The military/oil complex – Do we deserve a chance to debate when the nation goes to war?
Dwight D. Eisenhower was America’s iconic military leader during World War II and its president from 1953 until 1961. His fatherly smile and his general demeanor lent confidence to Americans. Whether he was one of America’s best presidents is a question for historians to decide. But his last comments before leaving office were historically profound and very prophetic with respect to U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
Ike, as he was affectionately called, said in his farewell address to the nation on Jan. 17, 1961 that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. … Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Regrettably, perhaps since WWII, no American entanglement on foreign soil, indeed, no American war (except perhaps critical wars like Grenada and Panama … a bit of cynicism), has reflected the sustained support of the American people from beginning to end. Many American citizens have had trouble justifying our involvement on moral, military, political, economic and social welfare grounds. Some of the theories, often embellished in rhetoric, used by our leaders as rationales for various wars since WWII, have been discarded because of their simplicity or their failure to conform to post-war facts on the ground. Remember The Domino Theory justifying the Vietnam War?
We have not been entirely honest with the service personnel we have sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. While not a random sample, I have been fortunate to talk with many of the returning soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (including a Special Forces veteran or two), and most believe that, at its core, the nation’s involvement in both countries rests not on bipartisan justifications concerning exporting democracy and freedom, but on the desire to preserve and protect access to oil for the west. Implicit in their comments is a belief that Eisenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex has now become a reality (except that with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, it is more accurate to call it the military/oil company complex).
The intensity of their perspective, while perhaps forged in part by their being involved up front in the horrors of war and killing, is not theirs alone. “Of course it’s about oil; we cannot really deny that,” said Gen. John Abizaid, former head of U.S. Central Command and Military Operations in Iraq. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan agreed, writing in his memoir, “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” In 1998, Kenneth Derr, then CEO of Chevron, said, “Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas — reserves I’d love Chevron to have access to.” Today it does. According to a policy brief from scholars at Harvard’s Kennedy School, “Although, the threat of ‘resource wars,’ over position of oil reserves is often exaggerated, the sum of the political effects generated by the oil industry makes oil a leading cause of war.”
Media reports from over the last decade or more suggest the same nefarious link between war and oil exists concerning Afghanistan; indeed, this link exists between all of our country’s recent wars in the Middle East. Sure, oil is not the only reason we go to war, but those of us concerned with public policy and the fog, as well as human, economic and social costs of war ought at a minimum, try to make sure that citizens in this nation are aware of and can debate the role of oil. More transparency may lead to less national harm and more rational decisions about joining or starting conflicts.
Why, in light of the fact that oil, oil exploration, oil development and oil distribution has been and remains a key variable generating U.S. involvement in many past and present wars, do we, as a nation, avoid a sustained strategic drive to foster the use of alternative competitive fuels, such as ethanol, methanol, natural gas, electricity and hydrogen fuel? Our efforts to date have been relatively minuscule and often are impeded more by a lack of a vision of the public good, ideological and partisan whims, economic and political interests than by an honest appraisal of independent analyses and honest debate. We owe the young people that we sent to battle at least this much. Give them a chance to make love, not war! We can be fuel agnostic and let the public interest and ultimately the marketplace choose the winners when it comes to cheaper, cleaner, safer fuels. The nation and its residents deserve a chance to safeguard the country’s environment, its economy and its security!
(Photo: A ceremony in Iraq in December 2011 marking the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from the country. Credit: Getty Images)
