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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

Anarcho

Iraqi Study Group

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?