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Title: Iraqi Study Group Author: Anarcho Date: December 12, 2006 Language: en Topics: Iraq War, US foreign interventions Source: Retrieved on 28th October 2021 from http://www.anarkismo.net/article/4439
That the invasion of Iraq was not called “Operation Iraqi Liberty” will
do down in history as a missed opportunity for two administrations which
seem intend on ensuring the redundancy of satire. For those with any
sort of grasp on reality, the large reserves of oil under that country
was always a key issue for the Bush Junta (that, and the dilapidated
nature of Saddam’s war machine and lack of WMD). The desire for a US
client state in the heart of the Middle Eastern oil fields has long been
a goal of US/UK imperialism.
The recent Iraqi Study Group report makes this extremely clear. As it
says, “Iraq is vital to regional and even global stability, and is
critical to U.S. interests. It runs along the sectarian fault lines of
Shia and Sunni Islam, and of Kurdish and Arab populations. It has the
world’s second-largest known oil reserves. It is now a base of
operations for international terrorism, including al Qaeda.” That the
Bush Junta made the last sentence become true by its invasion is also a
truism.
On the details of what to do next, the report’s specific recommendation
section is also illuminating. Recommendation 62 states that the “U.S.
military should work with the Iraqi military and with private security
forces to protect oil infrastructure and contractors. Protective
measures could include a program to improve pipeline security by paying
local tribes solely on the basis of throughput (rather than fixed
amounts).” In addition, “in conjunction with the International Monetary
Fund, the U.S. government should press Iraq to continue reducing
subsidies in the energy sector, instead of providing grant assistance.
Until Iraqis pay market prices for oil products, drastic fuel shortages
will remain.”
Wonderful — after turning Iraq into a slaughter house, the least the
occupiers could do is let the population have some cheap oil, but no.
Subsidies harm profits and they have to go. Which is the key to
recommendation 63: “The United States should encourage investment in
Iraq’s oil sector by the international community and by international
energy companies ... [and] should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the
national oil industry as a commercial enterprise, in order to enhance
efficiency, transparency, and accountability.” In other words, open up
Iraq’s oil to western corporations. Let them make the profits, not the
population who has paid the ultimate price. Hence the need, also stated
in recommendation 63, for the US to “provide technical assistance to the
Iraqi government to prepare a draft oil law.”
Which is, of course, a long-term stated aim of the invasion. The US
State Department’s Oil and Energy Working Group, meeting between
December 2002 and April 2003, also said that Iraq “should be opened to
international oil companies as quickly as possible after the war.” The
right-wing Heritage Foundation think-tank also released a report in
March 2003 calling for the full privatisation of Iraq’s oil sector.
Unsurprisingly, a representative of the foundation was s a member of the
Iraq Study Group while another assisted in its work.
Given this advocacy for securing foreign companies’ long-term access to
Iraqi oil fields, it is unsurprising that the report did not advocate
immediate withdrawal. No, the report aims to continue the occupation
while, at the same time, presenting the image of trying to end it. It is
extremely doubtful that any genuinely popular Iraqi regime will support
the commercialisation and opening up of Iraqi oil to foreign firms and
so the need for occupation for several more years while, at the same
time, as appearing to seek a withdrawal.
Which raises the question, how long will we tolerate spilling blood for
oil?