Power Politics at its Finest: Understanding Foreign Affairs

The longest running war in US history. The defacto name of the Iraqi conflict. It is unfortunate that when our grandchildren read history, it will be distorted by this fact. The US Civil War, World War One, World War Two and the Vietnam conflict pale in comparison to the duration of the present conflict. How did it get to this? The world was led to believe that this would be a quick war, echoing the voices espoused by politicians prior to World War One.
Commensurate with any war are the political, economic and social concerns that can, in some instances, have a more profound influence on security policy. Historical examples include Britain's presence in India, Roman occupation of Egypt and Spanish rule of the Caribbean. This is also the case with the current conflict. The media, to their credit have done an admirable job covering the war. Putting at risk some of their most prized journalists and reporters time and again so that the population at the home front can receive the best possible picture of the conflict. But unfortunately the media have failed to cover a few key questions surrounding the motives behind the conflict.
War is never just war. As historians we are taught to look at the periphery issues and see how they correlate to the conflict and vice versa.  In business and economics it is the time honored tradition of waging the risk versus the rewards.
Most people know and have a good understanding of the immediate reasons for going to war with Iraq. Terrorism, WMD, Saddam was a poor leader.  The government needs, much like an increase in taxes or healthcare spending, to justify their actions to the voting citizenry. But immediate justifications for war are never given precedent over longer term goals.The longest and most pressing goal from an American perspective in the 21st century, much like her predecessors, is the preservation of the empire. America presides over the largest formal and informal empire in history. American corporations can be found on every continent, America's politicians influence policy in every corner of  the globe and America spends more on its defense budget per year then the next 8 largest countries combined. The administration will never react emotionally to any situation, even one as large in scope and scale as 9/11. Every possible outcome is analyzed and recalibrated to ensure that which ever action is pursued will not conflict with the priority of maintaining the status as world leader.
Using the aforementioned method of analysis there are a number of external, unseen benefits to the war in Iraq  that must have been considered before reaching the decision to proceed with conflict. First and most obvious is the oil. Some reporters have suggested that Saddam was prepared to enter into oil contracts with the French, Russian and Chinese, effectively closing (or at very least limiting) the oil exposure to American corporations. Secondly, and much more importantly, the Chinese were increasing their presence in the Middle East in order to guarantee rights to their insatiable appetite energy. From the perspective of the United States, this was simply unacceptable. The Middle East has, for at least a generation, been under the umbrella of American influence. A significant unchallenged entrance and presence of China in the Middle East would be seen as the first direct foreign policy challenge to US leadership in the region since the end of the Cold War. Moreover, it is quite telling that the most sophisticated and largest military power the world has ever seen is still stuck in a 3rd world conflict. That is to take nothing away from the insurgents, but it should be acknowledged that they are not facing the full force of the American military. For whatever reason this perspective has gone mostly uncredited among major media outlets and almost surely has been lost on the voting public. Yet this paradigm is always used as a method for historical analysis and thus can be applied in a present context.
Understanding this perspective is crucial to understanding the United States motives and continuing presence in Iraq, the Middle East and across the globe. Within the first year of the occupation the United States already began to build permanent bases in Iraq, an explicit message and warning to those paying attention that the US never had any plans of leaving when the war was over.
It is only through this lens and context that the smoke and mirrors that revolve around the international financial and political system can be pulled back for a more detailed, in-depth analysis of what drives the foreign policy decision making process in the modern era.