For Saddam, a Statue at the Pentagon

Aren’t you just thrilled every time you pull up to a gas pump and remember that “we” won the Gulf War? Recall the euphoria--it was bigger than any Super Bowl. Kicked Saddam’s butt is what we did, and as a result the world would become a more hospitable place. Yeah, and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia would become democracies and forever pay us back with cheap oil for our support.

Congress liked the Gulf War so much that it’s paying to be able to fight two such regional wars at the same time. That’s why defense spending increased in this year’s budget while the Republicans gutted programs for education, housing and the arts.

So who is this “we” that won? T-shirt hawkers made out like bandits for a while, with all of those funny caricatures of Saddam Hussein. So did the manufacturers of yellow ribbons and food vendors at welcome-home parades. But those didn’t prove to be growth industries.

The U.S. oil companies did much better. Once again, the people with the oil in the ground were reminded that big oil has a bigger government behind it, which can be useful to a king’s or emir’s staying power. Let’s not have any more of that OPEC revolt talk. We shouldn’t be surprised that “our” oil companies are responsible for most of the recent gasoline price increase or that their profits have soared. The first quarter of 1996 was fabulous for them. Chevron profits, for example, increased 34%. Think about that the next time you squeeze the nozzle at the pump.

The Gulf War, good for the oil companies, was great for the U.S. defense contractors, who were in serious trouble what with the end of the Cold War. Saddam Hussein came along in the nick of time. They should put up a statue paying tribute to him at the Pentagon. The Gulf War made for great television and provided defense lobbyists with a timely rationale for new generations of “smart” weapons to use on the “electronic battlefield.” Overnight, the moribund weapons industry was as exciting as any video arcade game. Members of Congress were positively drooling at the prospect of yet another $2-billion plane that could drop a bomb down Saddam’s chimney. Who would dare make the argument for continuing to rely on “dumb” weapons?

An additional bonus was that those same defense contractors received an even bigger cut of a rapidly expanding Saudi arms market. That’s how the 6,000 members of the Saudi royal family repaid us for preserving their kingdom. But in order to pay for the hardware, it was essential that they squeeze even more profits out of oil sales. That’s one reason why crude oil is now selling at $24 a barrel.

Another is that we maintained the tight embargo on Iraqi oil sales. The reasoning was that under an embargo, the Iraqi people would suffer and in turn rise up against Saddam’s dictatorship. But the whole point of a dictatorship is to be able to keep power whether your people are suffering or not. Don’t take my word for it--ask Hafez Assad in Syria or the latest reigning ayatollah in Iran. Even the dictators of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, who bribe their citizens with a high level of affluence, know that they can’t let their guard down. Just look at the intense pressure Saudi Arabia brought to bear on England to silence that lone Saudi dissident in London armed with a fax machine.

Dictators like to survive. For that reason, Saddam Hussein has been making all the right noises and the U.N. (read the U.S.) is on the verge of letting him sell some of his oil. That bodes very well for “we” Americans. Not that it will do anything in the long run to bring down the price of Mideast oil. Oil production in Saudi Arabia and the other countries will simply be recalibrated to keep oil prices up despite the flow of Iraqi oil. And even if the price of crude does decline, it’s doubtful that U.S. oil companies will pass the savings on to customers.

But the good news is that Iraq will now have dollars with which to purchase arms and other goodies from the U.S. Saddam will “reform”--sure, he’ll have to eat some crow, but what surviving dictator hasn’t? In the end, Saddam or someone just like him will be one of the good guys respected once again by “we” Americans in the oil and arms game. The rest of us will be forced to pay the price and pump.