US wants effective control of Middle East oil: Chomsky
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: For the United States, the primary issue in the Middle East has been and remains effective control of its energy resources, according to Noam Chomsky.
He writes in his new book Interventions that control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance. Iranian influence in what the US calls the Shia crescent challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the worlds major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washingtons worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the worlds oil and independent of the United States.
Chomsky believes that such a bloc, if it emerges, might even join the Asian Energy Security Grid and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), based in China. Iran, which already had observer status, is to be admitted as a member of the SCO. He writes, To Washington, Tehrans principal offense has been its defiance, going back to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and the hostage crisis at the US embassy. Under Bush, there has been a rejection of Iranian diplomatic efforts in favour of increasing threats of direct attack on Iran. However, despite the sabre-rattling, the US is unlikely to attack Iran because of strong world opposition and 75 percent Americans in favour diplomacy over military threats against Iran. The US military and intelligence community is also opposed to an attack.
Chomsky points out that Iran cannot defend itself against US attack, but it can respond by inciting even more havoc in Iraq. He quotes British military historian Corelli Barnett who has said, An attack on Iran would effectively launch World War III.
Chomsky writes that the Bush administration has left disasters almost everywhere it has turned. In desperation to salvage something, the administration might undertake the risk of even greater disasters. Meanwhile, Washington may be seeking to destabilise Iran from within. The ethnic mix in Iran is complex; much of the population is not Persian. Irans oil is concentrated in a region that is largely Arab, not Persian. The US finds it necessary to demonise the Iranian leadership. In the West, any wild statement of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad immediately gets circulated in headlines, dubiously translated. Ahmadinejad has no control over foreign policy, which is in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US media tend to ignore Khameneis statements, especially if they are conciliatory.
According to Chomsky, the US invasion of Iraq virtually instructed Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent. The message of the Iraq invasion by the US was that it will attack at will, as long as the target is defenceless.
Iran today is ringed by US military forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf and close by are nuclear-armed Pakistan and particularly Israel. Iranian efforts to negotiate outstanding issues were rebuffed by Washington, and an EU-Iranian agreement was apparently undermined by Washingtons refusal to withdraw threats of attack.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\07\31\story_31-7-2007_pg7_13
