I’ve been pondering the reasoning why Germany and France are so strongly against the liberation of Iraq, and I’ve come up with another thought.
Colin Powell is saying that the US will hold the Iraqi oil fields "in trust" for the Iraqi people. Essentially, we’ll use the money from Iraqi oilfields to rebuild the country and put it on a path to democracy.
The French and the Germans hate this idea because it means they can’t push for cozy deals with the Hussein government. They were hoping for a release of sanctions so that they could get their hands on Iraqi oil and start selling their products to the Iraqi government. A US invasion would throw a monkey wrench into that process. A post-Saddam government would be far less likely to support European business interests considering that they were the ones holding back their liberation.
Of course, we know that it’s only the United States that acts in such a self-interested matter and puts business interests ahead of human rights. No, our European friends would never do such a thing…
By chance, Germans would totally agree with your headline – it IS all about oil. Only from the German perspective it looks like America wants to get rid of a rival in the oil business while actually getting his oil…
J.