Blood for Oil

In May 2001, the White House issued a National Energy Policy report, known as the Cheney Report: the state of our national oil reserves. In 2000, half the oil we consumed was imported. By 2020, two-thirds will have to be imported. Where will it come from? Then, coincidentally, if not conspiratorially, 9/11 happened. Might there not be a link between Osama bin Laden and Saddam? Iraqi oil reserves are vast, and... Worth a try? Worth a war? We'll see.

Nine eleven. A number of odd things started to happen immediately after. War was declared by the Cheney-Bush junta. War on terror. But terror is an abstract noun, not a country as our Constitution pickily insists for a war. But Congress did say that the junta could pursue and bring to justice Osama and his helpers, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. And so there was, finally, a real war with a real country, Afghanistan, where we have now installed as president a former consultant to Union Oil of California (according to Le Monde but denied by Unocal), while another Unocal consultant is our special envoy. Meanwhile, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act abrogating various civil rights, particularly those noted in the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

Then Osama began to fade off our radar screens. Saddam is fading in. Since Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 and Osama is his enemy, why the replacement? Saddam has disobeyed us over sanctions, disobeyed the United Nations, too, an organization our politicians like to demonize. Now "evidence" is mounting. Saddam is acquiring weaponsofmassdestruction (one word) like Israel, like the United States. He must be stopped now before he has nuclear weapons, which he might then one day be tempted to use against us. Therefore, to prevent what might (or might not) one day happen, he must be stopped with all our military might. Standing tall, we'll do it alone if the UN is too craven to ride with us into the valley of death. Of course, should we, as Bush proposes, attack him first, we shall certainly provoke him to do what we, allegedly, most fear--hit us with chemical and biological weapons. We are now operating on a high metaphysical plane. Religious, even. Good. Evil. Us. Them. Faith. Death.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 68 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
• Reprint this article. Click here for rights and information.