Oil and Iraq - How wrong I was

By D. G. Martin
Posted Monday, March 17, 2008

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Chapel Hill, NC - Five years ago, when it became clear that nothing would stop our President from leading our country into a war with Iraq, I struggled to find some reason that would justify that course of action.

When I finally thought I had found that reason, I wrote about it in this column. This week, I found out how wrong I was, thanks to the reporting of New York Times reporter Richard A. Opel, Jr., who grew up in North Carolina while his father was editor of the Charlotte Observer.

Back then I wrote the following:

“It really is the oil, isn't it?

“I asked myself that question this weekend as the President prepared us for the beginning of our war against Iraq.

“It is not about disarmament, nor is it about Iraq's failure to fully comply with United Nations resolutions, nor it is really about Saddam Hussein himself.

“It is something else that explains what has propelled the President to risk the horrible human consequences of war and to sacrifice so much more, including (1) the damage to our hard-won good relations with Germany, France, China, and Russia, (2) a breakdown in the framework of developing world order based upon peaceful decision-making, (3) the mobilization of a corps of angry Islamic youth who will dedicate their lives to harming the United States, and (4) the loss of opportunities to use our resources and energy to build a stronger America.

“It is about oil. But this war is not just to assure a ready supply of it for our SUVs and other gas-guzzlers. Nor is it just about securing advantages for American oil companies.

“The oil that is driving the President, I think, is the oil that would be Iraq's source of funding for its future weapons development and armaments and to support activities directed against the United States.”

Opel’s front-page report in Sunday’s New York Times showed how wrong I was. According to Opel, much of the money coming from Iraqi oil fields, the moneys that I thought the President was worried about back in 2003, are, thanks to our invasion and occupation, being used to sustain the lingering insurgency that confronts the American forces and undermines every effort to establish order and security in Iraq.

The Time’s headline summarized Opel’s report as follows: “Iraq’s Insurgency Runs on Stolen Oil Profits.”

“It’s the money pit of the insurgency,” the Times quoted Capt. Joe Da Silva, who leads American troops stationed at an Iraqi oil refinery.

Opel’s article explains some of the various ways that Iraqi oil production is diverted to the insurgents, including corruption inside the government oil establishment, outright thievery, and black market sales.

The Times report continues, “American and Iraqi officials struggle to say exactly how much the insurgency reaps from its domestic financing activities. In the past, Iraqi officials have estimated that insurgents receive as much as half of all profits attributable to oil smuggling. And before the troop buildup began a year ago, an American report estimated that insurgents generated as much as $200 million a year.”

This money, according to Opel, “feeds an insurgency that is constantly adapting, and information about its exact composition and organization has continued to elude the Americans.”

The sources quoted by the Times believe that it is primarily money, much of which comes from oil, rather than ideology, that motivates most of the activities of the insurgents.

For instance, according to Maj. Kelly Kendrick of the 101st Airborne Division, most fighters are not inspired by Osama bin Laden but by a “simpler pitch”: “Here’s $100; go plant this I.E.D.”

Kendrick told the Times, “Ninety percent of the guys out here who do attacks are just people who want to feed their families.”

So, how wrong was I? Even though I still believe that cutting off the use of oil revenues by America’s enemies must have played a part in the President’s thinking, the results show how wrong this thinking was.

Thanks to that oil, our enemies in Iraq have had the resources and the motivation to continue to confront and kill American soldiers, long after everyone, even those of us who opposed this operation, thought our role in it would be over.

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D.G. Martin is the host of UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, which airs Sundays at 5 p.m. Check his blog and view prior programs at www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch/

This week’s (March 23) guest is Tim Madigan, author of “I’m Proud of You: My Friendship With Fred Rogers.”

Tim Madigan
I’m Proud of You: My Friendship With Fred Rogers
It has been said that a person is lucky if, at the end of his life, he can count his true friends on the fingers of one hand. I’m Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers is the story of two men who formed just such a friendship following author and journalist Tim Madigan’s interview, and subsequent personal visits, with the beloved public television icon, Fred Rogers.

In this episode of North Carolina Bookwatch, Madigan shares his memories of the man behind Mister Roger’s Neighborhood: an ordained minister, loving husband, father, grandfather, and devoted friend.

Upcoming NC Bookwatch programs on UNC-TV at 5pm, Sundays:

Sunday, March 23, at 5 PM
Tim Madigan
I’m Proud of You:
My Friendship With Fred Rogers

Sunday, March 31, at 5 PM
Melton McLaurin
The Marines of Montford Point

Sunday, April 6, at 5 PM
Kathryn Stripling Byer
Coming to Rest

Sunday, April 13, at 5 PM
David Guy
Jake Fades: A Novel of Impermanence

Sunday, April 20, at 5 PM
Georgann Eubanks
Literary Trails
of the North Carolina Mountains

Sunday, April 27, at 5 PM
Zelda Lockhart
Cold Running Creek

Sunday, May 4, at 5 PM
Mike Lassiter
Our Vanishing Americana: A North Carolina Portrait

Sunday, May 11, at 5 PM
Joe and Terry Graedon
Best Choices from the People’s Pharmacy

Sunday, May 18, at 5 PM
Fred Hobson
Off the Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood

Sunday, May 25, at 5 PM
William Powell
Encyclopedia of North Carolina