Wars of the United States of America

Posted on September 20, 2007

The release of the autobiography of the former Chairman of Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan and his contention that the Iraq war “is largely about oil” has brought the war into a new focus this week. The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates as expected rejected the argument. However the book The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World is bound to create ripples in the days to come. The debate on war is already becoming poignant after the French Minister Robert Kouchner warned this week that war with Iran is inevitable as Iran persists in the enrichment of uranium that could be used in making bomb. The Iranian Foreign Minister did not mince words when he said that the US forces are themselves encircled and within the striking distance of Iranian missiles. If the continuing war and the likely war to come are about oil then the most tragic mistake would turn out be the way the Arabs allowed themselves to be divided on sectarian lines in Iraq. America has been pitting one sect against the other in a suicidal civil war as a cover up for its hidden end of pumping out oil for a strategic reserve that would last ages and domination of the Middle East. Weapons of Mass Destruction, removing the Iraqi dictator and bringing democracy were used to buy time to achieve a hidden agenda.


Of the greatest ironies of our time has been the United States of America’s stance that democracy prevents war while dictatorship abets it. But the last thirty years pose a serious challenge to this assumption. Who invaded and occupied Grenada, but America. Who invaded and occupied Panama, but America. Who invaded Iraq twice within just over a decade and has occupied it, but America. Who helped the Afghans and Osama bin Laden to fight Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan but has invaded and occupied it in its turn, but America. Yet this so called greatest democratic country preaches what it practically does not do.

America was born in war. The Revolutionary War spread over eight years: April 19, 1775- September 3, 1783. The thirteen colonies of Great Britain rebelled and fought this protracted war against the mother country and declared themselves independent under the stars and stripes and metamorphosed into the United States of America. Since then America has fought the War of 1812, the Mexican War of 1846-48, the Civil War 1861-65, the Spanish-American War 1898, World War I, World War II, the Korean War of 1950-53, the Vietnam War of 1960’s-1975. The Wars in the Caribbean have given America a bad name throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and they include: the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962, Invasion and Occupation of the Dominique Republic in 1965, the Invasion and Occupation of Grenada 1983, the Invasion and Occupation of Panama in 1989. Equally long is the list of wars of America even after the cold war with communism ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union: the Gulf War of 1991, the Invasion and Occupation of Somalia 1992, the Invasion and Occupation of Afghanistan 2001, the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq 2003.

As the war in Iraq continues and protests against the war take place in America it is time to take account of the wars that America has fought till today. The latest protests took place on September 15, 2007 in which protesters also called for impeachment of the American President. However it may look strange for a democracy, wars of recent years were grounded in the personal motivations of the man in the White House. The current war in Iraq had the personal hubris of President George W Bush who had grudges against President Saddam Hussein. He harboured revengeful feelings against the Iraqi leader ever since a failed attempt was made on the life of his father. Senior George Bush had ordered invasion of Iraq when it had occupied Kuwait. This first war on Iraq is known as the Gulf War February 16-28, 1991. After the war Senior Bush went on an inspection of the American troops there when a plot to assassinate him was uncovered. President Bush lost reelection and President Bill Clinton succeeded him. George W Bush was the governor of Texas at that time and felt angry for the defeat of his father. When he won election after the judgment of Supreme Court of the US went in his favour and against Gore, the newly elected younger Bush felt arrogance that Saddam Hussein was still there even after the war while his father lost the election because of the war. The two Bushes also had a chequered family history of having suffered misfortune in oil trade in their home state of Texas which is rich in oil. These are subterranean issues and irritants which contributed to the aggravation of the political and strategic situations on the ground like the occupation of Kuwait, Iraq’s alleged making of Weapons of Mass Destruction, removal of Iraqi leader, democracy, and now, terrorism. Some critics have called war on Iraq as family wars.

America started the Gulf War to protect Saudi Arabia from being over run and occupied by invading Iraqi army which had occupied Kuwait. Saudi Arabia was and is the greatest oil supplier of the US and its major ally in the region, next only to Israel. The US army called it Operation Desert Shield. During the Gulf War first 37 days saw exclusive air bombardment. This was named Operation Desert Storm. On February 23 1991 American and allied forces made ground invasion which lasted four days. They called it Operation Desert Saber. Needless to say that oil is at stake and nothing else, not even WMD or democracy. Oil for which the family business declined and it is again oil which threatens American economy. Similarly the American economy will be threatened as Iran is now accepting payment for oil in other currencies and not the American dollar. Hence, this is the reason for war like move against Iran, another axis of evil after Iraq. The family economy depends on national economy.

But the most ludicrous was Bill Clinton’s impeachment situation. He was accused of having had oral sex with a Polish intern Monica Lewinsky working in his office. Even his pants were being inspected in the American Congressional hearings. A day before impeachment vote against him he ordered bombings of radar sites in Iraq on December 16, 1998. Two hundred Tomahawk missiles were fired into Iraq from the US war ships in the Gulf. The Operation Desert Fox was carried out to move the main heading of the news about impeachment from the front page of the American newspaper.

In these wars the Vietnamese have come out with brilliance of achievement. They were the most determined as they were the most disciplined. The Arabs have not come out of the wars yet but they are not as disciplined in confrontation with the “great Satan”. Foremost is their proverbial disunity born out of the multiple tribal loyalties –a pre Islamic trait. Then their backwardness in science and technology makes them dependent on the West which exploits them for its own interest. They have also put all their money in the western banks which freeze their assets when things go wrong and cripple them. Oil and deposit asset are what the US cannot survive without.

Grenada and Panama like many other countries are too small and weak to look eye to eye with the Americans. Except the hostage siege at the American embassy in Tehran at the start of the Islamic revolution in Iran led by Ayatollah Khomeini. The Iranians have not tested either there own mettle or that of the American’s. But signs are there that the next arena the current Bush administration has earmarked is Iran. Why is Iran an inevitability but not North Korea which is one of the two other axes of evil? The answer is oil and petrodollars: their provenance in the Middle East. As Robert Frisk has observed: “It’s always been my view that the people of this part of the Earth want freedom. But they want another kind of freedom—freedom from us. And this we do not intend to give them. Which is why our Middle East presence is heading into further darkness. Which is why I sit on my balcony and wonder where the next explosion is going to be. For, to be sure, it will happen. Bin Laden doesn’t matter any more, alive or dead. Because like nuclear scientists, he has invented the ‘bomb’. You can arrest all of the world’s nuclear scientists but the bomb has been made. Bin Laden created al-Qaeda amid the matchwood of the Middle East. It exists. His presence is no longer necessary.”
May be another snag will develop like the sand storm that jammed the war machinery when President Jimmy Carter tried but failed and honestly accepted failure, and desisted from launching anymore attack on Iran when he tried to save the American hostages.