Bush’s secret agenda for Iraq

2004.04.10 — Government | War | George W Bush | by Derek Jensen

This is part one of a two-part series. Part two is Bush's secret agenda for the world.

George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and others were hot to invade Iraq from the first days of the Bush administration in January 2001. And the attacks of September 11 only heightened their resolve to go after Iraq. But few have asked why.

Democracy

Okay, so democracy is not really a secret, but let's start with the obvious. Creating a democracy in Iraq, in the heart of the Middle East, would create a kind of diplomatic crowbar for the West. It would create a place for Arab dissidents to go to escape oppressive regimes. It would be more open than Saudi Arabia or even Egypt and a more powerful friend to the United States than Kuwait. It could be the beginning of the end for authoritarian Islamic fundamentalism thruout the region.

Revenge

Conservatives don't like to admit that invading Iraq was partly about revenge—not out loud anyway. But Saddam Hussein's continued existence was a thorn in the side of Republicans and of George W Bush in particular. His father's decision not to remove Saddam was always considered a mistake among hard-liners, and the chance to change that would go a long way toward healing wounded pride of those who remembered the senior Bush administration fondly and felt that his loss in 1992 was largely the result of the decision not to take out Saddam.

...Not to mention the very real personal revenge that the president would like to get against the man who "tried to kill my dad."

Oil

Even Democrats don't like to say it. It seems clichéd. But the mindless chants of "no blood for oil" by war protesters oversimplify the equation. One of Bush's top considerations in invading Iraq must have been to gain substantial influence in a major oil producing country—one with the second largest oil reserves in the world and trillion-dollar contracts with non-American companies.

With a friendly government installed in Baghdad, America could expect to see greater production when prices rise (as happens in the US and Britain, but it often isn't enough), breaking OPEC's hold on the world and cutting deeply into the revenues of Middle Eastern oil-producing nations. That would greatly weaken those countries and leave them unable to fund strong militaries against Israel or their own people. That, in turn, would make civil unrest more likely to topple corrupt, authoritarian regimes in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the smaller states.

And the trillion-dollar oil contracts would be a nice bonus for American companies. Before you think that this is crass reasoning, the State Department confirmed it:

[T]he Bush administration has not decided whether such oil development contracts would be accepted by the United States in a post-Saddam government. ... Naturally, U.S. policy generally across the board is to maximize US economic and commercial influence. [emphasis added]

Military Bases

Hand-in-hand with oil comes Bush's intention of using Iraq as a giant military base. With a hundred Abrams tanks and a dozen Blackhawk helicopters parked in the desert, we could respond anywhere in the Middle East in a few hours with extreme prejudice.

This is necessary in part because of the determination of the Saudis to get rid of American troops. The presence of the US military in Saudi Arabia, home of Mecca, has been a sore point with Muslims thruout the Middle East. A permanent presence in Iraq solves that and goes it one better by locating US troops centrally in the region.

The Bush administration's Iraq strategy is just the tip of the spear. Part two of this story explores the reason why Iraq is an important proving ground for a global strategy of world dominance that will create an unrivaled American hegemony.

Part two: Bush's secret agenda for the world.

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