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CounterPunch
February
6, 2003
The US Drive to War
Smoking Guns
and Big Guns
by ROBERT JENSEN
The world's attention Wednesday was trained on
what Secretary of State Colin Powell said at the United Nations,
but far more crucial was what he didn't say.
Most important was the one word at the
core of plans for war but which never crossed Powell's lips:
Oil. That word cannot be spoken by U.S. policymakers, though
people everywhere know that if not for oil, the United States
would not be pursuing a war.
Because the United States won't talk
openly about plans for the future of Iraq's oil, most of the
world is skeptical of U.S. arguments about Iraq's weapons of
mass destruction, terrorist ties and human-rights violations.
People are concerned about the issues but don't trust U.S. motives.
Powell asked a reasonable question: "Why should any of us
give Iraq the benefit of the doubt?" What he fails to appreciate
is that others are asking the same question about the United
States.
Given the sophisticated U.S. intelligence
technology and the fervor with which U.S. policymakers want to
indict Iraq, it was striking how weak was the case Powell offered;
the charts, maps and phone intercepts were more impressive than
the underlying evidence or conclusions. Even if his claims were
all true, nothing he said makes the case for war. Instead, Powell
presented a good argument for continuing inspections -- with
serious cooperation on the part of U.S. officials with orders
to share all relevant intelligence produced by that sophisticated
system.
What was the real aim of Powell's public-relations
show? One likely target was the American public; the administration
realizes it must counter the growing antiwar movement. Another
was leaders of countries such as France and Turkey, where populations
are overwhelmingly against war and politicians need a cover if
they are to capitulate to U.S. demands without appearing to be
lapdogs.
Powell unwittingly reinforced this reality
with a map of the range of Iraqi missiles. With the exception
of Israel (which wants war for its own power interests), the
people within those concentric circles of the potential reach
of missiles reject war. If Iraq's neighbors -- the people who
should be most afraid -- don't feel threatened, why does the
United States feel compelled to go to war?
Powell claimed that Iraq has engaged
in "a policy of evasion and deception," and certainly
a regime like Saddam Hussein's is capable of such tactics. But
the rest of the world also sees "disturbing patterns of
behavior" in U.S. actions.
A case in point: The United States has
undermined instead of supported international efforts at disarmament.
One example was its torpedoing of Jose Bustani, director-general
of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,
in April 2002 when it appeared Bustani's efforts could create
obstacles to the U.S. war plans by initiating chemical weapons
inspections in Iraq. And the United States remains the world's
largest arms dealer, hardly a recommendation for its self-proclaimed
position of world peacekeeper.
Weapons of mass destruction -- in Iraq,
throughout the Middle East and the world -- are a threat to peace
and security. But the issue is pretext for the United States
in a cynical ploy to cover strategic goals concerning oil.
No one suggests the United States seeks
to permanently take direct possession of Iraqi oil. Instead,
policymakers are interested in control over the flow of oil and
oil profits. A client state in Iraq would give the United States
a more permanent and extensive military presence in the region
and could push aside Saudi Arabia as the key player in OPEC.
Iraq's oil reserves, estimated to be the second largest in the
world, are particularly attractive because of quality and low
extraction costs. U.S. control over Iraq through a compliant
regime -- beholden for its very existence to the United States
-- dramatically increases U.S. control over oil, and therefore
over the world economy.
U.S. officials have openly expressed
their contempt for international law and declared their intention
to go to war, with or without U.N. approval. That's why all the
talk of whether Powell would produce a "smoking gun"
was irrelevant. There was no need for a smoking gun because the
nation with the biggest guns in the world had made it clear that
it needs no evidence -- smoking, smoldering, or even completely
cold -- to take the world to war.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor
at the University of Texas at Austin and author of "Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream."
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
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