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Oil is pretty slippery stuff. The press is playing up $3 a gallon gasoline, record oil company profits, and the $400 million retirement package for Exxon’s former CEO. But these stories are trivial compared to the oil story they have ignored all along. The war in Iraq. It’s an oil war. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Read former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips new book, “American Theocracy" : the Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century.” The corporate media may have failed us but authors like Phillips are providing the needed analysis.
Bush, Cheney, Rice and other key Bush players have impeccable oil industry credentials. When they came to the White House, so did the oil industry. Cheney, Rumsfeld and others also have strong ties to the Project for a New American Century, a neo-conservative organization which unabashedly advocates U.S. world supremacy through pre-emptive war, regime change for governments they don’t like, and permanent military bases in the Persian Gulf to secure U.S. interests – foremost among them oil. U.S. world domination requires not only access to oil but control of it – a tall order since 65% of the world’s oil reserves lie within the boundaries of a handful of Arab countries.
Phillips explains that coveting and safeguarding Persian Gulf oil has long been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. We’ve struck deals, propped up royal families, supported coups, and armed dictators to keep the oil flowing in our direction and to give U.S. oil companies a piece of the action. We’ve also waged at least one prior war for oil, the first Gulf War in 1991. If Bush did not consider oil when deciding to invade Iraq, it would be the first time in fifty years that guaranteeing an uninterrupted flow of Persian Gulf oil was not a central element of U.S. foreign policy.
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