"It's not about oil"! (Note From a World Watcher).

The U.S. government has a smoothly-scripted response to the notion that its plan to. assault Iraq was motivated by a desire to seize control of Middle Eastern oil. That notion, says the script, is foolish and petulant--not to be taken seriously. Iraq poses a grave threat to the world. The idea that America cannot contain its addiction to oil is--ha, ha--such a ridiculous idea.

This laughing-off is based on the broad idea that war is about grave matters of freedom, democracy, and security, not about any wish to dominate the energy industry or the world. Never mind all those foolish rumors about the "Project for a New American Century" being planned by Bush advisors Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others. The U.S. leaders are not to be confused with Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan or other warlords of the distant past, who conquered the world for sport and loot.

But any survey of human conflict over the past half-century or so will reveal that oil, in fact, has been at the root of war again and again. Rarely is oil the only factor (nor is it the only factor in Iraq), but it is often a central element--and is often the thing that, literally, fuels the war both physically and financially. A few major examples:

* The Angolan Civil War: Angola has been at war for most of the past three decades, with oil and diamond revenues driving the conflict since the late 1980s. Oil accounts for about 90 percent of the Angolan government's expenditures, which in recent years included three times as much for war as for social programs. Perpetuation of the war has enriched a corrupt ruling elite. The government charged Chevron, TotalFinaElf, BP, and Exxon Mobil $900 million just for licenses to operate here, and borrowed against future oil revenues to finance arms purchases.

* The Indonesian Suppression of Aceh: Suharto's regime expropriated oil and other resources from the people of Aceh, allowing ExxonMobil and Pertamina to operate a giant liquid natural gas plant. The seizing of assets--and displacement of local populations--triggered a freedom movement that was put down by the Indonesian military, with more than 5,000 civilians killed. Exxon-Mobil paid for the military to guard its oil operations. The International Labor Rights Fund sued the company for complicity in the murder, torture, kidnapping, and sexual abuse of Aceh's people by Indonesian soldiers.

* The Sudanese Civil War: After oil was discovered in Sudan in 1980, the government reneged on a peace pact, re-starting a civil war that led to more than 2 million deaths. The conflict escalated in 1999, as oil export revenue tripled military expenditures. To depopulate the oil-producing areas, government forces bombed villages and destroyed harvests.

* The Nigeria-Shelf Crackdown on Ogoniland: The Ogoni people who live in the Niger River delta protested despoliation of their land and water by Royal Dutch Shell, whose operations had devastated the Ogoni's farming and fishing communities. Nigerian dictator General Abacha, whose regime was financed largely by Shell, responded by putting down the protests and hanging its leaders in 1995. (See the World Watch cover story "Dying for Oil," May/June 1996.)

* The Chad Revolt: In the Doba basin between Chad and Cameroon, suppression of a revolt led to hundreds of deaths--the suppression being financed by a portion of the $25 million in oil "bonuses" paid by ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Petronas.

* Suppression in Burma: The petroleum industry provided the largest source of income for the ruling military dictatorship in the 1990s. Income from the Yadana pipeline (built by a partnership of the French oil firm TotalFinaElf, the U.S. firm Unocal, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, and MOGE, the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise of Burma), funded the military's expansion from 180,000 to 500,000 troops in 2000--and funded Burma's crackdown on the country's democracy movement through forced relocations, labor, torture, and summary executions.

* The Peru-Ecuador Border Conflict: The Peruvian and Argentinian militaries developed close ties with their oil industries during their dictatorships of the 1970s. YPF, the former state oil enterprise (now owned by Spanish oil company Repsol) that became the largest company in Argentina, expanded aggressively in the Peruvian Amazon in the 1990s, acquiring the U.S.-based Maxus Energy. Oil Development by YPF, as well as by Occidental, Chevron, and ARGO, became a spearhead for the occupation and "Peruvianization" of the land claimed by Ecuador.

* The Orinoco Delta Occupation, Venezuela: Intensive oil drilling by the government consortium Petr6leos de Venezuela, along with BP and five U.S. and Canadian oil firms, turned into a war against the Warao indigenous people--and, in effect, against the ecoystems of one of the world's largest wetland areas. Roadbuilding and construction in the mid-1990s blocked natural currents, causing stagnation of the water, the spread of malaria, and the deaths of 6,000 Waraos.

* The Russian Decimation of the Khanty: In Western Siberia, oil drilling led to fires and pollution that destroyed 22 million hectares of reindeer pasture, disrupting the livelihood of the Khanty people, who depend on reindeer herding and fishing. Petrochemical leaks and effluents contaminated fish and the berries and vegetation on which both the reindeer and the Khanty depend. Privatization of the industry brought a black-gold rush, as Amoco (now part of BP), Lukoil, Surgurneftegaz and others expanded the invasion to over 7,000 kilometers of pipeline. The Khanty culture was largely destroyed.

* The U'Wa Conflict, Colombia: U'Wa Indians clashed with Colombian riot police guarding the arrival of Occidental Petroleum to drill for oil on land that had been taken from them by the government and that was adjacent to the small territory (15 percent of the original) they still occupied. The U'wa, claiming the drilling would draw them into the government-guerrilla war that has killed thousands and would poison their remaining land and water, contemplated mass suicide. Occidental withdrew but was replaced by the state oil firm Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos.

* Colombia's Revolutionary War: In the nearly 40-year war between government and rebel forces, the ELN rebels have financed their campaign by repeatedly sabotaging the Cano Limon oil pipeline, extorting the companies that service the pipeline and kidnapping their workers. Occidental Oil paid the Colombian army to defend its assets, and the Bush administration asked Congress to authorize $98 million to train Colombian troops to defend the pipeline.

* China's Occupation of Tibet: China invaded Tibet in the 1950s and began developing the oil-rich Tsaidam Basin, driving out native Tibetans and repopulating the region with Chinese workers--many of them brought in to build a 4,200-kilometer West-East natural gas pipeline. China's principal partner in this enterprise is Royal Dutch Shell.

There are some striking patterns in these examples, which speak volumes about what the world faces in the Middle East. Oil lubricates wars that got off to creaky starts for other reasons. It pays for escalation and perpetuation, and after a while the oil revenue can become the main object even if it wasn't originally. Oil companies and ruling elites develop arrangements that are mutually profitable. And the power of the multinational petroleum industry is so large that it can warp or override ideology. That's why, in 2003, even as France, Russia, Germany, and other key nations opposed the U.S. urge to rush into war in Iraq, there was suspicion among anti-war activists that sooner or later those holdouts would fill into line with Bush. While none of those countries are as oil-dominated as the United States, they still have powerful oil sectors--and populations that have great attachment to their cars and comforts.

Even in the most modern of nations, the spoils of war remain as compelling a force as any interest in democracy. In fact, judging by the growing American abandonment of democracy (see Tom Prugh's editorial on page 2), oil may be far more pertinent to U.S. interests around the world than the "free world" platitudes that give the new soldiers of fortune their cover.

SOURCES: Michael Renner, Worldwatch Paper 162, The Anatomy of Resource Wars (Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 2002); Aaron Sachs, "Dying for Oil," World Watch, June 1996; Douglas Farah, "Nigeria's Oil Exploitation Leaves Delta Poisoned, Poor," The Washington Post, March 18,2001; Project Underground: Drilling to the Ends of the Earth, www.moles.org; Sara Shields, TED (Trade and Environment Database) Case Studies: Khanty Mansi Oil Development, www.american.edu/TED/RUSSOLIL.HTM; Estrella Gutierrez, "Venezuela-Indigenous: Waraos Analyse Impact of Oil Drilling, Inter Press Service, 1997; "Colombia holds out for a big oil find," Financial Times, May 21, 2002; "Indians and police clash in Colombia over oil-drilling," CNN, Feb. 13, 2000; "The War's Aftermath: Bad News for the Alto Maranon," Peru Oil News, July 30, 1995; Jack Doyle, Riding the Dragon: Royal Dutch Shell & The Fossil Fire (Boston: Environmental Health Fund, 2002).