Australia's role in a war about oil

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His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada
Founder-Acarya of the
Hare Krishna Movement

In the build-up to war against Iraq it has become increasingly apparent, despite what US President George Bush says, that there is more to this than a simple case of good against evil. Sydney Morning Herald (12-28-02)

Whatever else it might be, a war against Iraq will also be a war about oil, partly driven by the US determination to secure its future energy requirements. The official American rhetoric after the terrorist attacks of September 11 last year has been about a war on terrorism and the threat from weapons of mass destruction. But before this, there was another discussion in the background, by military strategists and other participants in the conversation which informs the development of US military policy. Often in that background discussion there has been a frank assumption that the defence of the US can extend to the use of US military power to protect and secure vital economic resources such as oil. For example, a joint report by the Council on Foreign Relations and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy - commissioned early in the Bush presidency and released in April last year - wrote approvingly of "military intervention" to secure energy supplies and warned that a painful end to cheap oil was in sight.

As long as the question of war in Iraq remains contingent - as it is, in the formal sense - on the outcome of UN weapons inspections, the US can avoid dealing directly with questions about its ultimate intentions and its fundamental motivation in relation to Iraq. Yet the theme of US military strategists (justifying the use of force to secure oil supplies) has been, if not as loud, at least as consistent as the politicians' rhetoric (justifying pre-emptive action against sponsors of terrorism). This makes the question of the true nature of a war in Iraq, though prospective, one which demands consideration now.

If a war in Iraq is a war about oil, what business has Australia taking part in it? Australia's commitment to support international military action against terrorism is principled and correct. It has the support of the Australian people. The same could not be said about a prospective conflict that, however fervently it is represented as a conflict between good and evil, is essentially a war in pursuit of the economic interests of the US. It is just possible that the American people, in their consideration of this question, might decide that war for America's economic advantage is justified. For the Australian people the question is different. Support here for such a narrowly based war is inconceivable.

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