By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
January 1, 2003
One of my readers had a question for me, as we are apparently building up for a war with Iraq: "How does one respond to the leftists argument that the coming war with Iraq is simply ‘all about oil’?
"The arguments being President Bush is an oilman, one, and two, since all his advisors came from ‘his daddy’ and they are oilmen too, and many from Texas, this whole war thing is just to ensure America maintains a cheap supply of middle east oil."
Well, of course this all got started because of oil. Does anyone actually believe Saddam Hussein would have invaded and seized Kuwait in 1990 had Kuwait’s only saleable product been olive oil? Of course not. What Saddam Hussein was after, naturally was the Kuwaiti crude oil in all those wells
The CIA Factbook tells us that Kuwait has proved crude oil reserves of 94 billion barrels - 10% of world reserves. Petroleum accounts for nearly half of Kuwait’s GDP, 90% of export revenues, and 75% of government income. Since Kuwait's climate, soil and lack of potable water, however, it has to import almost all its food, except for fish.
Kuwait is smaller than New Jersey, with a population of about 2.1 million, 1.1 million of whom are not Kuwaiti.
Iraq, on the other hand, is about 3 times the size of New York State, with 24 million people, a larger population than New York. It has an agricultural base that produces wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, dates, cotton, cattle, and sheep. It also has a port on the Persian Gulf and 112 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, along with roughly 215 billion barrels of probable. By seizing Kuwait Iraq could control approximately a quarter of the World’s known oil reserves and, obviously, if not challenged could end up controlling much of the World and its people.
If the liberals who seem to believe we started this battle to control the oil in the Middle East were right, we could seize the oil probably overnight. However, all America wants to do is to BUY the oil, not steal it, as Saddam Hussein keeps trying to do.
However, oil was not the only factor motivating Saddam Hussein. Oddly enough, he attacked Iran, a nation three times the size of Iraq, in 1980 partly in response to Iranian terrorism. In April 1980 the Iranian-supported Ad Dawah attempted to assassinate Tariq Aziz, now Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, whom Americans know as a the person network TV uses to defend Saddam Hussein.
Saddam attacked Iran, seizing the Shatt al Arab waterway between the two nations and a 30-mile wide strip of Iranian territory. Eight years of war between Iraq and Iran followed. The war ground came to a close in 1988 after the use of "chemical weapons, using nerve and blister agents against Iranian command and control facilities, artillery positions, and logistics points.'
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimated casualties of the 8 year war between these two Muslim nations at "more than one and a half million war and war-related casualties." The Iraqi casualties would be the equivalent to losing 5.6 million for a population the size of the United States.
And, that was before Saddam Hussein, two years after the end of the Iran-Iraq debacle, invaded Kuwait. Imagine, for a moment, the United States attacking ANYONE after losing 5.6 million people in a war.
By January 1991, the Iraqis had over 500,000 troops in Kuwait, "dug-in and deployed in mutually supporting defenses in depth. Mine fields and oil-filled ‘fire trenches’ were correlated with interlocking fields of fire from various weapons systems. Numerous triangular fortifications interspersed two wide defensive belts Iraqi logistics were well suited for support of the conflict. That the Coalition was able to defeat such a large and well-prepared force in 100 hours of ground warfare is remarkable. It was made possible by an aerial Hyperwar."
However, troops on the ground were key to actually ousting Saddam’s remaining troops - the ones that had not been killed in the aerial bombing. Almost forgotten were the Marines who were deployed to Saudi Arabia on August 8th, 1990 and spent 6 months in the desert patrolling the border to catch Iraqi soldiers moving across the border from Kuwait and dodging Saddam’s SCUD missiles. I remember it well, since my son, Dr. Guy Grooms, was the battalion surgeon with the 1st battalion. It was his men who, after the aerial bombardment, got through the mine fields and the oil-filled "fire trenches", captured the location where Chemical weapons had been stored, fought a tank battle with the Iraqis, coped with sulfur raining down from the oil wells torched by the Iraqis and physically marched in to free Kuwait City.
Apparently, from his actions, Saddam preferred to destroy the oil to keep the Western nations from buying it. On August 15, 1991 the UN Security Council voted to allow Iraq to sell up to $1,600 million worth of oil over a period of six months to be used in part for the purchase of humanitarian supplies. Only, apparently the money was not used for humanitarian supplies. Since 1991 Saddam has had building program for massive palaces that are reminiscent of the golden years of Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar II, Saddam’s hero, built similar places in walled cities. Herodotus, who visited Babylon, wrote that the walls of the city, built astride the Euphrates river, were fourteen miles in length on each side, enclosing one hundred and ninety-six square miles. That would make it three times the size of Washington, D.C. Each brick used in Babylon’s 3 and 4 story buildings were stamped with the monogram of Nebuchadnezzar. The bricks used to build Saddam Hussein’s palaces also are stamped with his monogram, as we in the West are propagandized about Iraqi children dying because there is no money to feed them in Iraq.
Is it all about oil? No. Part of it is about Saddam Hussein’s belief that he is Nebuchadnezzar III destined to rebuild the once formidable Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar II of the Old Testament, defeated the Egyptians, and the Syrians, seized and destroyed Jerusalem, killed, drove out or captured Jews and took them to Babylon. In fact, in 1990 on CNN Saddam urged the Saudi, Jordanian and even the Egyptian people to rise up and follow him. They didn’t.
Saddam, and those in the West who apologize for him, ought to read what happened to Nebuchadnezzar II in the end. The prophesy of Daniel in the Old Testament was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar was driven from his throne, ate grass like an ox, and his once pampered body grew hair "like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws."
For Jack’s liberal buddies to transfer to George W. Bush Saddam’s obsession with oil and Nebuchadnezzar, who went from building palaces to eating grass frankly strikes me as a bit stupid.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com
Links:
- CIA Factbook – Kuwait
casualties
Federal of American Scientists - Chemical Weapons used in Iran-Iraq War
- Federation of American Scientists - (FAS) - Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
- Federal of American Scienteists (FAS) Hyperwar - The Legacy of Desert Storm
- Old Testament Book of Daniel - Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream