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Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oil, oil, oil

By David Chibo - posted Friday, 3 April 2009


After the invasion a Financial Times article dated June 5, 2003 quietly confirmed the return of the previous economic status quo, "The tender, for which bids are due by June 10, switches the transaction back to dollars - the international currency of oil sales - despite the greenback's recent fall in value."

The main reason for the US's invasion of Iraq is therefore not exclusively about oil. More specifically it's about controlling the US black-gold reserves and keeping oil denominated in US dollars in order to protect US dollar hegemony. The difference is subtle but of essential importance in understanding how the US maintains its superpower status and controls the world's economy.

Nations that had not supported the Iraq war were economically punished by the US. During trade negotiations with New Zealand at the 108th Congress, on October 12, 2004, administration officials highlighted several political and security impediments to a potential FTA, including New Zealand's refusal (PDF 114KB) to support the US in the Iraq war.

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Chile, one of the members of the UN Security Council that had voted against the Iraq war, was also punished. Chile and Singapore had both been on the verge of signing a FTA with the US. The deal that had initially been bundled with a similar (FTA) pact for Singapore was "unbundled".

In contrast the Australia-United States FTA was signed on May 18, 2004. One of the few dissenting members of Congress who opposed the US-Australia FTA was Marcy Kaptur, from Ohio, who revealed the main reason for the FTA, "You might ask the question, would we have this agreement before us if Australia did not have troops in Iraq?"

This was later reinforced by Robert Van Gorder, vice-president of the Washington Management Group during his trip to Australia in October 2005. He explained that Australia's support for the US in the war in Iraq would help Australian corporate interests. "It is very helpful, especially under this administration," he said. "Companies from France are still having trouble."

The main Australian corporate interests that benefited from Australia's foreign policy can be found in the Australia United States FTA Business Group (AUSTA). Key members include News Ltd, Westfield Holdings, the Business Council of Australia, the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, BHP Steel, Visy (Pratt Industries) and Southcorp.

One of the key members of the group is none other than Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd which distributes the best-selling newspaper in most Australian capital cities. Murdoch's support for the Iraq war is obvious from his media empire's 175 newspapers. A summary of these newspapers' editorials reveals all actively supported the Iraq war.

Six years later we can now confidently state that the primary reason why Australia helped in the invasion of Iraq was to assist the US in maintaining its economic hegemony through the control of Middle Eastern black-gold reserves and the continued selling of Middle Eastern oil in US dollars.

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In return for its military and moral support Australia secured the coveted FTA for its corporate interests - which included a significant portion of the compliant media.

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First published in ABC Unleashed on March 27, 2009.



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About the Author

David Chibo is an Australian-born Iraqi from the Assyrian-Christian community. He spent six months prior to the Iraq invasion working in northern Iraq with local aid groups delivering humanitarian relief as well as providing technical training to the local population. He is also a Melbourne-based freelance journalist for the online Assyrian magazine Zinda and a frequent writer on Orientalism. He is currently working on a thesis - due to be published in an archaeological athletics journal called Nikephorus - titled Gilgamesh Games (See www.gilgameshgames.org) that seeks to trace back the origins of the ancient Greek Olympic Games back to their precursors in ancient Iraq.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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