Has the Iraq War Been All About Oil?

For many intelligent and well-informed people I know the answer to this question is an obvious “yes.” However, I beg to differ. Certainly oil has been important. At a very high level the answer is “yes,” to the extent the Iraq war has been the extension/sequel of the (first) Persian Gulf War. That was clearly all about oil, propaganda to the contrary. If Kuwait did not have the Burgan pool, then the world’s second largest, with Saddam’s conquest of Kuwait setting him up for an easy run to Saudi Arabia’s al Ghawar, the world’s largest pool of oil, George H.W. Bush would not have given a hoot about him invading Kuwait.
So, if this war is finishing the business of that one, it’s ultimate cause is all about oil and keeping it from falling under the control of perceived enemies, although of course after the first war, Saddam was in his box and not going to get those fields. I would also accept that Cheney seems to have long been heavily motivated by the oil factor, even if it is just as petty as feathering his own nest at Halliburton or for cronies like the Hunt brothers, with Bush having some of this from his own past as a Texas oil man, as well as his dad’s old interests. And we know that Cheney was in on that report from the late 1990s going on about Iraq as the major possible source of new supply that could be tapped in the 21st century. So, Cheney clearly has been the major voice of the oil interest in all this, despite him also being a front for the broader military-industrial complex, and also having pet peeves about Saddam shooting at the US planes that flew over the no-fly zone, as reported in one of the Woodward books.

However, I see at least three other things going on in terms of actually initiating the war. One was the faction of Likud-oriented neocons, Wolfowitz, Feith, and Abrams being probably the most important in the making of the war. Their interest was securing Israel from Saddam making nukes or funding Palestinian parents of suicide bombers. Those who claim that the US backing Israel is somehow linked to the US wanting to control oil in the Persian Gulf are out of touch with history and the long struggle in the State Department between the pro-Israeli faction and the old oil-oriented “Arabists.” Of course this group of neocons clearly made an alliance of convenience with the Cheney oil faction, but their interests were not fundamentally identical, except in both supporting war in Iraq. Then there is the faction that wanted a nice excuse for big funding for the military-industrial complex. Rumsfeld was a leader of this group. Then we get to arguments more tied to Bush himself, the crucial “Decider” here after all, despite all of Cheney’s influence and machinations. One motive for him was political. Having a war in Iraq after the escape of bin Laden at Tora Bora allowed for distracting from disagreements over domestic policy and provided a way for demonizing the Dems, which worked in the 2002 elections and even again in 2004 (as long as a majority of the US population continued to believe the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11), although this game finally fell apart in 2006. And finally there was all that psychological garbage with his dad, showing he was the real man who could “finish the job” and all that, and wanting to “get” Saddam after he tried to assassinate the old man, although clearly Cheney played to that particular aspect.

EconoSpeak