Behind the war on Iraq: research unit for political economy

The full extent of U.S. complicity in Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" programs became clear in December 2002, when Iraq submitted an 11,800-page report on these programs to the UN Security Council, The United States insisted on examining the report before anyone else, even before the weapons inspectors, and promptly insisted on removing 8,000 pages from it before allowing the nonpermanent members of the Security Council to look at it. Iraq apparently leaked the list of American companies whose names appear in the report to a German daily, Die Tageszeitung. Apart from American companies, German firms were heavily implicated. (Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons, like his suppression of internal opposition, has been continuously useful to U.S. interests: condoned and abetted during periods of alliance between the two countries, it is routinely exploited for propaganda purposes during periods of tension and war.)

Given this history, we need to understand the strategic and economic aspects of the United States' seemingly inexplicable turnaround on Iraq since 1990.

THE TORMENT OF IRAQ

The Iran-Iraq war formally ended in 1990 with both participants--potentially prosperous and powerful countries--having suffered terrible losses. The "war of the cities" had targeted major population centers and industrial sites on both sides, particularly oil refineries. Iran, lacking the steady flow of sophisticated weapons and American help enjoyed by Iraq, had managed to fight back Iraq's attacks by mobilizing great "human waves" of young volunteers, even teenage boys. While the tactic worked, the cost in lives was enormous. It was the fear of an internal uprising that led the Iranian leaders to come to terms with Iraq after the fall of the Fao peninsula in 1988.

Iraq's economy, too, badly needed rebuilding. Developmental programs had been neglected for the previous decade. Exploration and development of the country's fabulous oil resources had stagnated. To pay for the war, the country had accumulated an $80 billion foreign debt--more than half of that owed to the Gulf states. Having nothing to show for the terrible price of the war, Iraq's rulers were desperate.

An Opportunity for the United States

For the United States, however, this catastrophe for the two countries was a satisfactory situation, and held promise of much greater gains. The exhausted Iran was no longer a major threat to American interests in the rest of the region. And, as we shall see, Iraq's unstable situation was creating conditions for the United States to achieve a vital objective: permanent installation of its military in West Asia. Direct control over West Asian oil resources-the world's richest and most cheaply accessible--would allow the United States to manipulate oil supplies and prices according to its strategic interests, and thereby consolidate American global supremacy against any future challenger.

The world situation was favorable to such a plan. The Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, and would be unable to prevent American intervention in the region. Nor would European, Japanese, or Chinese reservations be of much consequence. The real hurdle was the opposition of the Arab masses to any such presence of American troops--even more to their permanent installation.