Many people believe the US invasion of Iraq was primarily about oil, not weapons of mass destruction (WMD). There is still no evidence of WMD, but it is indisputable that Iraq has oil. Suspicions will only be deepened by the news this week that 30 years ago, in the wake of the Arab oil embargo, Washington was seriously considering invading and occupying the production fields of Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.
The oil embargo had been a response to US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur war. It was hoped Washington would force the Israelis into concessions and withdrawal from its newly conquered territories.
The fact that US planners even considered this, let alone talked with their British allies in some detail about the attack, is breathtaking. Apparently the idea of “gunboat” diplomacy in the Gulf was rejected. The Americans decided that only a fully blown occupation would allow them to get the region’s oil flowing again.
What is even more surprising is that despite America’s much vaunted freedom of information legislation, and Britain’s supposed love of secrecy, these facts have come from British records. Perhaps London was happy to reveal the truth because from the start, the British — whose role in the operation was to seize the oil fields in Abu Dhabi — were extremely skeptical.
What finally killed the plan was the fear that Iraq, whose oil fields were not to be seized, might intervene in Kuwait. What a reversal of history that would have been, if Saddam Hussein had been given the opportunity to liberate Kuwait from US occupation. This harebrained scheme deservedly ended up in the trash can. Nevertheless, it was seriously considered. It is indicative of the lengths to which even then Washington was prepared to go to in its support of Israel.
Washington says its current policy in Iraq is designed to combat terrorism and boost security by removing a maverick leader who attacked two neighboring states and butchered his own people. The Bush White House has taken pains to assure the region that it has no other interest and wishes to leave Iraq to the Iraqis as soon as it can.
While there is still no reason to doubt Washington’s objectives, the revelations about the planned 1973 assault on the sovereignty of Gulf oil states mean that the Americans are going to have to be even more careful to assure Arab countries of their good intentions. No one will overlook that the US administration contains its fair share of hawks — including Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, who is widely believed to be the gray eminence behind his hardly less hawkish boss Donald Rumsfeld. With men like these close to the White House, urging whatever it takes to enforce US foreign policy, there are always going to be concerns.
