CUMHURIYET- Regular columnist and former Finance Minister Zekeriya Temizel comments on the prospect of a US-led war against Iraq. A summary of his column is as follows:
Why are we being dragged into a dirty, bloody war in Iraq? US officials seem quite sure of their reasons: Saddam Hussein, the number one ally of terrorists, must be toppled before he once again strikes against the world using his weapons of mass destruction. -- For God’s sake, is there anyone who can deny the obvious truth that terrorism is being used as a tool for imperialistic claims? Here’s the simple recipe: First, create the necessary conditions so that terrorism can rise. Then, declare to the world that terrorism poses a great threat to everyone. And finally put this forward as a casus belli against those countries for their support of terrorism.
But what is the real, behind-the-scenes reason? It is ‘lebensraum.’ This is a German word that could be translated as ‘living space,’ a word which forces us to remember the horrors of World War II.
For Hitler, lebensraum meant all of the geographical space needed to supply the German nation with its material demands and security. [Directorate note: Hitler used these alleged needs as pretexts for invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, and other countries.] ‘Indeed, nature, too, wants the most productive soils of the earth to be possessed by those nations which have the courage to conquer and the energy to fully cultivate them,’ [said Hitler]. With this in his mind, Hitler threw the world into the fires of a horrible war.
Then, what does ‘living space’ mean for the US? To see, just take a look at the US Energy Information Administration’s official website at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu. In 1960, the US produced 33.5% of the world’s total oil output, while it consumed 31% of it. But by 2000, these figures changed to 8.5% and 25.9% respectively. And today the US alone consumes one-fourth of the world’s oil production yet produces just one-fifteenth of it. Statistics predict that within seven years, the US will have completely exhausted all of its own domestic oil resources.
On the other hand, Iraq still possesses an estimated 112 billion barrels of oil reserves, and at current production rates, the country could continue supplying oil to the world for a half-century to come. What it all comes down to is this: The US desperately needs the oil extracted in the Middle East to sustain its economic development and ever-growing need for energy. Thus, the US’ real aim is to turn the vast oil-rich territories of the Gulf Region into its own national ‘living space’.”
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION