Why the US Won’t Leave Iraq
by James Buchanan
A recent news story reports “(Iraqi Vice President) Abdel-Mahdi told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that the Iraqi government was seeking in ongoing negotiations with Washington to end unlimited powers and sovereign rights that the US-led multinational troops have, including immunity from prosecution. Whether these troops leave Iraq or stay there, their presence has to be brought under Iraqi control, the Shia vice-president said. ‘A country like Iraq - one of the founders of the UN - cannot be placed under occupation in the 21st Century. The US military commander (in Iraq) can arrest any Iraq citizen while we can not arrest any US soldier even if he commits the worst of crimes,’ Abdel-Mahdi added.”
The neocons have endlessly told us that if we leave Iraq too quickly; chaos will break out there –as if dozens of bombings every day and a growing rebel uprising is something to be proud of. Never mind the fact that the invasion of Iraq was ILLEGAL, and that by International law, the US should withdraw all forces from Iraq immediately and restore the previous government (which we illegally executed).
As usual, the neocons are lying to us again. They lied about the “need” to invade Iraq, and they’re lying about what will happen if we leave. The British tried occupying Iraq in the 1920s. A rebel movement rose up to drive out the British. As soon as the occupying army left, Iraq returned to being a stable sovereign nation.
If the Iraqi government succeeds in getting the US to leave, it will gain credibility in the eyes of the Iraqi people. As long as the US is still there, the Iraqi politicians are seen as puppets, and they obviously don’t like being in that predicament.
The main reason for the continuing occupation of Iraq is so that Bush, Cheney and Halliburton can keep Iraqi oil off the market right now. They are causing an artificial shortage and driving prices sky high. After selling Texas and Alaskan oil at these sky high prices for several years, Halliburton might start pumping out Iraqi oil, but only enough so that the price stays up around $4.40 per gallon (or much higher).
This is why John McCain talks about staying in Iraq for 100 years, and why we’re building all those “permanent” military bases in Iraq and the enormous embassy. The long-range plan is to pump all the oil out of Iraq, and only then would we leave. The Iraqis know they’re being cheated. That we don’t care about their infra-structure. That we’re stealing their oil —all of it. And that’s why they’re fighting against us.
The sooner the US leaves, the sooner the Iraqis can restore order and begin selling their oil at market prices. If that happens, our gas prices are likely to plunge to half or less of current prices, which would prove that a big part of the Iraq War was to stick the American public with artificially high prices. It’s not clear how influenced by the oil companies, Barack Obama is. He’s made some promises about pulling our troops out of Iraq to win the Democrat nomination, but it’s not clear if the Big Oil Lobby will convince him to stay in Iraq indefinitely. The Israeli Lobby no doubt has more influence over Obama since they tell virtually all our politicians what to do. The Israeli Lobby may wind up insisting that the US occupy Iraq for the next four or eight years. Naturally, Halliburton and Big Oil will take that opportunity to keep charging us sky high oil prices and raking in record profits.