“A painstaking piece of investigative reporting with 48 pages of footnotes, based on documents released under freedom of information legislation and interviews with Iraqis, [Fuel on the Fire] gives the best account yet of a hitherto under-reported story.”
—FINANCIAL TIMES
Excellent . . . a textbook example of how international pressures are put on politicians to get them to buckle.
—FINANCIAL TIMES
Excellent . . . a textbook example of how international pressures are put on politicians to get them to buckle.
—JONATHAN STEELE, THE GUARDIAN
Superb . . . provides incontrovertible evidence that the rush for cheap oil was a paramount goal among Western leaders even before the war.
—TRIBUNE MAGAZINE
Fuel on the Fire
Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq
hardcover
$28.95
A groundbreaking investigation confirming what many have long felt: oil interests lay at the very heart of the Iraq war—a legacy that continues to haunt us
Nothing short of a secret history of the war.
—NAOMI KLEIN, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NO LOGO AND THE SHOCK DOCTRINE
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, while most Iraqis, Britons, and Americans desperately wanted it to end? And why did the troops have to leave?
Now, in a gripping account of the war that dominated U.S. foreign policy over the last decade, investigative journalist Greg Muttitt takes us behind the scenes to answer some of these questions and reveals the heretofore-untold story of the oil politics that played out through the occupation of Iraq. 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 America’s persistent oil addiction.
Greg Muttitt is the former co-director of the campaigning charity Platform and has served as the campaigns and policy director for the antipoverty organization War on Want. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, the Financial Times, and The Independent, among other publications. He lives in London.
Now, in a gripping account of the war that dominated U.S. foreign policy over the last decade, investigative journalist Greg Muttitt takes us behind the scenes to answer some of these questions and reveals the heretofore-untold story of the oil politics that played out through the occupation of Iraq. 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 America’s persistent oil addiction.
Greg Muttitt is the former co-director of the campaigning charity Platform and has served as the campaigns and policy director for the antipoverty organization War on Want. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, the Financial Times, and The Independent, among other publications. He lives in London.
Spring 2012
hardcover
6 1/8 x 9 1/4, 432 pages
978-1-59558-805-0
hardcover
6 1/8 x 9 1/4, 432 pages
978-1-59558-805-0
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