Misdirected by Israel, oil lobbies

Home News Tribune Online 11/20/07

HASSAN
MAHMOUD
Be Counted

In his book "The Age of Turbulence," Alan Geenspan writes: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what every one knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

According to a CBS/Associated Press report on Sept. 9, Texas' Hunt Oil Co. and the Kurdistan Regional Government said they have signed a production-sharing contract for petroleum exploration in Kurdistan. The move angered the central government in Baghdad. Ray L. Hunt, who is also on the board of Halliburton, has been a key fundraiser for George W. Bush, who named him to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

A report on Sept. 12, 2003, by the Inter Press Service titled "Oil War: Questions Surround Cheney Energy Group," points to the Energy Task Force, created in 2001, where Cheney and his cronies were eyeing Iraqi oil. The White House is still refusing to disclose that task force's internal documents. The oil was one of the motivating pillars for the disastrous Iraq war.

The greater pillar was the formidable pro-Israel lobby the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the neo-cons who are bent on destroying any emerging power in the Middle East that might challenge Israel's expansionist policies.

To illustrate the power of this lobby, a new book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, professors at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively, quotes the New Yorker's Jeffrey Goldberg that Steven Rosen, the former AIPAC official, put a napkin in front of him saying, "In 24 hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin."

The journalist Michael Massing reports that a congressional staffer sympathetic to Israel told him, "We can count on well over half the House — 250-300 members — to do reflexively whatever AIPAC wants." Mearsheimer and Walt add: "The lobby has gone to considerable lengths to shape public discourse about Israel by putting pressure on the media and academia and by establishing a tangible presence in influential foreign-policy think tanks. Efforts to shape public perceptions often include charging critics of Israel with anti-Semitism."

As if to prove Steve Rosen's point, the U.S. Senate voted on Sept. 26 76-22 in favor of a resolution introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., urging the State Department to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is a state army unit, a terrorist organization. Sen. James Webb, D-Va., said he feared the measure could be interpreted as authorizing a military strike in Iran. Also, the House passed by a 397-16 vote a proposal by Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran — in particular its lucrative energy sector. The bill would bar the president from waiving U.S. sanctions. Of course this is a boon for the Chinese, Russians and some European countries.

These knee-jerk resolutions were prompted by the debacle of the Columbia University visit by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is loathed by Israel because of some controversial rhetoric and his support for the Palestinians. Actually, the Israelis and the Bush administration's animosity toward Iran have nothing to do with Ahmadinejad personally. In 2002, before Ahmadinejad was elected as Iran's president, Bush called Iran along with Iraq and North Korea the axis of evil. Of course we didn't attack North Korea, which reportedly produced eight nuclear bombs, but we invaded Iraq and are contemplating doing the same to Iran for the mere fact that Israel considers them its enemies.

Just a reminder, the price of oil before the war was around $30 a barrel and now it's at $95. If we go to war with Iran, prices between $200 and $400 might not be far-fetched. American people and the world would suffer, and Israel would rejoice.

Sadly, we hear pro-Israeli politicians fomenting the war with Iran. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared: "Iran may be the single gravest threat that America has faced since the end of the Cold War." Isn't that the same thing that was said about Saddam Hussein — that he was the gravest threat since Adolf Hitler? Let's hope people don't have short memories.

The Iraq war is still wasting our soldiers' lives and our treasures and distorting our economic and social priorities. The Pentagon seeks $190 billion for the Iraq war for 2008. At the same time, the president vetoes a $34 billion bill for children's health care.

Some might say that there are other powerful lobbies like the AARP or the NRA, so why single out AIPAC? That is true, except that these lobbies deal with domestic policies, unlike AIPAC, which steers our foreign policies toward wars, where our peoples' lives and treasures are sacrificed and ensuing terrorist reactions damage our interests all over the world.

We should not build our foreign policies on these two pillars of non-wisdom — the oil lobby and the Israel lobby.