There are connections between Iraq and Enron that should not be overlooked:
The pounding of war drums drowns out the sound of handcuffs as they lock around
American business leaders' wrists. And the heady rush of patriotism helps mask
the hangover of a bubble economy gone bust.
We're not saying that President Bush's call to attack Iraq is strictly a sleight
of hand to distract the American public from the domestic problems plaguing his
presidency. Many complex historical and political layers have brought us to where
we are today. But at a minimum, the looming war with Iraq presents the opportunity
for Bush to duck the corporate scandals and reframe the national debate.
At today's political crossroads, we should be discussing key issues: greater
corporate accountability; how to build a more just global economic order; and,
for national security, how to kick the oil habit while fostering environmentally
sound renewable energy.
Instead, we seem to be at the edge of a downward spiral of war, terrorism and
the evisceration of our democratic rights. Why are we taking such risks? One thing
is patently obvious, a little three-letter word: oil.
Invading Iraq and taking over its oil fields is the logical yet insane extension
of the Bush administration's foreign policy. For instance, Bush's attempted unilateralism
with regard to attacking Iraq (he has only begrudgingly included the U.N. Security
Council) is thoroughly consistent with the unilateralism he exhibited when he
pulled out of the Kyoto treaty on global warming.
By bailing on Kyoto, Bush, at the behest of the oil industry, dropped out of
a treaty designed to save us from the mass destruction of climate change by moving
the world away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. And if he invades Iraq,
Bush further entrenches the deadly connection between U.S. interests and oil interests.
Sitting at the apex of world power, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney form an
axis of oil with the industry. President Bush comes from a family with long and
deep connections to petroleum companies. Prior to becoming vice president, Cheney
headed Halliburton Co., which describes itself as "one of the world's largest
providers of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries."
Time and again, be it in Alaska or Indonesia, Bush and Cheney have demonstrated
their proclivity to prioritize oil interests over human rights and the environment.
Indeed, Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force, after consulting with many
CEOs in the energy industry, defined national security as access to oil.
A U.S. victory in Iraq could, according to the Washington Post, "open a bonanza
for American oil companies long banished" from that country. This would provide
more direct U.S. access to the largest oil reserves in the world next to Saudi
Arabia's; that, in turn, could break the back of OPEC, while providing a coveted
prize for Bush and Cheney's American and British oil company friends.
But such "success" in Iraq -- in addition to the huge toll in immediate human
casualties -- will also seriously undermine national and global security.
One of the ways it will do so will be to lock the world further into energy
consumption patterns that broad scientific consensus has determined will deepen
global warming and all its impacts. These include a rise in sea levels, which
will displace hundreds of millions of people; more extreme storms, droughts, famines
and floods; and spreading disease.
In essence, the Bush administration's definition of national security serves
U.S. corporate interests, allowing some to profit and others to hide. But beyond
this, it is not at all clear who else, if anyone, might benefit.
The United States and the rest of the world would be much better off if we
cracked down on corporate criminals, while taking the billions of dollars we're
set to spend on war and investing them in kicking the oil habit and transforming
our energy systems into environmentally sound alternatives.
Maria Elena Martinez is executive director of and Joshua Karliner is senior
adviser to CorpWatch, a
San Francisco-based organization that works on corporate accountability issues.
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle
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