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Tag(s): Arab; Conflict; Dollar; Economic; Euro; Iran; Iraq War; Kuwait; Military; Oil; (more...) Saudi Arabia; Security; Wars; Weapons (less...)
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February 24, 2008 at 17:02:02

Was 1991 Gulf War a prelude to the 2003 Iraq debacle?

by Abdus Sattar Ghazali Page 3 of 3 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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To borrow William Clark, author of Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar, the Iranians are about to commit an "offense" far greater than Saddam Hussein's conversion to the euro of Iraq’s oil exports in the fall of 2000. Numerous articles have revealed Pentagon planning for operations against Iran as early as 2005. While the publicly stated reasons will be over Iran's nuclear ambitions, there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the Real Reasons regarding the 2nd stage of petrodollar warfare - Iran's upcoming euro-based oil Bourse.

Just before the March 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Dr. Thomas Barnett, Advisor to the office of the US Secretary of Defense and Professor at the U.S. Naval War College argued: “When the US finally goes to war in the Persian Gulf, it will not constitute a settling of old scores, or just an enforced disarmament of illegal weapons, or a distraction in the war on terror. Our next war in the Gulf will mark a historical tipping point – the moment when Washington takes real ownership of strategic security in the age of globalization.”

Sir Jonathan Porritt, head of the Sustainable Development Commission and advisor to the UK government on ecological issues, was more blunt: ‘I do not think that war would have happened if Iraq did not have the second largest oil reserves in the world.’

And finally, in his book, released in September 2007, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman, belatedly acknowledged: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” What Greenspan was acknowledging casually has always been denied by the Bush administration and the news media faithfully ignored? "BLOOD FOR OIL.”

"Why of course the people don't want war. . . . That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament or a communist dictatorship . . . the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. . . . All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. - Hermann Goering, a leading member of Nazi Party and German Air Force Chief at Nuremberg trials, 1945

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Author and journalist. Author of Islamic Pakistan: Illusions & Reality; Islam in the Post-Cold War Era; Islam & Modernism; Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 American. Currently working as free lance journalist. Executive Editor of American Muslim Perspective: www.amperspective.com