by Stephanie Gharakhanian
Co-coordinator, PAM
One particular sentence of Alan Greenspan’s recently-published 531-page memoir, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, has received far more attention than all the rest. “I am saddened,” wrote our former Federal Reserve chairman, “that it is
politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” Greenspan’s statement is of little surprise to members of
the peace movement who see the current occupation of Iraq as the most recent in a near-century-long series of measures that Western powers have taken to secure
their continued access to the resource reserves of the Persian Gulf.
As illustrated in the history of US intervention in the region, America’s addiction to oil is a deadly one. Since 1990, America’s economic and military policies in Iraq alone have resulted in the death of two million Iraqi civilians. Let us not forget the US-led UN sanctions, considered “infanticide masquerading as policy” by former US Representative David Bonior, that preceded our 2003 invasion. Nor should we forget the environmental implications of the present US occupation of Iraq.
Peace scholar Michael T. Klare offers a glimpse of the bigger picture in “Iraq and Global Warming” (Foreign Policy in Focus, December 7, 2007). “In essence, the war is intended to ensure America’s continued access to Middle Eastern oil, and access to Middle Eastern oil is essential to sustain America’s reliance on oil to fuel its economy, and this reliance, in turn, accounts for America’s largest share of greenhouse-gas emissions.”
In other words, America’s occupation in Iraq at best guarantees our country’s continued denial and perpetuation of global heating-–a phenomenon that is expected to provoke an increase in future global conflicts as water supplies dwindle, weather patterns become more erratic and seasonal harvests suffer.
Dare I mention that the oil required to fuel all the combat planes, helicopters and armored vehicles that are used in Iraq to enforce the occupation amounts to around three million gallons of oil a day, a daily carbon footprint that equals that of the entire population of Bangladesh?!
Such an outlook certainly puts the deadliness of America’s oil addiction into perspective. In light of this analysis, Peace Action Maine and Winthrop Area People for Peace are hosting a forum for high school and college-aged peace and environmental activists on Saturday, April 12, 2008 from 12-4 pm at the University of Maine /Augusta. This student activist forum hopes to engage the link between peace and environmental issues and provide an opportunity for student peace and environmental activists to gather, network and explore possibilities for greater collaboration. Student activists who would like to attend this forum should contact stephanie [at] peaceactionme [dot] org Be sure to provide the full name of all interested participants and, if applicable, the school/organization that you are representing. For a summary of the forum and for information about any actions that might follow the forum, be sure to visit www.peaceactionme.org.
