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America’s crude tactics for Iraq war
Level 1 |
Elementary
2
T
he American government says
that a possible war with Iraq is
not about oil. It is true that Iraq
has 11% of the world’s oil, but the USA
says that an attack on Iraq is to make
the world a safer place and not to
provide more oil for thirsty car-drivers in
the USA.
So, let’s be clear. This. Is. Not. About. Oil.
Do you understand? Of course you
don’t! Only a very simple person
believes that the Americans would make
so much noise about Iraq if the Iraqis
did not have something the Americans
wanted, in other words oil. There are a
lot of other small countries - Zimbabwe,
for example - where the governments
quietly kill and torture their people.
There are a lot of small countries which
have nuclear weapons - North Korea,
for example. But Iraq is the only small
country which kills its own people, has
nuclear weapons and also has a lot of
oil.
The USA is the world’s biggest economy.
It uses a lot more oil than it produces so
it has to import oil from other countries.
Now the world is using oil more quickly
than it can find oil. Bush and his team
know all this. They have worked for the
oil industry, they been given money by
the oil industry, and have listened
carefully to what the oil industry wants.
Bush now has three choices. First, he
could listen to those oil companies who
think they can find more oil in different
parts of the world. This is why Bush has
given permission for oil companies to
look for oil in Alaska.
The second choice is for the US to take
a bigger share of the world’s oil. The
Americans want to take control of Iraq’s
oilfields. If they win the war against
Saddam Hussein, they will invite the big
oil companies to modernise Iraq’s oil
industry. This might be a good thing.
Production might be more efficient and
prices might be lower. This could be
good for the world economy.
On the other hand, if the Americans
occupy Iraq, this might cause problems
all over the Middle East. It is possible
that America could occupy Iraq and take
control of 11% of the world’s oil
supplies and at the same time a new
anti-American government in Saudi
Arabia, for example, would control 25%
of the world’s oil.
The third choice for the US is to reduce
the use of oil. Most governments,
including the American government,
understand that it is important to
reduce greenhouse gases (those
produced by burning oil). It would be
very expensive to introduce a big
change in energy policy and to reduce
the amount of oil the world needs. But
the oil problem will continue for a long
time after the death of Saddam Hussein.
healthier.
