The Diplomacy of Imperialism: Iraq and US
Foreign Policy
Joseph Kay and Alex Lefebvre
April 2, 2004
World
Socialist Website
This short
article focuses on the US relationship with Iraq. In large part, this article
discusses Iraq before the Clinton Administration, but it does conclude by connecting this history to actions taken by the current Bush Administration.
The article starts by supporting the claim that the US ruling elite follows an imperialist foreign policy that simply uses moralistic phrases such as democracy, peace, and human rights.
Prior to the first Iraq war, there was a strong desire to improve US-Iraqi relations because the US viewed Iraq as a stronghold in the Middle East (did not want the Soviet Union to gain power through Iraq) and a great power because of their oil reserves
as the Soviet Union weakened, the US turned against Saddam because of desires to improve trading relationships in the Middle East (more control over oil prices)
the US used Iraq’s attack on Kuwait as an impetus for war; however, Bush Sr. was not comfortable enough to engage in a full scale war to remove the Baathist regime (many Republicans viewed this as a missed opportunity)
Following the first Iraq War, the US engaged in bombings, and sanctions up until the beginning of the current war in Iraq
The article discusses the fact that the current war was framed as a war in search of WMDs. Not only does Iraq not have WMDs at this point in time, but when they did, they had the support of the US government
Additionally, the article discusses framing the war in terms of human rights. This point is denounced by demonstrating that the US supported Saddam during the period when he most flagrantly violated human rights.
The article concludes that the war is in fact for oil: “The oil question is not only a matter of vital economic concern to US energy conglomerates and the corporate elite as a whole; it has vast implications for the overall geopolitical and strategic position of American imperialism.”
Unilateralism has been the trend of the Bush and Clinton administrations despite globalization calling for multilateral foreign policy.