First, it is important to have some factual and historical background and to understand that Iran and Iraq sit on two of the top three proven oil reserves in the world.
In 1958 Abd al-Karim Qasim led a coup against the ruling monarchy in Iraq. Qasim threatened to nationalize western oil interests in Iraq and believed that “Iraqi oil should benefit Iraqis”.
In 1959 Saddam Hussein was part of a CIA sponsored operation that failed to assassinate Qasim. Qasim was eventually killed by Ba’athists the day after a coup in 1963. Saddam became an exile from Iraq before returning, spending time in prison and eventually taking part in coup to change the Ba’ath party leadership. Saddam essentially was in charge of Iraq for some time before he formerly rose to power 1979.
It is important to note that Ruhollah Khomeini (who eventually became known to Americans as the Ayatollah Khomeini) was exiled to Turkey in 1964 but spent most of the next 14 years in Iraq. He was expelled from Iraq as part of a deal with Iran in 1978.
In 1979 there was a revolution in Iran which led to the ouster of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlari, who, replacing Iran’s democratically elected government, had ascended to power in 1953 with the assistance of British and American intelligence services intervention. The United States and Iran enjoyed a friendly relationship during the Shah’s rule despite considerable dissatisfaction with his authoritarian rule amongst Iranians.
Immediately following the rise of Khomeini to power, he began to call for Islamic revolutions across the Muslim world, including in neighboring Iraq. With what is largely thought to be the support of Saudi Arabia and the United States, Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and this started the eight year long Iran-Iraq war. The United States (along with other countries) took sides in this conflict, if not publicly then certainly with other assistance, and supported Iraq against Iran. It is believed that up to a million Iranians died in this conflict. In the course of about one year, Iran had become our enemy and Iraq was now our friend.
Ten years later Iraq would invade Kuwait, territory they claim was taken from them when they were a British colony in the earlier part of the 20th century. Hussein, for reasons that may or may not be legitimate, believed he had a “green light” from the United States to pursue this action and was not expecting the United States to turn against him. Saddam Hussein, after years of being “our boy” was that no longer.
In 2000, Iraq converted from using United States dollars for its oil and “oil for food” transactions (Petrodollars) to Euros. Iran has also been expected to open its own oil trading systems based on Euros and has never denominated their oil transactions on U.S. Dollars. Most Middle Eastern countries use “petrodollars” for their transactions and this has a stabilizing effect on oil prices in the United States. It also creates demand for our currency which helps strengthen it. A point of concern for the United States is that these countries might dump our currency in exchange for something else.
In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq and upon taking control of the country immediately converted back to Petrodollars. No weapons of mass destruction were found, not even the ones we sold to Saddam Hussein or that were produced in the chemical factories that Bechtel helped build there in prior decades. The truth is that Hussein could never allow weapons inspectors to discover he didn’t have weapons because he feared it would make his country and regime vulnerable in the Middle East. He especially feared an invasion from Iran. We now find ourselves rattling sabers with Iran ourselves.
In 2001, the United States was savagely attacked by Muslim extremists (mostly from Saudi Arabia) under the direction of Osama Bin Laden. Osama Bin Laden is a political exile from Saudi Arabia where he had attempted to overthrow the ruling royal family. His stated reason for attacking the United States was, essentially, that our military presence there propped up an otherwise unpopular royal family because they are friendly to U.S. oil interests and that it was an insult to Islam. The implication being that without our meddlesome presence in the Middle East, we would not have been a target.
If we take the history and statements together, there is little option but to conclude that although there is absolutely a religious element to some of the aggression towards the West, ultimately everything has a political or economic motive and they attack us or work against our interests because we are perceived as too powerful of an influence in their countries. They do not attack us because we are prosperous or free, we are targeted because our own government has meddled in their affairs for too long and often with dire consequences.
The CIA uses a term “blowback” to describe the potential future repercussions of activities they undertake in the present. We help overthrow their governments, we switch sides, fund or equip their enemies and strong arm them into using our currency for their transactions. Can there be any question why the United States is hated by many in the Middle East? Does anyone think for a minute that if not for the oil, we wouldn’t be there? There is genocide going on in parts of Africa, but unfortunately for those people they have no oil to spur our great nation to their aid.
Both Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson warned us against entangling alliances and yet, today, we find our country mired in just such things. The best solution is to support a policy of non intervention in the affairs of foreign nations. Our energies and our treasure would be better focused internally.
Beyond the fact that we must borrow money (in the form of bond debt [treasury notes]) from other countries, some of whom are not friendly to our interests (China), to finance these activities, we cannot afford to support our empire across the globe (approximately 700 bases in 130 countries). Our military is currently protecting the borders of numerous other nations, but not our own? Many of those nations could just as easily defend their own borders.
The United States is currently building a nearly eight hundred million dollar military complex and air base in Iraq, can you believe any of the politicians who tell you they want our troops home as soon as possible? For what it’s worth, there are approximately one hundred million families in the United States, which means your family’s share (in tax dollars) of that base was eight dollars. The total cost of the war so far equates to nearly $5,000 per U.S. household and this does not include the cost in life and limb.
Our government spends our tax dollars bribing them, then if that doesn’t work we bomb them. Then our tax dollars go to rebuilding the infrastructure we bombed, building them hospitals, factories and schools while much of our infrastructure and domestic needs here at home go ignored.
As soon as is reasonably possible, and with the council of our Generals on the ground, we should be able to hand over complete control of Iraq to the Iraqi government and remove our forces. Let’s bring the troops home and put them back to work defending America.