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“Iraq invasion driven by oil”

Alan Greenspan

Washington: Alan Greenspan, consummate Washington insider and long-time head of the U.S. central bank, has backed the position taken by many anti-war critics — that the invasion of Iraq was motivated by oil.

His claim comes in his newly published autobiography, The Age of Turbulence, in which he also castigates George Bush’s administration for making “grave mistakes” in economic policy.

Sounding more like an activist than a lifelong Republican who worked alongside six U.S. Presidents, Mr. Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman, said in an interview with this reporter that the invasion of Iraq was aimed at protecting West Asia oil reserves: “I thought the issue of weapons of mass destruction as the excuse was utterly beside the point.”

Mr. Greenspan said it was clear to him that Saddam Hussein had wanted to control the Straits of Hormuz and so control of West Asia oil shipments through the vital route out of the Gulf.

He said had Saddam been able to do that, it would have been “devastating to the west” as the former Iraqi President could have just shut off 5-million barrels a day and brought “the industrial world to its knees”.

In the book, Mr. Greenspan writes: “Whatever their publicised angst over Saddam Hussain’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’, American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in the area that harbours a resource indispensable for the functioning of the world economy. I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Asked to explain his remark, he said: “From a rational point of view, I cannot understand why we don’t name what is evident and indeed a wholly defensible pre-emptive position.”

In his memoir, he uncharacteristically criticises the Bush administration, while praising Bill Clinton and his advisers. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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