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[casi] Living "beneath human dignity" on top of a sea of oil




This is in response to "A NASTY SLIP ON IRAQI OIL"
June 7, 2003 - the Guardian's retraction of its
June 4th article. The story was "wrong" says the
readers' editor because it rested on "misconstrued
remarks" made by the US deputy defence secretary".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,972620,00.html
---

Dear List,

Looking at the full Wolfowitz quote, I see it as a
cynical, if perhaps unconscious, denial of the brutal
sanctions regime. I don't suppose he ever stops to
think about it.

Iraq "floats on a sea of oil", said Wolfowitz. The
Archbishop of Basra, Gabriel Kassab used almost the
same words when he spoke to the Austrian radiooncologist,
Dr. Eva-Maria Hobiger, and her group in September 2002:

     "Here in Basra", said the Archbishop, we float
     on a huge sea of oil so we live in one of the
     wealthiest regions of Iraq, but we are prevented
     from using this wealth.... I appeal to all people
     of good will to raise their voices and demand
     that this inhuman embargo will be removed, that
     we will not be hit with yet another war, and that
     at last we will be allowed again the means to
     sustain live.

     "The embargo has paralysed the life of the
     whole city... We lead lives that are unbearable,
     undignified, and unjust for any human being on
     this earth!"[1]

The defenders of Mr. Wolfowitz accused the Guardian
that they "misconstrued his remarks". The Guardian
cites one incensed reader as writing:

"'You make it sound [as though Mr Wolfowitz] was
saying the US had to go to war for economic reasons
because it needed the Iraqi oil, when what he was
really saying was that...economic sanctions and
incentives didn't work with Iraq because of the oil
revenue."

Well, readers who put such whitewashing words into
Wolfowitz' mouth may not have read the transcript
of his Q&A session at the Asia Security Conference
in Singapore, May 31. Or else they are bending the
truth: Wolfowitz mentioned nothing about "sanctions
and incentives" - nothing.

Still, in fairness it must be said that he did
not make the foolish admission that the "Iraq War
Was About Oil", as the Guardian headline claims.
(The Guardian felt that Wolfowitz, who had "already
undermined Tony Blair's position" had done it again.)[2]

By "already undermined", the Guardian meant the
blithe Wolfowitz admission that WMDs were merely
the "bureaucratic reasons" for this war. This
transpired from an interview with Vanity Fair
(May 29):

"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to
do with the US government bureaucracy, we settled
on the one issue that everyone could agree on which
was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason",
a Pentagon transcript quoted him as saying.[3]

Vanity Fair cut this down to size a bit and in
that version the quote was blown up into articles
in all the papers, including the Guardian - which
felt this too was damaging to Mr. Blair (June 1).

These "bureaucratic reasons" created a stir across
the Channel. This was a slap in the face to European
leaders who had just benignly welcomed the 'lifting'
of the sanctions. And now this Wolfowitz quote
showed them up as hypocrites.

So this is the background to the Wolfowitz'
floating "on a sea of oil".

But he wasn't asked in Singapore what the war on
Iraq was about. He was asked about non-proliferation,
specifically why Korea was treated differently than
Iraq. "To other countries of the world", concluded
one questioner, "this is a very mixed message to be
sending out."

And it was in response to that questioner that
Wolfowitz made this remark. This is the full
quote:

     "Look, the primarily (sic) difference -- to
     put it a little too simply -- between North Korea
     and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic
     options with Iraq because the country floats on
     a sea of oil. In the case of North Korea, the
     country is teetering on the edge of economic
     collapse and that I believe is a major point of
     leverage whereas the military picture with North
     Korea is very different from that with Iraq."[4]

Questions:

--- "we had virtually no economic options"

Had Wolfowitz forgotten the US insisted on the
sanctions precisely as "economic option"? That
this was the "leverage"? Or did he think the
sanctions were a Yankee gift to the Iraqi people?

--- "In the case of North Korea, the country is
teetering on the edge of economic collapse..."

Iraq wasn't merely "teetering on the edge": by
all accounts, it_had_ economically collapsed. So
had the social structure and the lives of the
Iraqi people.

Wolfowitz four days later in Tokyo:

This was in Singapore, May 31. On June 3, 2003,
Wolfowitz gave another press conference in Tokyo.
Of course, the war wasn't about oil, he told them.
What nonsense!

Q&A:

     "Q: I'm Satoru Suzuki with TV-Asahi of Japan.
     Mr. Secretary, eleven weeks have passed since
     the coalition forces moved into Iraq. Yet you've
     found no weapons of mass destruction in that
     country -- no convincing evidence yet. Given
     that, are you still convinced that you'll
     be able to find such weapons eventually and,
     in the absence of such weapons, how can you
     still justify the war, and what would you say
     to those critics in Japan and the rest of the
     world who've been saying that the war was mainly
     about oil?"

     "Wolfowitz: Well, let me start with the last
     part. The notion that the war was ever about
     oil is a complete piece of nonsense. If the
     United States had been interested in Iraq's oil,
     it would have been very simple 12 years ago or
     any time in the last 12 years to simply do a
     deal with Saddam Hussein."[5]

Yes, so simple...

And lest we forget about the devastating effects
of the sanctions regime, I am quoting again
Archbishop Gabriel Kassab of Basra. These were
his words in September 2002:

     "Here in Basra", said the Archbishop, we float
     on a huge sea of oil so we live in one of the
     wealthiest regions of Iraq, but we are prevented
     from using this wealth.... I appeal to all people
     of good will to raise their voices and demand
     that this inhuman embargo will be removed, that
     we will not be hit with yet another war, and that
     at last we will be allowed again the means to
     sustain live.

     "The embargo has paralysed the life of the
     whole city... We lead lives that are unbearable,
     undignified, and unjust for any human being on
     this earth!"[1]

Best regards,
Elga Sutter

Notes:
[1] This is a report from Dr. Hobiger's trip to
Iraq: "Collateral Damage" - September 11 to 22, 2002.

[2] "Wolfowitz: Iraq War Was About Oil" by George Wright,
June 4, 2003 (The Guardian).
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0604-10.htm

[3] "Reasons for War: Wolfowitz interview draws fire",
by Robert H. Reid, Associated Press, May 31, 2003.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/151/nation/Wolfowitz_interview_draws_fireP.s
html

[4] Q&A session following remarks at the IISS Asia
Security Conference in Singapore. Presenter: Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, May 31, 2003.
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030531-depsecdef0246.html

[5] Media availability at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Presenter: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz,
Tuesday, June 3, 2003
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030603-depsecdef02




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