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As the war in Iraq continues, many are beginning to question the legitimacy of the war. The public is starting to doubt the government and they wonder whether the US is truly at war to fight terrorism and instill democracy, or is it for our economic interests. ... I will discuss the numerous ways the oil companies will benefit if this war is successful and the new Iraqi government is friendly to the US. ... I will address the concern of just how much the consumer be paying for this interest I will argue that the US is mainly at war because of our economic interests, particularly the interest of oil companies. ... S Abraham Lincoln with the banner reading “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” and he announced that the “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended”. ... The war on Iraq was a continuation of the war on Afghanistan. ... The US declared war on Afghanistan and before we knew it, the Bush administration had changed direction and by each calculated step had declared war on Iraq. ... Bush, who had intervened in Iraq a few years earlier.
What justifications did the Bush administration use for going into Iraq and how accurate were these justifications? One justification was the threat Iraq posed to the United States because of its WMD. ... inspectors after the first Gulf War and after that, he may have been trying to fool everyone into thinking that he had them. ... One of the reasons for this was the administration had a case of group think, and took the available intelligence and molded it to fit their beliefs and their predetermined decision to go to war (Elliot 2003).
Another justification used by the administration was that the reason for the war was to liberate Iraq. The claim was that war on Iraq was needed to bring democracy and human rights to Iraq by saving them from the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration must have forgotten that after the first Gulf War when George Bush Sr. made a call for the people of Iraq to rise up and overthrow the government, they weren’t there to help when those same people were being killed by Saddam’s armies (Mahajan, 52-60). The claim of the administration was that we would be welcomed into Iraq as liberators. ... Now that I have discussed some of the reasons the Bush administration has used to justify this war, I shall move on to explain my claim that the real reason for this war was for economic interests, especially, the interests of oil companies.
“While weapons of mass destruction are hard to find in Iraq, there is one thing that is relatively easy to find: oil. ... 5 billion barrels of proven reserves, Iraq has greater stores of oil than any country except Saudi Arabia. ... S governments aggressive policy towards Iraq? ... The hostile government in Iraq presented the US with many problems, and the US would like to have cooperative governments in oil producing countries. ...
From the perception of the US oil companies, a hostile Iraq government presents obvious problems. Iraqi oil can be easily extracted and produced at extremely low costs, and because Iraq has a lot of oil, access to that oil would be a major profit making prospect. The oil in Iraq could cost as little as 97 cents a barrel to produce, compared to the UK’s North Sea oil which is produced at $3 to $4 per barrel. ...
Another issue is that the US oil companies are not only competing for access to the oil in Iraq, with the Iraqi government, but also with the French, Russian, and Chinese firms.
Approximate Word count = 2911
Approximate Pages = 11.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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