The need for oil and the drive for military intervention

Some valuable insights into the economic considerations of US military planners for the Iraq war and occupation can be gleaned from reading a recent article entitled "The Costs of War for Oil" by Adil E. Shamoo and Bonnie Bricker for the think tank Foreign Policy in Focus (and republished here by Common Dreams).

The Op-Ed starts off by posing to the reader a bit of a trick question:
“We have to decide, as a nation, whether our need for Middle Eastern oil is more important to our future than our conduct as a moral and ethical people.” Which brave presidential candidate would lay it on the line so clearly? None yet. And that’s the problem with the national debate on the war in Iraq, and possibly, our foray into Iran as well.

The authors go on to note that none other than Alan Greenspan has acknowledged that “…the Iraq war is largely about oil” in his latest auto-hagiography; as well as pointing out the recent public pronouncement by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel that even though “people say we’re not fighting for oil . . . Of course we are . . . They talk about America’s national interest. What the hell do you think they’re talking about? We’re not there for figs.”

The authors go on to explain the problem as it currently stands in terms so clear that even a Fourth grader can clearly comprehend:

"If we keep using energy the way we always have, we’re going to need a dependable source of it to ensure that our children and grandchildren have access to the same way of life. But we have competitors for oil in the world marketplace–China, especially–and many argue that if we don’t lock up Middle Eastern oil for ourselves now, we won’t have it for our use in the very near future. That will mean paying even more for energy and allowing other nations to rev up their economic engines at our expense. (emphasis added)

But of course, as the authors point out, guaranteeing our nation maintains permanent, uninterrupted access to an unfettered supply of oil is an expensive - and dangerous - proposition.

As books like Daniel Yergin's "The Prize", Michael T. Klare's "Blood and Oil" and Dilip Hiro's "Blood of the Earth" lay out in stark, undeniable detail the critical importance petroleum plays in US (and all other major powers') geopolitical planning and considerations, it remains a fact that most Americans seem willfully ignorant about. Whether you subscribe to the theory of "peak oil" or not, it seems pretty clear that if US (and Chinese) demand for oil continues to outstrip the supply released by Opec dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the construction of permanent military bases, maintenance of a foreign military occupation and all these realities entail will be far from the last military entanglement between the West and the Middle East.

Further Reading:
• "It's the Oil" by Jim Holt, London Review of Books October 18, 2007
• "The US military oil consumption" by Sohbet Karbuz, Energy Bulletin February 26, 2006
• "Oil and Democracy Don't Mix" by Frida Berrigan, In These Times February 6, 2004