CounterPunch
February
20, 2003
What the Bush Gang Really Wants
The Roots of
the Iraq War
by WILLIAM BLUM
Which is the more remarkable -- that the United
States can openly announce to the world its determination to
invade a sovereign nation and overthrow its government in the
absence of any attack or threat of attack from the intended target?
Or that for an entire year the world has been striving to figure
out what the superpower's real intentions are?
There are of course those who accept
at face value Washington's stated motivations of "liberating"
the people of Iraq from a dictatorship and bestowing upon them
a full measure of democracy, freedom and other eternal joys fit
for American schoolbooks. In light of a century of well-documented
US foreign policy which reveals a virtually complete absence
of such motivations, along with repeated opposite consequences,
we can dispense with this attempt by Washington to win hearts
and mindless.
Presented here are some reflections about
several of the causes that make the hearts of the imperial mafia
beat faster in regard to Iraq, which may be helpful in arguing
the anti-war point of view:
Expansion of the American
Empire: adding more military
bases and communications listening stations to the Pentagon's
portfolio, setting up a command post from which to better monitor,
control and intimidate the rest of the Middle East.
Idealism: remaking the world in what the true believers
see as America's image, with free enterprise and Judeo-Christianity
as core elements; here is Michael Ledeen, former Reagan official,
now at the American Enterprise Institute (one of the leading
drum-beaters for attacking Iraq): "If we just let our own
vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and
we don't try to be clever and piece together clever diplomatic
solutions to this thing, but just wage a total war against these
tyrants, I think we will do very well, and our children will
sing great songs about us years from now."
Oil: the sine qua non of Middle East policy, yesterday,
today and tomorrow; to be in full control of Iraq's vast reserves,
with Saudi oil and Iranian oil waiting defenselessly next door;
OPEC will be stripped of its independence from Washington and
will no longer think about replacing the dollar with the Euro
as its official currency; oil-dependent Europe may think twice
next time about being so uppity.
Globalization: Once relative security over the land, people
and institutions has been established, the transnational corporations
will march into Iraq ready to privatize everything at fire-sale
prices, followed closely by the IMF, World Bank, World Trade
Organization and the rest of the international financial extortionists.
Arms industry: As with each of America's endless wars, military
manufacturers will rake in their exorbitant profits, then deliver
their generous political contributions, inspiring Washington
leaders to yet further warfare, each war also being the opportunity
to test new weapons.
Israel: The men driving Bush to war include long-time
militant supporters of Israel, such as Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz,
and Douglas Feith, who, along with the rest of the powerful Israeli
lobby, have advocated smashing Iraq for years. Israel has been
playing a key role in the American military buildup to the war.
Besides getting rid of its arch enemy, Israel could use the opportunity
to carry out its final solution to the Palestinian question --
transferring them to Jordan, (liberated) Iraq, and anywhere else
that expanded US hegemony in the Middle East will allow. Iraq's
abundant water could be diverted to relieve a parched Israel.
William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military
and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue
State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc
Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.
He can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com
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February 15
/ 16, 2003
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