Behind the Invasion of Iraq Summary and Reviews

Behind the Invasion of Iraq
by The Research Unit for Political Economy The Research Unit for Political Economy

Behind the Invasion of Iraq
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Book Summary Information

Author: The Research Unit for Political Economy The Research Unit for Political Economy
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-01
ISBN: 1583670939
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Monthly Review Press

Book Reviews of Behind the Invasion of Iraq

Book Review: Behind the Invasion of Iraq
Summary: 3 Stars

Interesting book that derived from a series of articles in the "Aspects of India's Economy" magazine edited by the The Research Unit for Political Economy in Mumbai.

Interesting in the fact that the book is written from an Asian point of view, although importantly not Muslim.

"Behind the Invasion of Iraq exposes the idea that war will bring democracy to the Middle East as so much propaganda. In a context where so many rulers are themselves clients of the United States, the war is aimed not at the rulers but at the masses of ordinary people whose hostility to imperialism has not been broken even by corrupt and autocratic rulers. This book describes the remaking of global power with a truly global awareness of what is at stake.

What's really at stake is US control of global markets. The report reveals that the US economy is now facing a nightmare scenario: A crisis of overproduction has crippled US GDP, resulting in monstrous trade and budget deficits, even as a potentially disastrous deflationary spiral appears to be under way worldwide.

Meanwhile, superpower rivals Europe, Russia and China are mounting a vigorous challenge to US economic preeminence, which is further threatened by the euro's emergence as a credible alternative to the dollar as global reserve currency. (All this is exhaustively detailed in the RUPE report, which draws its most telling evidence from the mainstream financial press.)

In this context, the US sees confiscation of the world's richest oil-producing regions as a magic bullet. While securing its own access to petroleum supplies for the foreseeable future, it can simultaneously defend dollar hegemony and restructure Middle East markets for the exclusive benefit of US-based corporations.

Which brings us to the crux: Direct American control of oil would render any potential challengers for world or regional supremacy perpetually dependent on US forbearance. In RUPE's words, "once it has seized the oil wells of west Asia the US will determine not only which firms would bag the deals, not only the currency in which oil trade would be denominated, not only the price of oil on the international market, but even the destination of the oil."

RUPE's argument here is powerful but complex, and this summary is necessarily an extreme oversimplification. But the overall thrust is quite clear: The US invasion of Iraq needs to be understood not as an end in itself but as the means to an end -- the foundation of a New American Empire."

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