Letters to the Editor
Ijon Tichy
Published Letters: 452 Editor's Choice: 69
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Legally Piggilly
[Read the article: Why we are really in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think the "Sheehan question" can be answered solely by the elections, though I do not doubt that, once war was decided Rove manipulated it to gain control of Congress. Why else schedule the war resolution before the midterm elections rather than early 2003, before Powell's trip to the UN?
I think the American economy and its need for oil drove this warwagon. The rest of the reasons just hopped on board. It was a perfect storm of good intentions whipped into the fury of a very bad idea. Why Dubya went along for the ride? A clue may be in his Mission Accomplished stunt. Consider all the pictures of Poppy in his pilot uniform that Dubya grew up envying. My guess is he planned the carrier stunt back when the decision for war was first made and dreamed about it every night, instead of wondering what a postwar Iraq would look like.
Consider the usual suspects:
Oil: The truth may lie hidden in the notes at Cheney's secret energy police conference in early 2001. This meeting was so secret even the names of the attendees were suppressed. Could it be that if there were to a New American Century, America would need access and control over vast reserves of oil, while at the same time, the ability to deny such access to countries like China.
Consider the historical context. England colonized the world to ensure access to resources and markets while controlling the same resources and markets, through the East India Company, to prevent competition from the Netherlands, France and eventually Germany. Germany invaded Russia to seize the arable land and oil reserves necessary to sustain its growth and dominance in Europe and the world. Japan seized Manchuria and invaded the Malay peninsula to gain access to iron ore and the South Asian oil fields.
Without access and control over oil reserves large enough to crowd out competition, the US would eventually find itself a second rate country at the mercy of the rest of the world. In 2002 many countries with oil were too unstable (Saudi Arabia, Nigeria) or hated us enough to sell their oil to the likes of China and the new European Union. The supplies we did have full control over were dwindling and would be insufficient by as early as 2020.
Normally military invasion is the worst way to obtain resources, but I think Cheney and Rumsfeld were too blinded by the thought that the US was the only world superpower and its military too invincible that seizing Iraq would be quick, cheap and cost effective. Without the USSR there may have appeared no downside to their thinking.
The pro-Israeli lobby supported the war because the Palestinian issue was no longer tenable. They could not absorb them at risk of losing their Jewish identity and could not maintain forever the aparthied like occupation. Iraq was the last convential army that threatened Israel. Syria, Jordan and Egypt were all neutralized by open or tacit peace agreements. Get rid of Saddam and Sharon could kick the religious fundamentist wing of Likud to the curb and institute unilateral withdraw from most of the West Bank. Which is exactly what he did.
The Neocons dreams of remaking the Middle East, as foolish and fuzzy headed as they were, fit nicely with the propaganda war for invading Iraq. No serious analysis of how the Middle East would be transformed was ever made or was ever necessary, as this position was strictly window dressing.
Big business, led by Halliburton couldn't stop salivating long enough to consider any long term downside to the US economy. But long term thinking lately has not been a hallmark of American industry; except as to how to keep critical resources in their hands and out of their competitors.
Finally, Iraq gave Rove a war president and a useful tool for 2002 and 2004 and beyond. But nothing in his background, his position in the administration or his past thinking would lead most observers to believe he cooked up the Iraq war. All evidence so far suggests, very strongly, that this idea came from Cheney and Rumsfeld. Rove just agreed to let Bush wear his pilot's uniform again, and land on a carrier, just like Poppy.
BTW: The title comes from a chapter of Bucky Fuller's Critical Path. A valuable read. I'm surprised Hugo Chavez doesn't have a copy next to Noam Chomsky and Dude Where's My Country?