Always the Oil
"Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.
"The US government has been involved in drawing up the law.... It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972."
Danny Fortson, The Independent UK
"So where is the oil going to come from? The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."
Vice-President Dick Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, 1999
First they took us to war for an ever-changing list of reasons that all turned out, as reasons to go to war, to be totally bogus:
- Iraq has weapons of mass destruction
- Saddam Hussein is a mass-murdering tyrant
- Saddam is plotting with Al Qaeda
- Iraqis deserve their freedom
- We're fighting the terrorists there so we don't have to fight them here
- We're starting a wave of freedom that will transform the Middle East
The one reason never offered was oil. Iraq has lots of it, America needs lots of it, and Texas oilmen and oil company executives can make lots and lots of money extracting our oil from Iraqi soil.
There were, of course, plenty of "No Blood for Oil" signs at the prewar protests, and a handful of left-of-center commentators did broach the subject. But it was never part of the congressional debate or national conversation and when the subject arose among the punditry it was quickly dismissed as unamerican, or Bush-bashing, or just plain tacky to even suggest. "America's better than that," they said, and Americans strained to believe, "We're delivering God's own freedom to the world."
Four years, several hundred thousand deaths, and some $400 billion later, and all but a few nasty neocons desperately want out of Mr. Bush's war. "I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam," said Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel. To which Sen. Harry Reid added, "I don't think it is the worst foreign policy blunder since Vietnam, I think it's the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of our country."
So, it's mostly agreed we need to somehow end the war, but there the agreement ends. The simplest solution of all — pack up our bags and GET OUT — is proclaimed unworkable, for several reasons:
- If we leave now, Iraq will descend into a terrible civil war
- America's credibility and reputation will suffer if we abandon Iraq
- This is too important a mission to fail
- Iraq is now the central front in the War on Terror
- If we don't defeat them there, we'll have to fight them here
More bogus reasons, and the one still unmentioned: oil. We will never leave Iraq. We never intended to. We've already constructed several huge military bases in the region. As long as there's oil in the ground, we're staying.
The real reason for the war was that Iraq under Saddam was too unstable to trust with the stewardship of America's lifeblood. The continuing reason for the war is that we need to create some sort of stable government — democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, whatever — so that Dick Cheney's "prize" will continue flowing into our gas tanks at less than $3 a gallon.
Which is why few in America want to talk about the real reasons for this idiot war. A genuinely peaceful and democratic Middle East would mean less oil, and more expensive gasoline, for we the oil-addicted.
Try not to think about it. Top off the tank. And accept that, like any addict, America will do whatever it takes to keep its next fix coming.