Bush Reveals True Reason for War in Push for Iraqi Agreement

For five years the Bush administration has played wack-a-mole with the American people as to why we are in Iraq, with a new justification quickly spawning after the hollow core of the prior position was exposed. WMD's was followed by fighting Al Qaeda and ultimately bringing democracy to the Middle East. Last week the proverbial mole may have met his maker and exposed the true reason over a million Americans have been put in harm's way.

In May 2004, President Bush explained that our mission in Iraq was "to see the Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first time in generations." A week into his second term, Bush said he would "absolutely" honor any request for withdrawal of U.S. troops by a sovereign Iraqi government, only to then ignore multiple request over the next three years and polls showing near unanimous support among Iraqi's for a timeline for withdrawal.

All this was laid bare this month as the Iraqi government went on the offensive in its call for U.S. withdrawal by 2010. Far from embracing the desires of a sovereign Iraq, the White House instead feebly attempted to claim Prime Minister Maliki's statement was mistranslated, while the McCain camp argued that Iraqi's really want the U.S. to stay until 2020. Apparently their view of a "free Iraq" is an Iraq that is free to do what we tell them to do.

The Iraqi demand for a deadline for withdrawal of U.S. troops comes in the context of ongoing negotiations with the U.S. over a Status of Forces (SoF) Agreement in which the White House is seeking to define its legacy through (i) an indefinite occupation; (ii) more than 50 permanent bases (including five mega-bases); (iii) the unlimited ability to pursue the "war on terror" in Iraq (including ability to arrest Iraqis without consulting government); (iv) control of Iraqi airspace below 29,000 feet; (v) supervision of Iraq's defense, interior and national security ministries for ten years; and (vi) immunity for U.S. forces and contractors. In addition, the U.S. wants the right to unilaterally determine whether an act by another country (i.e., Iran) constitutes a "threat" to Iraq and respond as it deems fit in order to "protect" Iraq.

The Iraqi's have rejected this invitation to be an American colony as "arrogant" and an affront to their sovereignty, but the White House is playing hardball and recently cost the Iraqi's $5 billion by blocking the transfer of certain Iraqi currency reserves out of the declining dollar.

From the start of the occupation, the Bush administration has shown little regard for Iraqi sovereignty and international legal prohibitions against making significant changes to the legal and political institutions of an occupied country. Instead, the administration pursued what, former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz characterized as "an even more radical form of shock therapy than pursued in the former Soviet world," as it completely reshaped Iraq's legal and economic regime to turn it into a Club Med for corporate interests.

The shock therapy was administered by Paul Bremer, who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority, through 100 separate Orders which suspended all tariffs and import fees (Order 12); immunized foreign contractors (Order 17); calls for the sale of 200 state owned enterprises through 40-year ownership licenses (Order 39); allowed foreign corporations to fully own Iraqi businesses and remove profits tax free (Order 39); cut corporate income taxes by two-thirds through a 15 percent flat tax (Order 49) and even restricts Iraqi farmers from using certain seeds without paying a license fee to seed suppliers such as Monsanto (Order 81).

The Bush administration also has ignored Congressional restrictions on the use of government funds "to exercise United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq," as the State Department recently assisted the Big 5 oil companies in winning rights to develop some of Iraq's largest oilfields. Soon they will join Halliburton and others who have made billions off the war while protected by our troops.

The current spat over the SoF Agreement once again raises the question of why we fought this war to begin with. After five years of war at a cost of approximately $539 billion, 90,000 Iraqi lives, over 35,000 American soldiers wounded or killed, we now know what we suspected all along -- that Operation Iraqi Freedom was never about liberating the people of Iraq but instead about liberating its assets for foreign exploitation. Naomi Klein was right four years ago when she described the Bush mission as "pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia."

That is why with or without the SoF Agreement, Bush's legacy is secure. The hollow echo of Operation Iraqi Freedom reminds us that while other presidents may have failed the American people in one way or another, no president has failed, deceived or betrayed the American people like George W. Bush.

Follow Bennet Kelley on Twitter: www.twitter.com/surfdc

Comments

[MicahD]

Man, do I love factual information. This should be on every major network news channel. These are facts that few of us have been exposed to. So, sad this was done in the name of America. Of course we all know this is not America at all, this is about greed and greed knows no borders.

[LanosIceland]

It's not just the american people who've suffered Mr. Kelly, it's the entire world.
Bush has been the first ever american dictator, a tyrant ruler of the greatest empire,
but above all, his brutality will remain unforgotten, and unpunished.

[likeicare]

Bet this never makes the news cycles!

[bennet]

There are a number of stories that the MSM ignored but which the blogosphere kept alive until the MSM was forced to cover it. We all should make this one of them.

[peterg76]

People in every other country in the world have known the war was about oil ever since US troops guarded the Oil Ministry building (which doesn't have oil but does have documents) and wilfully neglected their Geneva Convention obligations with respect to hospitals and museums. Outside the US, no-one has had the slightest doubt since that day.

By the way, the US is financially responsible for reparations for all the damage that has occurred during the occupation....

[kavan]

To quote Dubya's main partner in crime, "So?"

I don't think we'll ever see any of these people ever held accountable for their high crimes, let alone misdemeanors.

[MargaretO]

I think you are right and it saddens me they are getting away with it.

[Sundialsvc4]

Maybe our very own Huffington Post needs to be forced to drag the ongoing Articles of Impeachment back on to their front page and keep it there along with this story.

They buried it just as surely as any --other-- MSM-outlet has ever done.

[castlerider]

Thanks for this post Bennet.
It's amazing that the majority of Americans cannot connect the dots to see the crimes inflicted you so easily describe.

This administration has succeeded immeasurably at keeping people stupid while making them sacrifice theirs sons and daughters, and reached in their pockets and take all the money they want. Truly they should be brought to justice and made to stand trial for their war crimes.

[jfor]

Maybe we can erect a monument commemorating George W. Bush's failures. I suggest a depression carved into the mall shaped like iraq's borders with a bronze likeness of Bush holding a shovel perpetually digging with Cheney sitting on his shoulders sticking his fingers in his ears and Condi on his back with her hands over his eyes. All around this incompetant trio of liars are the names of our soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their lies and lust for oil.

[BillZBubb]

"...no president has failed, deceived or betrayed the American people like George W. Bush."

Amen to that. Except I would change the "or" to an "and".