War

Murray Rothbard gets it right about fighting for oil.

"Editor's Note: Is the Iraq War over oil? Chuck Hagel, who was just nominated for Secretary of Defense, thinks so; or at least he did in 2007. And, for neocon Bill Kristol, that's a big problem. Michael Moore responded to Kristol, quoting several conservative pundits who basically agreed with Hagel. One of the pundits quoted was Ann Coulter, who claimed that it is right and good that the U.S. fights for oil, because the country needs it. Murray Rothbard, in detailing the prime motives for the first war in Iraq, made a crucial point. Intervention in Iraq is indeed about oil. But it is not about national access to oil per se, but about the privileged access of certain oil producers. It is war, not for consumer capitalism, but for crony capitalists."

If some organization uses coercion to block our access for oil, responding in kind would be morally acceptable. But that's not the case in US wars. Rothbard is right. The US wages war to obtain below market prices for particular plutocrats for oil, in Iraq, and other natural resources including oil and rare earth minerals in Afghanistan. Of course, Saddam Hussein also committed the greatest sin by selling oil in currency other than the dollar, and that was probably the biggest reason the US invaded the second time.