By Chris Floyd, Global Eye
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/floydiraqattackexplained05may06.shtml
May 5, 2006

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/05/05/120.html

Friday, May 5, 2006. Issue 3406. Page 112.

The U.S. conquest of Iraq is an emotional matter. Passions flare at white heat on both sides of the issue. This is understandable. It is indeed very difficult to remain dispassionate while watching a mass murder take place. Opponents of the conquest are naturally driven into chaotic furies of outrage and despair, while supporters are necessarily pushed to rhetorical and political extremes in their frantic attempts to countenance such an appalling crime. It is not a situation conducive to rational analysis.

Nevertheless, it is instructive to step back from the barricades now and again to remind ourselves of the reality so often obscured by the blood-red mist of emotion clouding our eyes. The chief reality, of course, is that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is primarily about oil and the preservation of the American way of life. It is based on the premise that the latter is a question of supreme importance, a moral value overriding all others. That "the American way of life" is itself riddled with gross inequalities is beside the point here, for these inequalities greatly benefit all those who have the power to make or influence policies in "the national interest."

Once this basic premise is accepted, the conquest -- which otherwise seems a pointless, reckless paroxysm of elitist greed -- can be seen as a logical if difficult step undertaken in accordance with a carefully reasoned strategy. War, mass death, torture, repression and the monstrous lies surrounding the instigation of the conquest can thus be justified as "necessary evils" to secure a greater good.

To put it simply, America must have unfettered access to Persian Gulf oil in order to maintain the infrastructure of its economy -- indeed of its entire society, which is based on the availability of cheap gasoline and other petroleum-based products. In the coming decades of oil scarcity, the vast reserves in the Middle East will be even more crucial. The Bush administration estimates that Iraq's current reserves, when fully developed, could reach 220 billion barrels; if the still-unexplored territories of its western wasteland are counted, this figure could top 300 billion, far surpassing the reserves of Saudi Arabia, as Canadian journalist Paul William Roberts reports in his important new book, "A War Against Truth." What's more, Iraqi oil is remarkably easy to extract, and thus remarkably profitable.

Anyone who controls Iraq's oil industry will ultimately be able to break the Saudi-led OPEC cartel, inhibit or at least modulate the rise of China and India to superpower status and squeeze Russia, whose economy now depends on exports of its increasingly expensive, hard-to-extract oil, as Roberts notes. Thus, none of these potential rivals will be able to challenge America's global hegemony -- the "full spectrum dominance" that has been publicly touted as the overarching goal of U.S. policy by Bush factionists such as Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz since 1992.

Such hegemony can only be maintained by military means. Hence the more than 700 U.S. military installations, ranging from vast city-fortresses, like the permanent U.S. bases now being built in Baghdad and Balad in Iraq, to small "lily-pad" jumping-off points for quick strikes around the globe. Hence the Bush administration's ongoing militarization of space and its accelerated drive to test and develop new nuclear weapons. Hence the unleashing of secret Pentagon forces to conduct "military operations other than war" in dozens of countries without any legal restraints, as noted here last week.

Military force is essential because the U.S. economy is now in an advanced state of decadence and cannot win its way to continued dominance by peaceful means. The U.S. elite is now given over almost entirely to the manipulation of financial instruments to produce vast private profits, disconnected from the surrounding community. The actual production of actual goods is in steep decline, bringing with it a corresponding decay in the quality of American life below the elite level. Without cheap oil -- and despite the panicky sticker-shock at the pump today, Americans still pay far less than most people for fuel -- the whole fragile house of cards could fall. Thus dominance and survival have become intertwined; and both depend on mastery of the Middle East's resources.

Saddam Hussein became a target not because he oppressed his people or warred with his neighbors or threatened Israel or once developed WMD -- all of which he did during his years as a U.S. ally. He had to be removed because he would not allow U.S. and British oil firms to exploit Iraqi resources, but was instead signing deals with Chinese, French and Russian companies. This was intolerable. It put the preservation of the American way of life, and the global dominance on which it now depends, in the hands of foreign interests. With global reserves dwindling, Iraq's oil was simply too important to be entrusted to others any longer. Direct intervention was required.

And so the war came, with its lies, murder, ruin and corruption. Yet how many of those opposed to this horrific military action are prepared to pay the actual cost of ending it -- that is, to relinquish the guarantee of cheap oil and the lifestyle it sustains? The number is doubtless very small. The large remainder should perhaps be seen as the true Bush base. For while they may oppose his tactical incompetence in this instance, they share, wittingly or unwittingly, his strategic goal. With this basic common cause between the elite and the majority, the wars for oil will go on, no matter who sits in the White House.

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Annotations

A War Against Truth : An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq
Paul William Roberts, Raincoast Books, October 2005

Wealth and Democracy : A Political History of the American Rich
Kevin Phillips, Broadway Books, April 2003

In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy
The Times, May 3, 2006

Failures cited in Iraq rebuilding
Boston Globe, May 2, 2006

Peddling Democracy
TomDispatch.com, May 2, 2006

Administration Conducting Research Into Laser Weapon
New York Times, May 3, 2006

Votes Counted. Deals Made. Chaos Wins.
New York Times, April 30, 2006

Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia
Harper-s Magazine, Sept. 24. 2004

Iraq: Permanent American Colony
Truthout.org, March 15, 2006

Dark Passage: PNAC's Blueprint for Empire
Empire Burlesque, September 20, 2002

A New Era of Nuclear Weapons
San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 7, 2003

Robert McNamara: Apocalypse Soon
Foreign Policy: May/June 2005

The Potemkin Congress
San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 2006

US Admits Iraq War is Terror Cause
The Times, April 29, 2006

Bush challenges hundreds of laws
Boston Globe, April 30, 2006

Elite Families Led Stealth Campaign to Repeal Estate Tax
Public Citizen, April 25, 2006

Earth-Penetrating Weapons
Union of Concerned Scientists, May 2005

Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan
Washington Post, Sept. 11, 2005

Iraqi Strife Seeping Into Saudi Kingdom
Los Angeles Times, April 26, 2006

Top Spy-s Story on Prewar Intel Is Finally Told
Truthdig.com, April 26, 2006

Inspectors Find More Torture at Iraqi Jails
Washington Post, April 24, 2006

My Guantanamo Diary
Washington Post, April 30, 2006

Sex and money bought Iraq contracts
Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2006

Learning to Count: The Dead in Iraq
Truthout.org, April 13, 2006

Extended Presence of U.S. in Iraq Looms Large
Associated Press, March 21, 2006

Mother Lode
The Moscow Times, Feb. 11, 2005

Oil Deals Await Final Petroleum Law
Houston Chronicle, March 31, 2006

Secret U.S. Plans for Iraq's Oil
BBC Newsnight, March 21, 2005

Bush Secret Effort Helped Iraq Build Its War Machine
Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1992

Iraqgate: Confession and Coverup
Consortiumnews.com, May/June 1995

The Barreling Bushes
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 11, 2004

The Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush
Kevin Phillips interview, Buzzflash.com, Jan. 4, 2004

US Was a Key Supplier to Saddam
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 24, 2002

US Dual-Use Exports to Iraq
US Senate Committee on Banking,, May 25, 1994

US WMD-Related Exports to Iraq
US Senate Banking Committee, Oct. 27, 1992

Liberated Kuwait: Rape, Reprisal and Repression
San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sept. 9, 1992

Why the Gulf War was not in the National Interest
The Atlantic Monthly, July 1991,

The Hidden History of America's War on Iraq
Synthesis/Regeneration, Winter 2003