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CounterPunch
February
21, 2003
Why Black Americans
Should Oppose Bush's War
Of Oil, the
Euro and Africa
by Dr. SONJA EBRON
"... the greatest purveyor of violence
in the world today--my own government."
--Dr. Martin Luther King,
"Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,"
April 4, 1967
at New York City's Riverside Church
"If we don't have boots in the Iraqi
desert by spring, we have to wait till winter because of the
heat," says conventional wisdom. Don't believe the hype:
our soldiers can handle the heat, but gas and oil prices can't
stand the cold. Heavy demand makes winter fuel prices the highest
of the year, and prices spike when an oil producer like Iraq
is attacked. Best to fight in the spring and summer when prices
are low. That's just the first lesson in the nexus between oil,
money, time and the taking of other people's property by force.
As the U.S. government rushes to invade and occupy Iraq, people
around the globe ask Why, Why now, and Why so alone?
Look all around you. Plastics, carpets,
asphalt, paint, fertilized soil. Look how electrified our lifestyles.
All of it based in oil and gas. Transportation systems, the glue
of our economy, needed for centralized workplaces and the economic
cohesion of our nation, dependent on oil. Agriculture, pharmaceuticals,
a host of other industries all critically dependent on oil. Globally,
one's personal income is more closely related to the amount of
energy one consumes than to any other factor. Oil is the most
liquid energy, the form most easily transformed to others. The
more oil you use, directly or indirectly, the richer you are.
As the richest country on the planet, U.S. oil consumption is
more than 20 million barrels a day and rising. We produce less
than half those barrels, importing
the rest largely from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela,
Nigeria, and Iraq. Within 20 years, we will import 6.5 barrels
out of every 10 we consume.
U.S. oil production peaked in 1971, enabling
OPEC's 1973 oil embargo and the deep economic recession that
resulted. Jimmy Carter changed our country's policy toward Arab
nations in 1980 by designating the supply of cheap oil from southwest
Asia (the "Middle East") vital to national
security. Our policy in the region quickly evolved to prevent
the rise of a hegemonic power, like Iraq was becoming in 1990,
able to influence use of the region's oil. The world's oil production
will peak this decade, bringing with it a permanent change in
oil market control from those who consume to those who produce.
This change will occur at a time when our economy is far more
dependent on imported oil than it was in the 1970s. With deep
roots in the oil industry, the Bush administration rightly seeks
to diversify our sources of imported oil. Large oil and gas deposits
in the Caspian Sea (circumscribed by Iran, Russia, and the -stans
in central Asia), South America (including Mexico, Venezuela
and Brazil), the South China Sea (circumscribed by Korea, the
Philippines, and Indonesia), and West Africa (primarily Nigeria,
Angola and Gabon) are consequently drawing sober U.S. interest.
Black Americans have historic and cultural
ties to Africa, as illustrated by our concern with the continent's
poverty and HIV/AIDS rates, its terms of international trade,
and its continuing struggles against colonialism. Many of us
cheered last year when all 53 African states vowed to increase
trade and to cross national boundaries as necessary to implement
the mandates of a new African
Union. Few of us know that Africa produces one-seventh of
the oil consumed in the U.S., a figure that will rise to one-quarter
over the next decade. Even fewer know that oil discoveries in
Africa have outpaced those of every other region for several
years. "West Africa's oil has become of national strategic
interest to us," Assistant Secretary of State for African
Affairs Walter Kansteiner declared early last year. "African
oil should be treated as a priority for U.S. post-September 11th
security," added Congressman Edward Royce, chair of the
Africa subcommittee in the House of Representatives. Discussions
are ongoing at the highest levels of our government to formally
designate west Africa a region vital to national security. Those
of us with interests in Africa--African Americans, in particular--must
understand the implications of this. With the size of Africa's
oil exports growing to rival Saudi Arabia's, we must assess
our government's war plans against the U.S. need for oil.
Our country is the largest consumer of
the world's oil, but our economy is tied to oil in more ways
than one. Since the 1940s, oil has been denominated in U.S. dollars
only, making our dollar the world's preeminent reserve currency.
Nations buy and hold dollars like they buy and hold gold because
they can't purchase oil without dollars. With this support for
our currency, U.S. foreign debt has grown to $2.8 trillion, or
$10,000 owed to foreigners by every man, woman and child in our
country. Last year's trade deficit alone was more than $500 billion
and shows no sign of slowing. Any other country with our lack
of fiscal discipline would see its currency and stock market
crash hard. But the dollar's value is essentially backed by oil,
which allows our Treasury to simply print money as needed to
finance our debt. Since accounting makes no allowance for fiat
money, the General Accounting Office has been unwilling to certify
our nation's financial statements for several years. We can operate
this way only while our dollar is the world's preeminent reserve
currency; without dollar preeminence, there is hell to pay.
Enter the real "weapon of mass destruction,"
the
euro. Eleven European countries formed a monetary union around
this currency on January 1, 1999; Britain and Norway, the major
European oil producers, were conspicuously absent. Due to the
strength of European economies, the euro now presents a serious
challenge to the dollar in its role as key reserve currency.
The rise of the euro also threatens to hobble the British pound's
eventual entry into Europe's monetary union. Britain and the
U.S. have mutual interests in oil to match their interests in
the euro. Of the five largest oil companies in the world, two
(ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco) are <U.S.-based>, two (Royal
Dutch/Shell and BP) are based in Britain, and one (TotalFinaElf)
is French. U.S. and British oil companies are all but banned
from exploration in Iraq, while French, Russian and Chinese companies
have contracts waiting for the lifting of sanctions. France and
Germany, the largest economies in the Euro-zone, can diminish
U.S. credibility and keep the euro on track to become the key
reserve currency by preventing war with Iraq.
Under U.S. and British military attack
for the last decade, Iraq has had its exports restricted to oil
through a United Nations oil-for-food program that deducts war
reparations from the receipts. Iraq has used smugglers to trade
its oil for goods and services, minimizing official oil sales
as a way to influence prices and punish its attackers. Labeling
the dollar "the currency of an enemy state," Iraq
switched its oil denomination to the euro in late 2000, risking
the loss of $270 million to the dollar's strength at that time
vis-a-vis the euro. But the dollar lost 15% of its value against
the euro last year. Iraq's move to the euro--and Iran's expected
move--are placing tremendous pressure on OPEC countries and other
oil producers to drop our dollar as the main transaction currency
for oil. With a looming global peak in production, consuming
nations must switch currencies when oil-producing states do so.
For instance, Jordan began using euros to buy oil as soon as
its major supplier, Iraq, began using them to sell, and North
Korea switched to the euro late last year to protest the U.S.'
halt in fuel aid. Given the highly leveraged and fragile state
of our economy, an OPEC switch from the dollar to the euro would
bring a quick and devastating dollar and Wall Street crash that
would make 1929 look like a $50 casino bet. Iraq's currency action
adds urgency to the coming oil price and supply crisis, so our
leaders have moved to control both the flow and the currency
denomination of oil.
The U.S.
strategy to destroy OPEC is twofold: pressure non-OPEC producers
to flood the oil market and retain denomination in dollars in
an effort to weaken OPEC's market control, and change the leadership
of any country switching oil denomination from the dollar to
the euro (hence, the "axis of evil"). The strategy
requires that the U.S. military assert our interests in oil and
gas deposits worldwide. U.S. interests in the Caspian Sea have
been secured through regime change in Afghanistan and a deal
for a new pipeline through that country. U.S. interests in South
America, despite the failure of the coup in Venezuela (an OPEC
member), are being secured via military aid to neighboring Columbia.
U.S. interests in southwest Asia are being secured through the
planned invasion of Iraq, then Iran (both OPEC members) if it
switches oil denomination. U.S. interests in the South China
Sea are being secured through military deployments in the Philippines
and off the Korean coast (near OPEC member Indonesia). But what
of West Africa?
While most African countries import oil
from outside the continent, Africa is a net oil exporter. That's
because nearly all African oil is produced for export to Europe
and North America. The vast majority of foreign direct investment
in Africa is in the energy sector. In the largest project to
date, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco have invested $3 billion in
a pipeline project to bring Chad's oil through Cameroon to the
west African coast for export; the oil could flow by the end
of this year. Yet the primary goal of the African Union is economic,
political and military integration. In a nod to the continent's
internal needs, ChevronTexaco is building a gas pipeline from
Nigeria to ports in Ghana,
Benin and Togo. Until OPEC lowered production quotas last
year, Nigeria was selling large blocks of oil to South Africa
and Kenya. As the African Union succeeds in integrating the continent's
economies, Africa's oil exports will be turned increasingly to
internal use. Does U.S. policy in Africa mirror our policy in
the Persian Gulf, a policy designed to prevent the rise of a
hegemonic power with influence on the use and denomination of
the region's oil?
Sao Tome and Principe, an island nation
150 miles off the West African coast (triangulating Nigeria and
Angola), agreed last year to host
a U.S. naval base in exchange for protection of oil in its
territorial waters. Nigeria has claimed exclusive licensing rights
to an oil block in these waters for many years. The U.S. base
could also be used to protect Cameroon's claims to Bakassi, the
oil-rich island off its coast long claimed by Nigeria. A new
deployment of U.S. Special
Forces to Djibouti, a tiny country bordering Ethiopia, Eritrea
and Somalia, could likewise check national autonomy in the Horn
of Africa. This troop deployment, designed to catch terrorists
in east Africa, adds to the 3,000 French and German troops already
present in the area. Our State Department has openly threatened
Zimbabwe as that country puts its land back into Black hands.
Like accusations levied against Somali "warlords" a
decade ago, President Mugabe is charged with exacerbating Zimbabwe's
famine by distributing food aid only to government supporters.
Our country has numerous opportunities--and perhaps an incentive--to
violate African sovereignty. The upshot is that African Americans
could soon experience repression of the sort felt lately by our
Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters.
What are we to do? Recognize that Black
well being in the U.S. and around the world will be adversely
impacted by our government's war for oil. Recognize that an oil
war, by increasing the costs of energy, threatens oil-importing
developing economies everywhere, especially those in Africa and
South America, as well as Black America's. Recognize that the
war to control the world's oil is in the late planning stages
but is early in its implementation and can be stopped. Recognize
that Martin was killed because of the moral authority he brought
to the Vietnam anti-war movement, drawn from his use of the "race
card," and that the African American community retains that
authority. Recognize that our ability to drive domestic response
to an immoral foreign policy is what keeps the warmongers up
at night. Recognize that thoughtful Black people, from Nelson
Mandela to your next-door neighbor, are against this war
for two reasons: because it is against Black interests--in the
U.S., in central and South America, in Africa--and because it
is so very terribly wrong. Talk to your friends and family about
your opposition to the war. Stick an anti-war poster in your
yard and a bumper sticker on your car. Join or help organize
a local or national protest. Call, write, email and visit your
congressional representatives. Take a few "sick days"
from work, and don't buy anything you don't absolutely need.
Get behind the anti-war movement now, before it's too late.
We must also work on root causes with
those in other communities. It may already be too late for a
smooth transition from oil dependence to sustainable energy use,
but we must begin now. If we are sensible, we'll invest in solar
and wind technologies, human-powered and public transportation
(bikes and buses), public agriculture, and other requirements
of sustainable communities. We must get our economic house in
order and rebuild our manufacturing base. "Made in the USA"
means we'll have more jobs, even though they may be difficult
and may not pay very well. Our lifestyles will change dramatically.
Our standards of living will decrease, but the quality of our
lives will improve. We'll be forced to depend more on each other,
to communicate more with each other, to build stronger families
and communities. And just maybe we won't have to kill people
to maintain our economy. We can only suspect that, had the people's
will prevailed in 2000, our president-in-exile would have begun
this transition.
On September 20, 2001, President Bush
declared, "The war will be fought not just by soldiers,
but by police and intelligence forces, as well as in financial
institutions." Hmmm. War is not the answer. It's a shortsighted
desperation play that is doomed to failure. Our military forces
may take but cannot hold Iraq's oil, as they have failed to tame
Afghanistan's land. Far from staving off disaster, our arrogance
may instead compel OPEC to "go euro" en masse, taking
many oil-consuming nations with them by force of economics. And
a trade war with Europe will lend the coup de grace to our economy.
In the meantime, many people will be hurt and killed, research
and development on fuel efficiency and renewable energy will
be slowed, the necessary policy and tax initiatives on energy
consumption will be delayed, and our country will be far worse
off when intelligent leadership finally prevails.
Sonja Ebron
is the chief executive of blackEnergy,
the place to practice Black cooperative economics. blackEnergy
brings the benefits of deregulated energy to Black communities
everywhere. This article originally appeared on one of our favorite
websites, The Black
Commentator--bookmark it today.
Yesterday's Features
Steve Perry
Cowboy
Dreams:
War as Hollywood Western
Saul Landau
Cuba's
View of Bush's War on Terror: an Interview with Cuban VP Raul
Alarcon
Jason Leopold
The
Origins of Bush's Iraq War Drive: The 1998 Wolfowitz / Rumsfeld
Memo to Clinton
Lenni Brenner
Lerner
and the WWP:
The Ranting Rabbi Doesn't Speak for All Anti-War Jews
Anthony Gancarski
The Return of Gary Hart:
A Voice of Reason?
Gloria Bergen
Storm Warning!
Imperialist Gangs Stalk Planet Earth
David Krieger
Peace March: We Must Lead This Nation to a More Just Future
Tom Turnipseed
The Peace Movement in South Carolina
Alexander Cockburn
Messy Valentines: Rummy and Frank on the Intrepid
Website of the Day
Protest
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February 15
/ 16, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Colin
Powell and the Great "Intelligence Fraud"
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
The Whole World is Watching
Edward Said
A Monumental Hypocrisy
Wouter Hijink
Report from Amsterdam
"War: Do Not Feed!"
Linda Heard
At Last! Proud to be British
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Taking a Stand on Iraq
Robert Fisk
The Case Against War
Lev Grinberg
Lessons from Israel
A War Without Legitimacy
Chris Floyd
Cold Fronts:
Bush War Profits
Ahmad Faruqui
Stepping Back from the Brink of War
Norman Madarasz
French Kisses from the Citizens of France
Adam Lebowitz
Scott Ritter in Tokyo
Kurt Nimmo
Bring Us the Head of Osama bin Laden
Forrest Hylton
The Revolt in Bolivia
Col. Dan Smith
Irrelevance and Credibility:
Bush, NATO and the UN
Wayne Madsen
The Lies of Tom Lantos
Ranjit Hoskote
The Invisible Modernities of the Islamic World
Emily Zitter-Smith
Who's Safe Now?
An American in Cairo
Rich Procter
Anybody Remember the Powell Doctrine?
Poets Basement:
Eliot
Katz, Scott Handleman, and Bruce Tomczak
Website of the Weekend
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Posters
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Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
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by Alexander
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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