Coalition of the Sabotaging

In the oil for food bribery allegations, Australia has been accused of paying the Saddam Hussein regime the Mother of Them bribes to buy Aussie wheat. The chief accuser? US Congress lobbied by American wheat farmers.

But prior to the US sponsored sanction of Iraq, Iraq had been Australia’s biggest customer, with an annual purchase of nearly AUS$1 billion worth of wheat. One principal reason had been the superior quality of Aussie wheat, which is far far more nutritional than American wheat. In short, Iraq had been the No 1 customer for Aussie wheat.

For years the American wheat farmers had lusted for a share of the lucrative Iraqi market but couldn’t penetrate it because of Iraqi’s preference for Oz quality.

Well, given this bribery allegation, which has involved several countries including the USA as well, though not on wheat for the Americans, US wheat farmers see their best opportunity to oust the Aussies from the Iraqi market and grab all if not the lion’s share. What more, the USA controls Iraq.

A few months back, its blue-eye boy in Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, had been giving Aussie wheat sellers a hard time about wheat shipping rights. Over the years, Aussie wheat had provided the shipping of the wheat to Iraq as well with an all inclusive price, but Ahmad Chalabi has started the ball rolling on the dismantling of Aussie dominance of the Iraqi wheat market by demanding that henceforth, Australian wheat producers shall not provide the shipping anymore.

Now, US wheat farmers want US Congress to punish Australia for the alleged bribe to Saddam – never mind that the investigation hasn’t finished yet. American wheat cannot stop growing because of inconvenient legal stuff like ‘due bloody process.’ Their wheat needs to be shipped pretty pronto to Iraq once Australia has been duly barred from sales to Iraq..

Ain’t it wonderful, that capitalism with a capital ‘S’ - slimy sinister sabotaging subversive (back)-stabbing - exists so vigorously between 2 partners of the Coalition of the Willing? And the reason? Another capital ‘S’ – the mighty $.