|
CounterPunch
August
29, 2002
What's Behind
the US War Moves on Iraq?
by Matt Siegfried
The United States government is preparing a new
war on Iraq. A section of the Bush administration, reflecting
a section of the US ruling class, has long been pursuing an assault
on Iraq to overthrow the regime of Sadaam Hussein. It will come
as no surprise to anyone that this group is intimately associated
with the oil and, to a lesser extent, the military industries.
Vice President and former Defense Secretary and chief of Halliburton
Corporation Dick Cheney is the main representative of these interests
in the administration.
Halliburton, at a nominal market value
of over 18 billion dollars, is the largest oil supply company
in the world. It has also become a leading construction contractor
for the US military since the Bush administration took office.
If Chevron-Texaco (which named a ship after Bush's National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice) needs parts in Nigeria or new oil wells
in the arctic wilderness, Halliburton is there. The runways that
launch American bombing sorties on Afghan wedding parties and
the prisoner camp in occupied Cuba are built by Halliburton.
This is not a conspiracy, nor is it a
coincidence -- it is how American capitalism works. The government
sees its primary role to defend and extend American corporate
interests. There is a constant revolving door between government
and business in the US. This, of course, is not a uniquely American
reality but one shared with all the capitalist governments of
the world.
Utilizing the bellicose mood of the post-September
11th political atmosphere, the US right wing has made a concerted
effort to win the government to launching a new Gulf War. The
hawks have been in the ascendancy since the early spring, though
not without contradictions and real opposition from parts of
the ruling class, government, and military who fear some of the
consequences of a new war. These consequences include the prospect
of a jump in oil prices and the inflationary pressure that would
put on the already troubled economy; the further destabilization
of a region already seething from the "War on Terrorism",
continued sanctions on Iraq, and US patronage of Israel; and
strains on an increasingly active "volunteer" army's
resources, to name a few.
The forces advocating a new war also
have divisions among them. Some of them want revenge for their
own failure to dislodge Sadaam Hussein in the last war and his
continued existence in power after all the attempts made over
the last decade to isolate and replace him. This looks and sounds
a bit like the red-faced rage of the schoolyard bully whose attempts
at intimidation go unheeded. He cannot remain the bully if others
refuse to be bullied.
Another motivation is that the US has
awfully little to show in its "War on Terrorism". Mullah
Omar and Osama bin Laden have, so far, been unwilling to offer
up their corpses for a trophy photo. Though the imperialists
have clearly won many gains in Afghanistan, the all-looking-and-no-finding
war seems to have powered down without many of the big issues
being resolved in their favor. A war on Iraq would deflect charges
of being "soft" on Al Qaeda and the Axis of Evil from
the far right of American politics and, coincidently, some Democrats.
When other enemies prove too elusive, Sadaam's nefarious star
tends to rise in the US government's psyche. They seem to wilt
without an enemy to compare to Hitler.
Another motivation is oil, and not just
the oil within the borders of Iraq. While strictly economic aims
are sometimes simplistically laid out as the primary reasons
behind US war policy, and all the proponents of war have a combination
of reasons for their advocacy, it would be foolish to underestimate
the power of oil interests in shaping American policy. Competition
among the imperialist powers over access to and control of oil
has increased since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
One reason for this is that the previously
off-limits resources of the former Soviet Union have opened up,
leading to a new "Great Game" for the riches of the
Central Asian states (now conveniently hosting US military bases
for the war in neighboring Afghanistan) and the Caspian Sea.
Why leave all that oil to the Russians and the Central Asians?
The privatization of the old state energy companies is a potential
windfall of many billions of dollars for American oil interests,
provided that the new companies partner with US ones and upgrade
their facilities with the parts and know-how of the Halliburton
Corporation.
Another reason is that the old equilibrium
between the imperialist powers facing a common Soviet threat
has broken down, meaning that each is more likely to pursue its
own energy goals, including direct access to oil. This is what
is at the heart of France's opposition to the sanctions on Iraq.
While many countries buy oil from the Iraq Petrochemical Company
(IPC, nationalized in 1972), France is the only Western power
which has partial ownership in the IPC. The sanctions prevent
them from fully exploiting that relationship.
The US and Britain, with four of the
top five oil companies in the world between them, were frozen
out of investment in the IPC and therefore out of control over
10 percent of the world's oil, which is produced by Iraq. Is
it really any surprise then that these two countries are the
most adamant about continuing the sanctions and now about going
to war, whatever the consequences for the Iraqi people?
Japan and Germany have almost no indigenous
oil resources, so the second and third largest economies in the
world have to buy their way into the oil market. While their
wealth provides them access, they are still confined militarily
to their own countries as a consequence of World War II. Thus
they remain beholding to the US to protect their oil access.
For the US, control of oil means power over its friends, who
are also its rivals. In the largest gas bill in history the US
made Germany and Japan cough up tens of billions of dollars for
their Kuwaiti oil in the last Gulf War. Recession and political
problems at home make Germany and Japan much less willing to
do this again.
The more mercenary warmongers in the
US government see control over oil as the starting point of their
policy, rather than the regime of Sadaam Hussein. When they look
at maps of the world they see resources and zones of influence,
rather than countries and people. With all that has happened
in the last decade they see an urgent need to reshape parts of
the world in their own interests and, by virtue of being the
only superpower, almost the ordained obligation to do so.
This attitude is not new with the Bush
administration. The "humanitarian" interventions of
the Clinton administration were rooted in the same arrogant view,
which holds that the Middle East is too important to be left
to its people. The goal of this patrician group is to impose
a Pax Americana on the region. The costs and consequences of
such brutal folly can only be guessed at, but the destruction
Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians is a good place to start.
Iraqi oil is part of the motivation.
Oil in general is a greater motivation. But the root of the cowboy
attitude of the current US government is the nature of capitalism
and imperialism in general, whoever practices it. That is, the
violent imposition of the interests of the few, the rulers of
the capitalist "great powers", on the vast majority
of the world's people. The ruined lives of the many underlie
the profit and the power of the few.
We, the working people of the world,
are not simply "exploited masses" to be pitied. We
are a power who, by fighting for our own interests, fights for
the liberation of all humanity. Crisis are currently shaking
continents from the consequences of the last twenty years of
Neo-Liberal's crusade.
From Jakarta and Buenos Aires, from Johannesburg
and Jenin, from Seattle and Genoa people have marched under the
banner "Another World is Possible". It is time to give
that world a name; socialism, and in the face of still another
American war set about, urgently, to change this world. For the
common, rational, and shared utilization of what nature, finitely,
has endowed the planet, that is, for socialism.
Working people, the "exploited masses"
also exist in the US, though usually more silently than in the
rest of the world. US workers need to enter this struggle with
their own voices rather than those voices who would speak for
them. That the US has decided on war does not make it inevitable,
and the louder we are now the greater chance we have to prevent
it. Should they succeed in launching their war we will oppose
them. If they triumph in their plans we will demonstrate the
perfidy of their victory and use the lessons learned to resist
the next war, which we are sure will come. Wars are in the nature
of imperialism and we must press home this reality- to defeat
war it is necessary to defeat capitalism.
Matt Siegfried
writes for the Irish magazine Forthwrite. He can be reached at:
almata@hotmail.com
Today's Features
Chris Floyd
The Secret
Sharers:
The CIA and the Murder of Frank Olson
New Print
Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- War Talk As White Noise:
Anything to Get Harken and Halliburton
Out of the Headlines;
- First Hilliard, Then
McKinney: Jewish
Groups Target Blacks Brave Enough to Talk About Justice in the
Middle East; Intimidation
is the Name of the Game; Smearing
"Insane" McKinney As Muslims' Pawn;
- The Missing Terrorist?
Calling Scotland
Yard: "Where's Atif?"
- They Never Booed Dylan!:
Tape Transcript Shows
Famed Newport Folkfest Dissing of Electric Dylan Not True. The Catcalls were for Peter
Yarrow!
- New Shame from the Liffey
Shrike
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
August 29,
2002
Chris Floyd
The Secret
Sharers:
The CIA and the Murder of Frank Olson
August 28,
2002
William Ring
War on Iraq:
The Brightest Scenario
August 27,
2002
Sam Bahour
The Violence
of Curfew
Wenonah Hauter
From Johannesburg:
Pacts with the Devil: Public-Private Partnerships and the Global
Environment
Jerre Skog
Wanted:
"Our Kind of Guy"
in Iraq!
Uri Avnery
Letter
to a Pilot
August 26,
2002
Sami Al-Arian
Fighting
for the Right of
Dissent and Due Process
Ruebner /
Turaani
What
is Israel Hiding?
Norman Madarasz
Brazil
and the IMF:
Democracy and Emerging Market Liberalism
Robert Fisk
War Crimes:
Reporters Aren't Prosecutors
Douglas Valentine
Phoenix,
CIA and Maj. Gen. Bruce Lawlor: From Vietnam
to Homeland Security
August 24
/ 25, 2002
Susan Davis
Proverbial
Wisdom:
Of Clogs and Enron
Falk / Krieger
No War
Against Iraq
Ceylon Mooney
Fasting
for Iraq
Jonathon
Wright
Police
Brutality in Atlanta
Ralph Nader
Congress's
Pay Raise Scam
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Chainsaw
George
Alexander
Cockburn
Alterman
Cheapens Holocaust
August 23,
2002
Dave Marsh
Selling
Out?
Anthony Gancarski
Super-Duper:
Oil, al-Qaeda and a West African Adventure
William Hughes
Lieberman's
Conflict
of Interest?
Kurt Nimmo
The Lapdog
Conversion of CNN:
They Didn't Want to "Criticize" a Popular War
Sean Donahue
Hardline
in Colombia
August 22,
2002
Sean Donahue
Hardline
in Colombia
Wayne Madsen
Crushing
Congressional Dissent: The Fall of Hilliard, Barr and McKinney
Gilad Atzmon
The Zionist
Lobby and
American Foreign Policy
Robert Johnson
Right
Wing Doves?
Alexander
Cockburn
Taking
Down McKinney
August 21,
2002
Gary Leupp
The Return
of Mani
Romi Mahajan
Bhopal
on $40 a Day
Jerre Skog
Bush and
Europe:
Fun, Profit & Betrayal
Tom Crumpacker
The
Politics of the Cuba Embargo
August 20,
2002
Kathleen
Christison
Israeli
Tilt: the NYT
and Palestine
August 14
/ 19, 2002
Susan Davis
Played
Out: a Journey to Central City, Colorado
CounterPunch
Staff
Our Favorite
Films
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Usonian
Utopia's:
Frank Lloyd Wright, Working Class Housing and the FBI
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon and the Iron Wall
Uri Avnery
A Phone
Call from Hell
Wendy Brinker
Racism
is Alive and Well in the South Carolina Death House
Hamit Dardagan
The
Unbearable Lightness of Bombing
Ahmad Faruqui
The Legacy
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Philip Farruggio
Leading
by Example
Anthony Gancarski
Union
Jackass: Richard Perle's UK Charm Offensive
Jeff Halper
Fortress
Israel: the Message of the Bulldozer
Robert Jensen
Our Failures
are Borne by the Palestinians
Gary Leupp
An Open
Letter to Bruce Springsteen about Bush's War on Terrorism
Dave Marsh
Sing a
Simple Song
Rashmi Mayur
To Johannesburg
in Search of Hope
Steve Perry
Another Fine Mess:
Martha Stewart and Paul Wellstone
Anis Shivani
What's
Next...Concentration Camps?
Edward Said
Punishment
by Detail
Jeff Taylor
Paul Wellstone's
Legacy
August 10/11,
2002
Walt Brasch
The Bush
2 Legacy...So Far
August 9,
2002
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Corporate
Crime:
More Shareholder Power
Not the Solution
Ansar Ahmed
The Waning
of the
Pax Americana
Alexander
Cockburn
War,
the Military and the Hunt for the "Violence Gene"
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
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:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|