For many Americans, perhaps millions, what lay beneath the alleged threat of Iraq was the tempting possibility of U.S. control of oil. “No blood for oil” became a powerful rallying cry that echoed around the world. The events following the so-called liberation of Iraq have revealed that our perception was too narrow. While oil is indeed precious to the “oilogarchy” in the White House and the State Department, that does not begin to tell the story. To paraphrase the legendary boy general of the Civil War and notorious George Armstrong Custer, when he escorted troops and businessmen to the sacred Paha Sapa, or Black Hills: ‘Boys, there’s gold in them there hills.’
There’s plenty of dough to be made in the dusty ruins of Iraq. The politically connected Bechtel Corporation was given the go-ahead by the U.S. Agency for International Development to rebuild Iraqi infrastructure. Bechtel will make some $680 million, at the very least. Dick Cheney’s former company, Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, has been granted the right to take over the oil fields of Iraq, a project certainly worth billions. The Pentagon gave a contract to the telecommunications giant MCI to construct an Iraqi wireless network. The fee? Around 45 million. What we’re witnessing in the shattered ruins of Iran is the spoils of war, spoils that are the seeds of vast wealth.
Of course, administration officials are putting quite a different spin on this development. In a speech made several months ago, before the conservative American Enterprise Institute, neo-conservative thinker Richard Pearl observed, “What I think we have won on the battlefield is the right to try to establish consistent policies that are for the benefit of the people of Iraq.” He hastened to add, “It’s not that we are looking for anything for ourselves.” The U.S. role was described as a stewardship over the conquered territory. The U.S., of course, doesn’t have to look for anything; it already has what it wants. It has Iraq. And despite the recent warming at the G8 summit in Évian, the U.S. intends to leave France and Germany out in the cold when it comes to the goodies that Iraq offers.
War has once again proven that it is good business for some. Of course, forgotten in that calculation is the Iraqi people, and the people of the region who are being forced to quake in fear that they will become the next or the latest demonstration war that the empire wages to keep its subject peoples in line. For hundreds of American families who have lost a loved one in the adventure in Iraq, their hearts must swell with bitterness to know that their familial sacrifice was not for democracy nor to prevent terrorism, but to fill the coffers of the corporations that swelled the satchels of politicians during the late so-called election.
Over a century ago, virtually the entire continent of Africa, with the exception of Ethiopia, was colonized by European nations like England, France, Portugal, and Germany. The Europeans tried to justify their colonial acquisitions with claims of bringing civilization to the benighted natives. What they brought was massive exploitation, the delusion of white supremacy, and oceans of death and destruction. When Africans fought for their freedom, and the colonies were given up, the colonies were left with wrecked economies, very few educated people, and the long legacy of corruption. Many African countries still suffer under the shadow of that unfortunate inheritance. What we’re witnessing in this hour is a new imperialism. Iraq is reduced to rubble, and American corporations make a mint by rebuilding it. All of this, we are assured, is to benefit the people of Iraq. Haven’t we heard this tale before? From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are produced by Noel Hanrahan for Prison Radio.
