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October 28, 2005

Defrauding Oil-For-Food served Bush's interests

Paul Volker's list of corporations that participated in cheating the Iraqi oil-for-food program is good as far as it goes. But it doesn't go far enough. And because of that it gives a skewed picture of who all was actually complicite in turning the program into a farce.

The Bush administration actively turned a blind eye to illegal oil shipments that served it's political agenda, as I wrote about this last January.

It seems clear to me that Republicans are using the oil-for-food scandal for three primary reasons. First, it distracts attention from the Administration's own complicity. Second, by focusing on foreign corporation's complicity it provides a convenient red herring for American corporations in the global economy where they compete against the very firms being targeted as having enriched Saddam illegally. And thirdly, it plays directly into the far right's paranoia about the UN.

By demagogueing the issue, Republican politicians like Norm Coleman are serving the interests of their corporate backers. If they genuinely cared that Saddam was being enriched illegally then they would be holding the Bush administration accountable. But they're not and I don't seriously believe they ever intend to.

Posted by Kevin at October 28, 2005 09:59 AM