Only justice can set the US free

Options are rapidly narrowing for US forces in Iraq and its rescue calls for a spectacular demonstration of commitment

by Kevin Potvin <kpotvin@republic-news.org>

Now American leaders on all sides are talking about total US withdrawal from Iraq. Reported civilian deaths due to war hover around 600 per month, and police and Iraqi security forces are killed at the rate of 300 per month. The US has lost 2,100 soldiers in Iraq so far. There has been virtually no rebuilding of the bombed and shattered country. Corruption is rampant, gangs rule the streets, sewage and garbage pile up, disease spreads, and the economy is in ruins leaving much of the country jobless. Nice going, Bush.

The only problem with rapid US evacuation is the same one the US was warned about on its way north through the UN demilitarized zone between Kuwait and Iraq. Getting out will be even more disastrous than getting in. Oil is the prize that is up for grabs, and it’s one hell of a prize. With oil now trading on international markets at just under US $60 per barrel, an Iraq at relative peace enough to turn on the spigots again can now earn around US $15 billion per month for whoever controls the country. One thing is certain: no US friendly bunch will be the ones controlling the country after the US leaves. The free-flowing cash will most certainly end up in the hands of those quite hostile to the US. Hence the reluctance to leave.

In a region where not many players have any excess cash, including the US now, a new entrant in the Middle East game toting a bag of that size is sure to have even a more disproportionate influence on what happens there. And “there” includes two even bigger prizes than Iraqi oil deposits: Saudi Arabian oil deposits, and Israel.

It would not take long at all for sales of Iraqi oil to finance an offensive capable of easily taking Saudi Arabian oil fields, which are all nearby Iraqi borders and not easily defended. It is unimaginable what would happen to the US economy were those enormous fields to fall into enemy hands. And make no free-market mistake: they would be enemy hands not willing to sell on the market to US interests at any price, because now, after what the US did to Iraq, it’s all political.

Israel, for reasons to do more with historic US domestic politics, is equally a line in the sand the US cannot allow anyone to cross. But it won’t take much imagination for the entire Arab world to understand that the US occupation of Baghdad is no different, in fact is part and parcel of, Israeli occupation of Palestine. The successful removal of the US from Baghdad will look harder than Israeli removal from Palestine to some. And that $15 billion a month replenishment of the war chest just keeps on coming no matter how disastrous the early going in a new regional MidEast war is.

The only way I can imagine the US could successfully pull out of Iraq without allowing enemies the means to kill off America by taking Saudi Arabian oil fields and Israel, is if the White House, under whatever party, drops nuclear bombs on the Iraqi oil fields to render them unapproachable for all. I have no doubt that senior administration officials are calculating the diplomatic fall out from such a move now. Given how the country has gotten away with two massive wars of aggression, worldwide exposure of a regime of torture and execution, indiscriminate deployment of chemical weapons on a civilian population, and explicit threats of the use of nuclear weapons, the calculation is probably not coming up all on the negative side. They in the White House, even a White House controlled by the other party after 2008, may very well conclude the option is the best of the remaining, even more miserable, scenarios for America.

And yet, staying in Iraq is not an option anymore. The US war and occupation has obviously failed completely. They lost. By remaining, US forces only inflict more and more harm on the country and themselves by the slow drip drip method, and getting out in the future only becomes harder and harder with time.

That is why the United Nations, with Canada initiating the move, is required to step in. US forces must be allowed to leave under conditions that do not produce a hostile power armed with US $15 billion in oil money looking for revenge, and the US cannot be allowed to achieve a relatively painless exit by using nuclear bombs on the Iraqi oil fields.

A deal that gets everyone’s cooperation is required. For the American side, the bottom line is protection of vulnerable Saudi Arabian oil and the nation of Israel. For the Iraqi side, conditions for peace are not so clear. But discussions on what those conditions could be can only begin with a spectacular enough demonstration of US and worldwide commitment to address problems left behind. And for that matter, UN and worldwide cooperation in helping America achieve the best results possible now also require a spectacular demonstration of commitment by America to right its wrongs.

I can think of no other public display of that commitment than for America to sign the International Criminal Court treaty and then hand over all senior US administration officials for trial and sentencing by that court. Given the blood on its hands, the situation may call for something as photo-op-able as George Bush himself hung from a rope in a public place—perhaps in the same square where the famous toppling of the Saddam stature took place.

I don’t normally condone capital punishment, but in this case, anything less might not get the whole world’s attention enough to pull off the kind of deal this situation requires to avoid the very real possibility of nuclear war and an out-of-control MidEast conflagration. There is certainly not many other images besides that one we can imagine petty much the whole world uniting over in applauding.

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