AMERICA burns a quarter of all the oil consumed by
humanity. A study sponsored by the US Council on Foreign
Relations says that "the American people continue to demand
plentiful and cheap energy without sacrifice or
inconvenience". Transport in the United States alone burns
66 per cent of America's petroleum.
One estimate is that the world's oil reserves will begin to
decline within five to 10 years at the rate of about two
million barrels a day. In the Middle East, the only country
capable of significantly increasing its production is Iraq,
once described by Vice President Cheney as "the great
prize".
At present, America depends on Iraq's neighbour Saudi
Arabia, not just for oil but for keeping the price of oil
down. However, Saudi Arabia is the home of al-Qaeda, and
Osama bin Laden and 15 of the alleged September 11
hijackers.
THE grievance against the Americans for their imperial
interventions in the Middle East is said to be deepest in
the country that was invented by British imperialism and
has since been maintained by the US as an oil colony.
If America installs a colonial regime in Baghdad, certainly
its dependence on Saudi Arabia will be dramatically eased,
and its grip on the world's greatest oil market will be
tightened. The price, for the people of the region, for
Americans and the rest of us, will be an enduring turmoil
similar to that of Palestine, exemplified by last week's
terror bombing of an Israeli hotel in Kenya.
This is the hidden agenda of the "war on terrorism" - a
term that is no more than a euphemism for the Bush
administration's exploitation of the September 11 attacks
and America's accelerating imperial ambitions. In the past
14 months, on the pretext of "fighting terror", US military
bases have been established at the gateways to the greatest
oil and gas fields on earth, especially in Central Asia,
which is also coveted as a "great prize".
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