Brown Bag Lunch: "War, Oil, and Labor in Iraq"

Author-Activist Gregg Muttitt on War, Oil, and Labor in Iraq: Brown Bag Lunch at the AFSC Regional Office 

Meet visiting British author, Greg Muttitt, when he discusses he new book, Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq. Since 2003, Gregg has tracked how western oil interests pursued their agenda through the occupation of Iraq.  Central to his story is the struggle of Iraqi oil workers and activists to control their future. Greg’s work is well known in Iraq and in the international anti-war movement, and has had a central influence on policy debates in Baghdad.

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The departure of the last U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011 left a broken country and a host of unanswered questions. What was the war really about? Why and how did the occupation drag on for nearly nine years? And why did the troops have to leave? Now, in a gripping account of the war that dominated the last decade, investigative journalist Greg Muttitt takes us behind the scenes to answer these questions and tells the untold story of the oil politics that played out through the occupation. We see how Iraqis struggled for their own say in their future, despite their dysfunctional government and rising levels of violence.

Drawing upon hundreds of unreleased government documents and extensive interviews with senior American, British, and Iraqi officials, Muttitt exposes the plans and preparations that were in place to shape policies in favor of American and British energy interests. We follow him through a labyrinth of clandestine meetings, reneged promises, and abuses of power; we also see how Iraqis struggled for their own say in their future, in spite of their dysfunctional government and rising levels of violence. Through their stories, we begin to see a very different Iraq from the one our politicians have told us about.

In light of the Arab revolutions, the war in Libya, and renewed threats against Iran, Fuel on the Fire provides a vital guide to the lessons from Iraq and of the global consequences of our persistent oil addiction.