Yes, Iraq is all about oil

Submitted by Calisse Cansime (United States), Jan 21, 2003 at 11:33

I refer to my comments which Mr Pipes kindly published
here (http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/5722) and a
response to it (http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/5744)
from commentator David Johnson to whom I'm thankful.

David writes, "If oil were our only interest, then clearly
the easiest, least costly thing to would be to renege on our
sanctions and eliminate our boycott of Iraqi oil". But
Iraqi oil isn't boycotted by the US. Here's what actually
happens: Iraq is allowed to sell its oil on a UN enforced
Oil-for-food program which says the proceeds of the sales
may only go towards buying food and medicines for Iraqi
civilians. The US is a major buyer but has held back several
payments which could have gone to these civilians. Iraq
produces 76% of the middle-east's oil, so a boycott wouldn't
be an economically sound idea.

The cost of the war is estimated to be a few million US
dollars. The benefits in having a favourable regime in Iraq
that would deliver low cost oil can run to billions in profit.
Pentagon sources were quoted in a BBC report about the
planned iraq invasion: US forces plan to maintain control
of Iraq's oil wells well after a new regime is installed.
The report hastily added that the profits would go to
the Iraqi people. Still not smell a rat?

I'm not saying Saddam Hussein is any saint. All I'm saying
is, if a list of the world's most dangerous countries were
to be drawn up, Iraq would certainly not be at the top.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have a far worse record in terms
of breeding terror than Iraq does. Actually, Iraq doesn't
have much to do with the Al Qaeda; Saddam's regime, undemocratic
as it may be, is a secularist one. Osama is happily waiting for
it to topple over, so a Khomeini phenomenon happens here too.
Do US policy makers know this? Ah, they do. But so long as
the regime is of a controllable puppet and the oil can be
robbed at cheap rates, they do not care. Someday the puppet
regime will revolt and then the US will simply use another
excuse to cause another regime change. But by then, Osama
and his likes will have made inroads and the real enemy,
Islamist fundamentalism, will have grown all the more powerful.

As commentator Nickie points out, anti-Americanism
is a rather overused term. I don't think Europeans have
anything against American people or their ways of life.
In Europe, most people are not too happy about US foreign
policy. But talk about basketball, Texan steaks, the
Rockies, sunny Florida, Hollywood, etc, and they all love
it. As an example, resentment towards US policy arises when
they see the US make a joke of the UN. See this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2560617.stm

In the above URL, take a good look at the bit that says,
"Despite an initial agreement that Iraq's 12,000-page
weapons dossier would remain in possession of the UN,
the US on Sunday reached an agreement with the head of
the Security Council to copy and distribute the document
itself. Reports say several other members of the Council
are upset at the extent to which the US took charge
of handing out copies to the permanent members and editing
the versions to be given to the rotating members, who are
not nuclear powers". Get the idea? US policy makers like
to exude arrogance because they know they can happily
get away with it everytime - there is not a thing the
rest of the world can do about it.

There is this lack of steam from America's allies in the
war on terror Mr Pipes talks about. Is it not because
the business of capturing Osama bin Laden and destroying
the Al Qaeda has been left incomplete and now George Dubya's
more interested in finishing Daddy's war in Iraq? This has
confused countries like Germany. What else should the US
expect the rest of the world to do, tag along blindly?
No, Europeans have nothing to hate American people for.
But the same cannot be said of US foreign policy. If one
wants to talk of _real_ anti-Americanism, talk about
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Their mosques still scream
'Death to America' every Friday. Europeans don't do
that; they love American people but won't like to be
dragged along by US policies, that's all.

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