David B. Harton

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Exporting Democracy

Installed as part of the 2008 Contemporary Art Festival: Nebula in Saitama, Japan, between November 13 - 23, 2008.

This work represents the hypocrisy of the US’ stated aim of going to war over “Iraqi Freedom,” as if the concern had been the welfare of the Iraqi people, rather than the true motivation, Iraqi Oil.  This habitual behavior on the part of the US is shown as the distribution of a can of Iraqi Oil in a flag pouch manufactured in Viet Nam, reflecting two of the country’s finest diplomatic moments.

The text on the can reads:

This oil was pumped from beneath the sands of Iraq at the point of a gun. 

The cost?   4,158 US military deaths  (as of September 12, 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Defense¹);   655,000 Iraqi civilian deaths  (as of June, 2006, according to The Lancet²),  increasing to between 946,000 and 1,120,000 Iraqi civilian deaths (by August, 2007, according to an ORB / IIACSS study³); and over 4 million Iraqis left homeless (as reported June 5, 2007, by the UN⁴).

    ¹  From the United States Department of Defense:  www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
²  Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, Les Roberts, “Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey,”   www.thelancet.com  Published online October 11, 2006,  DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69491-9
³  From the Opinion Research Business newsroom: www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=88
⁴  From the UN News Centre:  “More than 4 million Iraqis have fled home as situation worsens – UN,”   www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22786&Cr=Iraq&Cr1=

Paper, Aluminum, Fiber
5.5" x 12" x 14.25" (as pictured)