Extending
American Empire is the Goal Behind the War on Iraq
by Shraga Elam
Dissident Voice
January 2, 2003
"U.S. Had Key Role
in Iraq Buildup" says the Washington Post of 12/30/02. But the Post
"forgot" to mention that this US-aided buildup continued after the
end of the Iran-Iraq war (the first Gulf War) and that not all the details of
this affair - known as Iraqgate (1) - have yet been exposed.
We can recognise
a pattern of US foreign policy -- building up an enemy in order to be able to
fight against him afterwards for economic and political reasons that do not
necessarily have anything to do with the "enemy."
Case in point:
Corporate America helped to finance the rise of Hitler and continued during
WWII to provide economic support for Nazi Germany. For example, according to
former New York Times reporter Charles Higham, in 1944, with the active support
of the State Department, 48,000 tons a month of American oil were exported to
Germany via Spain (2).
According to
Henry Ford, the purpose of this policy was to provide the means for Nazi
Germany and Great Britain to destroy each other, leaving the field to the US
(3).
This aim was
excellently fulfilled. At the end of WWII not only was Germany ruined but the
British empire also went down, with obvious advantages for corporate interests
in the US. Wall Street's investments in Hitler were highly profitable.
Case in point:
The 2nd Gulf War in 1991 led to one of the largest capital transfers since WW
II and the winner was again Corporate America. Business Week called it
Operation Desert Market.
It is obvious
that the new round in "US against Saddam Hussein" is not motivated by
his alleged or real possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction. There are
economic and geopolitical interests at stake that have yet to be clearly
identified.
The main story
cannot be oil alone, because Saddam Hussein would gladly cooperate with the US
oil industry if he got the chance. He was even ready to receive Palestinian
refugees from Lebanon in order to promote a Pax Americana in the Middle East.
A possible
central motivation can be found in the paper, "REBUILDING AMERICA'S
DEFENSES" of The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) of September
2000 (4). Its authors, who wield great influence with President Bush, believe
that the US's first task is to raise the military budget, which sank
"alarmingly" during the Clinton administration, and to station more US
troops all over the world.
In
their own words:
"Preserving the desirable strategic
situation in which the United States now finds itself requires a globally
preeminent military capability both today and in the future. But years of cuts in
defense spending have eroded the American military's combat readiness, and put
in jeopardy the Pentagon's plans for maintaining military superiority in the
years ahead.
[...]
“This report proceeds from the belief
that America should seek to preserve and extend its position of global
leadership by maintaining the preeminence of U.S. military forces.”
[...]
"The true cost of not meeting our
defense requirements will be a lessened capacity for American global leadership
and, ultimately, the loss of a global security order that is uniquely friendly
to American principles and prosperity."
By "adding
[at least] $15 billion to $20 billion to total defense spending annually"
not only can US military industries get higher federal subventions, but their
civil business profits as well. For example, a company like Boeing can get a
very important advantage over its European competitor, Airbus, as a side-effect
of military R&D, something which is otherwise forbidden under the rules of
globalization (5).
September 11
gave the Bush Administration the necessary pretext to launch an
"anti-terror-campaign" which facilitates perfectly the implementation
of the goals sketched in PNAC's paper (6).
Shraga Elam, an Israeli Journalist based in Zurich/Switzerland. He can
be reached at: elams@dplanet.ch
Notes
(1) See. e.g. http://www.cjr.org/year/93/2/iraqgate.asp and http://www.fair.org/extra/9505/iraqgate.html
(2) Charles Higham, Trading with the
Enemy - The Nazi - American Money Plot 1933-1949, (Delacorte Press, New York, 1983), p.
61.
(3) Charles Higham p. 157
(4) REBUILDING AMERICA'S DEFENSES. Strategy, Forces and Resources
For a New Century, A Report of The Project for the New American Century, September 2000.
(5) "An array of U.S. programs exploits the security
exception to help U.S. manufacturers compete internationally." John
Feffer, Globalization and Militarization, Foreign Policy in Focus, February
2002.
(6) Michelle Ciarrocca, Post-9/11 Economic Windfalls for Arms Manufacturers, Foreign Policy in Focus September 2002.