Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq Book

Oil lies at the heart of Iraqi politics. Yet in the eight years since the bombs began to fall on Baghdad it has been a taboo subject. In Greg Muttitt's gripping and far-reaching investigation we are taken behind the scenes of the occupation to answer one of the war's most pressing questions: what is happening to Iraq's oil? In public the USA and Britain strenuously deny any self-interest. In private, however, they tell a different story. Drawing on hundreds of unreleased government documents and extensive interviews with senior American, British and Iraqi officials and oilmen, Fuel on the Fire reveals how the occupying powers have sought to return Iraq's oil industry to multinational companies - for the first time since it was nationalised in the early 1970s. But America and Britain failed to take into account the determination of the Iraqis themselves - of civil society groups as well as senior oil experts - to keep production in the public sector. The attempts to impose a Western oil agenda regardless have dragged the country into ever deeper violence and continue to shape not just Iraq but the future of energy supplies and Anglo-American military strategy. Fuel on the Fire is vital to our understanding of the war in Iraq and its consequences. It documents the clash between cultures and strategic interests. It reverberates with echoes of our imperial past and of our tragic failure to learn the lessons of history.Read More

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    'The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It's their asset' declared George W. Bush at the end of a day at Camp David with his Generals and National Security Council in June 2006. The next morning he would arrive in Baghdad and they were planning his message to the new government of Nouri al-Maliki. Bush's team spent 'a lot of time' talking about oil. 'And we talked about how to advise the government to best use that money for the benefit of the people'. They would advise Iraq to sign over management of Iraq's giant oilfields to international companies under long-term contracts. Since before the war members of the US and British governments had bombarded Iraqis with such 'advice'. But from Bush's visit onwards the advice would become firmer more insistent. Fuel on the Fire reveals for the first time how the USA and Britain have sought to reshape the country's oil industry at a terrible cost. Most Iraqis strongly oppose their designs and want oil production to remain in Iraqi hands. Remarkably a popular campaign - all but unreported in the West - has so far succeeded in blocking the oil plans.But this struggle and the attempts to impose an oil agenda by force are dragging Iraq into ever deeper violence. Iraq expert Greg Muttitt will take the reader behind the scenes of the occupation to answer one of the war's most pressing questions: what is happening to Iraq's oil? Fuel on the Fire examines Iraq's prospects under the new US administration of Barack Obama - published as the post-election hopes of 'victory' or 'withdrawal' begin to fade and as Americans ask: Why are we still in Iraq? Why are things not improving?

  • 1847921116
  • 9781847921116
  • Greg Muttitt
  • 21 April 2011
  • Bodley Head
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 464
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