Mission Not Yet Accomplished

Having said that, Recommendation 62 calls for the US to provide “technical assistance” to the Iraqi government to prepare a draft oil law that would, among other things, facilitate investment, and Recommendation 63 urges the US to “encourage investment in Iraq’s oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies,” and to “assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise.” These recommendations effectively call for Washington to shape Iraq’s oil industry through foreign investment by the multinational energy industry. Rather than an attack on the policies of the current administration, the isg report reveals the extent to which Democrats and Republicans share the same vision of US control over Iraq, a bipartisan consensus that flies in the face of what Iraqis themselves seem to want.

A poll conducted last summer for a consortium including the non-profit Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies found that nearly two-thirds of Iraqis — 66 percent of Shiites, 62 percent of Sunni Arabs, and 52 percent of Kurds — opposed plans to open their country’s oil sector to foreign investment. This Iraqi opposition is well understood in Washington circles. A senior adviser on the staff of the isg, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that while Democrats and Republicans on the panel agreed about the need for a major role for foreign investment, they knew that this approach was not popular inside Iraq, either among politicians or the larger public. “The point of view [over there] is ‘God gave us this oil. It’s for the benefit of the people of Iraq. We don’t want the foreigner to come in and take it away,’” he said. “The Iraqis are highly, highly nationalistic. They haven’t reconciled themselves to the importance of foreign investment to bring their industry up to date. The Iraqi political system doesn’t get that yet.”

What is striking here is the acknowledgement that Iraqis oppose US plans for their oil but that such opposition does not matter, that Iraqi resistance is simply an obstacle to be overcome.

Kucinich finds this way of thinking deeply problematic. “There’s a mentality in this country that says because we have the power, we can just steal someone else’s oil.” And yet when he argued that the US has no business telling Iraq what to do with its oil, he ran into stiff resistance within his own party. Kucinich raised the issue within the Democratic caucus on numerous occasions last spring, as his party was drafting legislation that would cut off funding for the Iraq war effort unless certain benchmarks of progress were met. One such benchmark — originally proposed by the White House — was passage of the proposed oil law. When Kucinich objected, insisting that the oil law amounted to an attempt to gain control of Iraqi oil, “I was shouted down several times, literally, by leading Democrats. There was broad denial that such a thing could be happening. I was attacked by some of the leaders for even raising the issue.”

Ignoring Kucinich’s objections, in late April the Democratic-controlled Congress passed a military spending bill with the oil law as a benchmark. Kucinich says he’s not sure whether his fellow Democrats are simply unaware of what the oil law is all about, or whether there’s “complicity of some of our leaders in the administration’s plans to privatize the oil.” Are some Democrats too close to Big Oil? Kucinich hesitates before responding, then suggests that their complicity is part of a bigger problem, that of Democrats (like Republicans) “buying into the destructive logic of resource wars. I think it’s much more serious than just being close to the oil industry. There’s a sense that America’s interests are served by maintaining control over oil in the region.”

At the root of Kucinich’s critique, then, is an idea that has been all but banned from political discourse in Washington — that oil has been a motivating factor in the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The possibility of an oil motive is almost never raised by the Democrats, nor voiced in the mainstream North American media, observes Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, an oil industry watchdog group that operates out of a tiny house in north Washington, far from the slick lobbying scene downtown. Notes Kretzmann, “We are under a rigid doctrine in the West, a religious fanaticism, that says we must believe that the United States would have invaded Iraq even if its main product was lettuce and pickles.” Kretzmann marvels at how the Bush administration has managed to make those pointing to an oil motive look so extreme, even delusional, that few in the mainstream have been willing to risk it.

The banning of discussion of an oil motive is significant because it means that, at worst, the Iraq war is cast as a misguided venture by a president naive about the possibility of bringing democracy to the Middle East, rather than as an imperial venture aimed at stealing the resources of another country. This may also help explain the virtual ostracism of Dennis Kucinich. He’s not just a fierce critic of the war. He goes further. By suggesting that oil is a factor, he steps over the line into a sort of no man’s land, marginalizing himself in Washington — even among fellow Democrats, who are anxious to keep their distance, lest they, too, be dismissed as conspiracy theorists.

The effectiveness of this taboo can be detected in a conversation with Robert Tomkin, a well-regarded staff writer for the Congressional Quarterly. When I ask Tomkin about the Iraqi oil law, he seems perplexed. He notes that the debate in Congress centres on how to get out of Iraq, not “the intricacies of the oil law.” When I suggest that the oil law raises broader questions about possible US motives in Iraq, he becomes impatient and even a bit irritated. “Well, you’re going to get very few people who believe the war has much to do with oil. The Dennis Kuciniches of the world may say that. There may be people in Paris thinking that. But most people acknowledge that the Bush administration went into Iraq for reasons besides oil.” Then, perhaps feeling the need to provide some further guidance lest a Canadian fall under the influence of a wild man like Dennis Kucinich — or, worse still, those effetes in Paris — Tomkin explains that Bush’s decision to invade Iraq had “much more to do with a psychodrama involving his father. It had virtually nothing to do with oil.”

If oil is far from the minds of those on Capitol Hill, across town there is less resistance to contemplating the impact of Iraq’s new law. Indeed, in the offices of the International Tax and Investment Center (itic) on Connecticut Avenue, just around the corner from the White House, there is a great deal of interest in — and enthusiasm for — the proposed new law for Iraq. This isn’t surprising, since the itic has worked hard to bring it about.

The itic describes itself as a “non-profit research and education foundation.” But it would be more meaningfully described as a lobby group for corporate interests, particularly oil interests. Its president, Dan Witt, would vigorously contest such a description. “We don’t represent anyone,” the personable, energetic Witt insists. And it’s true that the itic doesn’t represent any specific individual or company. Rather, one could say that it represents the interests of a group of companies, particularly big oil companies. Among its sponsors (and among those holding seats on its board) are representatives from Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Halliburton. itic is also well connected politically. Also on its board, as honorary co-chairmen, are George P. Shultz, a secretary of the treasury under Richard Nixon and secretary of state under Ronald Reagan, and Paul A. Volcker, the influential former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board. Witt, who worked in the Reagan White House, is clearly proud of his political connections and pedigree. Prominently placed above his desk is a photograph of himself as a young man with President Reagan, inscribed “To Dan Witt, with best wishes, Ronald Reagan.” Among others featured in photographs with Witt is the elder George Bush.