Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq

Published July 2012 by the New Press

"Nothing short of a secret history of the war" - Naomi Klein

Tour dates (details):
WASHINGTON, DC: Tuesday, July 10
NEW YORK: Thursday, July 12
MADISON, Wisconsin (TBC): Tuesday, July 17
PORTLAND, Oregon: Wednesday, July 18
SAN FRANCISCO: Thursday, July 19 AND Sunday, July 22
BOSTON: Thursday, July 26

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 US and UK foreign policy over the last decade, investigative journalist Greg Muttitt takes us behind the scenes to answer some of these questions and reveals the previously 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 our persistent oil addiction.

www.fuelonthefire.com


"Excellent... a textbook example of how international pressures are put on politicians to get them to buckle" - The Guardian

"Set to turn our understanding of the war on its head" - The Independent

"Will trouble the most ardent liberal interventionist" - Petroleum Economist

"The Iraqi civil society voices resound with dignity in this brilliant, comprehensive account" - New Internatio