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Not to discourage creativity, but I don't think that works so well. Even U.S. imperialism in the Middle East doesn't make sense, cost-benefit-wise, as wars for oil. I couldn't put one of the two, three, or four main sub-groups at the head of my one-word definition: the military-industrial complex and the finance/insurance/real estate complex seem to share governance very comfortably, and I didn't even mention the oil lobby there.

fairleft
by fairleft (fairleftatyahoodotcom) on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 10:43:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Slogans don't have to be accurate. They have to be catchy. Accurate is what you do once you have people's attention.

And the oil lobby is pernicious enough to be a worthwhile target, even though they aren't the whole (or even the biggest) story.

Besides, the oil lobby is entrenched enough and powerful enough that the process of taking them out will of necessity involve tearing down much of the same infrastructure the MIC and FIRE sectors use to buy politicians.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 11:03:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I guess I didn't think "war for oil" worked very well as an anti-Iraq war slogan. Right-wing radio, to its vast audience, easily dismissed it, by pointing out (for instance) that the pre-war Iraq oil embargo actually was allowing oil companies to charge super high prices for oil, so why would they want a war that would end that great deal for them?

But, hey, I don't have a solution, a really good alternative name for 'inverted totalitarianism' either.

fairleft

by fairleft (fairleftatyahoodotcom) on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 12:24:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Right-wing radio, to its vast audience, easily dismissed it, by pointing out (for instance) that the pre-war Iraq oil embargo actually was allowing oil companies to charge super high prices for oil, so why would they want a war that would end that great deal for them?

That was a cop-out argument. The simplicist level of the 'war for oil' argument is indeed faulty to consider short-term corporate interests, but serious arguments focused on imperial interests pursued by neocon strategists: control over reserves in a post-Peak-Oil environment. Which was more or less explicit in the pre-war arguments by Cheney or Baker.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 02:27:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
'Imperial war' was a pretty good way to describe the Iraq war, from the left. It fronts empire, which is completely on target and leads to the right dangerous thoughts. It doesn't leave out oil, but doesn't assert the war was for the narrow interests of the oil industry.

fairleft
by fairleft (fairleftatyahoodotcom) on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 04:03:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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