TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Discovering Oil In Motives For War

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 20, 2007

The observation of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan that oil was a big reason for invading Iraq is causing war opponents to say, 'A-ha! It was blood for oil.'

They're missing the point, as are war supporters who wonder why Greenspan has become a traitor to their cause. Both sides need to accept the reality that security and oil are inseparable.

In his new memoir, 'The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World,' Greenspan writes: 'I'm saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: The Iraq war is largely about oil.'

In subsequent interviews he explained that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the flow of Middle East oil through the Straits of Hormuz, and that a disruption would upset the world economy.

President Bush always placed the war's justification on weapons of mass destruction, which were not found. But from Greenspan's perspective, oil itself is a major weapon.

Bush acknowledged as much last November when he said, 'You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources.'

Iraq's oil also was a factor in badly underestimating the war's cost.

In March 2003, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress, 'We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.' Everyone knew he was talking about oil.

The reason the White House wants the focus on something else is that Iraqi oil production has never returned to pre-war levels. The price of crude is at record highs, which is causing hardship in some of the world's poorest countries. And Iraq's poverty and continuing violence drives up the cost of the war for U.S. taxpayers.

Politically inconvenient, indeed.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT