Why did the USA attack Iraq? What drives American policy? Why was
the Iraqi oil ministry the first location to be secured following
the American push into Baghdad? Why did the American war Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld declare publicly that anyone caught setting Iraqi
oil fields ablaze would be treated as a war criminal? What is
America doing meddling in countries all over the globe?
In a book that seems to answer the pertinent question posed a
couple of years earlier by Michael Moore in Dude, where's My
Country Linda McQuaig connects the dots between the intentions,
patronage, words and public proclamations of Bush-ites - and its
predecessors - and their actions upon ascending to the throne of
presidency.
McQuaig, by way of introduction, is the kind of journalist whom is
given a token weekly space in an otherwise right wing newspaper in
order to give the said paper a vestige of balance. Here though, she
methodically sorts out the real reason for America's attack on Iraq
( low hanging fruit ) in 300 or so pages and demonstrates the oil
companies' scandalous plotting against the oil-producing countries,
their own nations and ultimately their own constituency. McQuaig,
whose pieces are essential reading for the open-minded and visual
poison for the corporate types, of course does not stop at the
weekly columns. She has several noteworthy books to her name. The
latest is It's The Crude, Dude.
Here she debunks the notion that Iraq (or most other US policies)
had anything to do
with democratization and uses documents and quotations to
demonstrate America's criminal and nefarious plot to gain control
of oil in a repeat of the cycle seen repeatedly in the last 100
years. She correctly describes a defenseless Iraq as prey for
America's greed. There is something clearly obscene and revolting
about the colonial attitude, but unusually the book makes the case
that America's policies have not been good even for its own
population. They have primarily been devised in favour of the
multinational oil companies which have, in turn, channeled huge
dollars into the coffers of their preferred politicians. It is this
system that encourages corporations and lets them get away with it
too. For instance, the book points to climate change and its
dangers that are remarkably ignored by Americans, as if they have
their heads in the (Iraqi) sand. Elsewhere, the book provides
time-lines and maps, including a graphic stemming from a meeting
with oil companies presided over by US Vice President Dick Cheney
in 2001 where Iraqi resources were carved up. This is two years
before Saddam supposedly refused to cooperate with the UN, UNESCO,
WTO, NFL and whatever other sham reasons were given for
blitzkrieging that country. Propelled by voracious American
corporations setting US policy and a media which gladly runs with
whatever propaganda it is fed, McQuaig points to the true drive
behind America's many dealing worldwide as oil and its profitable
trade. Interestingly, McQuaig cites studies and points out that the
world is running out of oil, or as she puts it oil is being used
faster than new discoveries are coming aboard, which can only
translate to the commodity's rapid increase in value which, in
turn, can only mean more greed and transgression.
Using extensive interviews, quotations and historical records and
after travelling to different countries to speak to experts, the
author dedicates several chapters to historical context and
discusses and examines the options of the oil-producing countries
and
America's policies vis-à-vis these. She also discusses the notable
example of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez who has taken control
of his countries resources and mobilized them to his peoples'
benefit. There is another option.
In sum, the book is an important book with much to elucidate even
if it possibly poses one too many rhetorical questions with obvious
answers.
It's The Crude, Dude should urgently come in Braille so the
American public gets a chance to read its crucial contents.