War in Iraq Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

War in Iraq - Essay Example Rather, it was pursued in economic reasons. Scott (2003) cites the internally stated goal of securing the flow of oil in the Middle East. Scott refers to a report from the James A. Baker Institute of Public Policy at Rice University (April, 1997) which stated the problem of "energy security" for the US and noted that US was increasingly exposed to oil shortages in the face of the inability of oil supplies to carry on with world demand. Particularly, particular the report addressed "The Threat of Iraq and Iran" to the free flow of oil out of the Middle East. It concluded that Saddam Hussein was still a threat to Middle Eastern security and still had the military capability to exercise force beyond Iraq's borders. Scott continues that as soon as the Bush administration took office in 2001, it followed the lead of a second report from the same institute, which was co-sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the report representing a consensus of thinking among energy experts of both political parties, and was s igned by Democrats as well as Republicans. Entitled Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century, the report concluded: The United States remains a prisoner of its energy dilemma. ... Therefore the US should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq including military, energy, economic and political/ diplomatic assessments. Following this note is the looming phenomenon known as Global "Peak Oil", which is projected to occur around 2010, with Iraq and Saudi Arabia being the final two nations to reach peak oil production. US geophysicist M. King Hubbert, who in 1956 correctly predicted U.S. oil production would peak in 1971, first illustrated this crucial concept of Peak Oil in bell-shaped curves wherein each oil field in the world follows a more or less bell-shaped curve, and the composite view of the world's thousands of oil fields is one gigantic, ragged edged looking bell-shaped curve. According to Clark (2003), once Peak Oil is reached, the supply of oil/energy will begin an irreversible decline, along with a corresponding permanent increase in price despite the presence of increasing demand from industrialized and developing nations alike. Another reason pointed out on the cause of the war was to preserve the dominance of the dollar over the world oil economy. Clark (Revisited: The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War with Iraq, 2003) on the other hand believes that the US media and government failed to report that the war itself is in large part an oil currency war. In Clark's words, "a war intended to prevent oil from being priced in euros". He cites that a core reason for the ongoing war is this US administration's goal of preventing further Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) momentum towards the euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to forestall OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Iraq along with its 2nd