Dying in Iraq for the Oil Barons, the Industrialists and the Bankers

Apr 14, 2003

According to Bush, the goal of the Iraq war was to destroy the weapons of mass destruction that the country possesses. After three weeks of war, the leaders of the intervention haven’t been able to show proof of such weapons. But there has been massive destruction coming from U.S. and British missiles, tanks and cluster bombs.

The results of this destruction are everywhere: gutted civilian buildings; bare hospitals packed with wounded or mutilated women, children and old people; morgues filled with the bodies of civilians. Look at the number of victims among the U.S. and British troops fallen to "friendly fire."

According to Bush, this was also going to bring liberty and democracy to the Iraqi people. But instead of democracy, Bush has just put one of his generals in charge of administering Iraq for the coming months. "Democracy" for Bush is government of the people ... by U.S. generals.

U.S. and British soldiers who fall in this conflict–for they are also dying–don’t die for their country or for "liberty." They die to permit the large corporations which dominate the world to make more profits. The war had hardly begun when Bush began to give out contracts for the "reconstruction of Iraq," and its oil–giving preference to his friends and to U.S. corporations, leaving only crumbs to his British ally.

Behind Bush’s speeches about the "defense of liberty" there was only the thirst for oil.

The war that U.S. and British leaders have carved out in Iraq is a war of thieves. It’s not the first time that the big western powers have thrown themselves into similar acts of robbery. In a century and a half, the world has known hundreds of expeditions for colonial conquest and almost as many wars by which the great powers endeavored to maintain control over people who aspire to their independence.

For the giant corporations and their representatives, war is only another means of carrying out business.