International resistance that this is a grab for oil and an attempt to break the back of OPEC - it would make our motives look more predatory than exemplary."
Iraq's oil reserves are vast - about !! percent of the world's proven oil reserves, or 112 billion barrels. The whole world knows about the importance of Iraq's oil reserves - the question is who will control its flow.
In all, Iraq may have contracts with foreign oil companies amounting to $l.I trillion, according to the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 200l. Iraq's oil is certainly a worthy enough prize on its own - especially if you happen to own a major oil corporation. But Washington's war planners are looking at the big picture. They're aiming at an even bigger prize.
War against Iraq:
"would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination, even if it means becoming the American imperialists that our enemies always claimed we were," wrote Jay Bookman, deputy editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in late September.
The point is to show that the U.S. can and will pursue its military and economic interests anywhere in the world without regard to any other nation. DOES IT still make sense to oppose the war if the U.S. gets the backing of the UN or a significant number of European countries? W ar against Iraq - whether under
the auspices of the UN or the U.S. and its allies - will take a tremendous human toll. The first Gulf War killed as many as 200,000 Iraqis in a matter of weeks. And since then, UN sanctions have taken the lives of at least | million more - according to the UN's own figures - and turned the lives of ordinary raqis ...... into a living hell. Uranium (DU) Research Project, "the Iraqi people need be in no doubt at all that the formidable array of munitions now being ranged against them by the U.S. and allies will contain substantial amounts of radioactive material, which like all other weapons of mass destruction, will continue to kill for generations after the attack is over." WHY SHOULD war in Iraq concern people in the U.S.?
airst of all, the effects of DU aren't - limited to iraqis; they afect lue
number of European and U.S. Gulf War veterans.
"More than 50 percent of [veterans] tested were expelling depleted uranium in their urine more than nine years after the end of the Gulf War," according to Baker. "An autopsy of a Canadian veteran who died showed depleted uranium in the lung and bone.
"These same people are suffering from a range of health problems which include chronic fatigue, rare bowel and kidney disorders, respiratory problems, neurological problems, depression and mood swings, skin disorders, loss of hair and teeth, painful joints, and cancer."
War on Iraq not only endangers the health and welfare of soldiers, but of ordinary Americans as well. Even White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey - former director of Enron's board - admits that war against Iraq could cost $100 to $200 billion. But this assumes that war against Iraq proceeds exactly as U.S. military planners hope -quickly. If the war drags on, the price could go up astronomically.
A war lasting two months followed by a five-year occupation - more or less what the Bush administration is hoping for -would cost as much as $278 billion. Every extra month of war would cost an additional $9 billion, and every month of occupation would cost $4 billion. If the war results in a wider Middle East conflagration, then all the Iraqis who survive - and chronic health problems for the invading US troops. bets are off.
But, it should be remembered that all of these figures are in addition to annual U.S. military spending of more than $400 billion. To put this in perspective, in 1996, the cost to renovate and repair the nation's schools
• In addition to the loss of life, the last Gulf War left a grim environmental legacy for
was estimated at $112 billion. All uninsured children in families with incomes below the poverty line could have health insurance for a mere $2.36 billion. That's slightly more than the cost of one B-2 bomber. The U.S. has more than 20 in its Iraq may have contracts with foreign oil companies amounting to $1./ trillion, according to the Energy Agency arsenal.
The Bush administration proposes a $48 billion increase in overall military spending in 2003. Not even counting expenditure on war against Iraq, one month's military spending would lift nearly every American child from poverty for a year.
In short, it is their war, fought for their reasons, but it is ordinary people who will pay the price.
As the American socialist Eugene Debs put it during the First World War,
"The working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both." • This article is an abridged version of a longer original, to be found on the excellent website of Students Against the War in the USA. www.geocities.com/northsaw