I searched for this info in the diaries and couldn't find it, and thought it should be brought to attention. Here is
evidence of the real motivations behind the attack on Iraq.
A new report [1] by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations.
The new law in question [2] heralds the entry into Iraqi law of patents on life forms - this first one affecting plants and seeds. This law fits in neatly into the US vision of Iraqi agriculture in the future - that of an industrial agricultural system dependent on large corporations providing inputs and seeds.
When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by transnational agribusiness corporations. The new law totally ignores all the contributions Iraqi farmers have made to development of important crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses. Its consequences are the loss of farmers' freedoms and a grave threat to food sovereignty in Iraq. In this way, the US has declared a new war against the Iraqi farmer.
So Monsanto and other large corporations are being set up to take control over the food supply, while Halliburton controls the oil. This is not how you treat a country that you plan to give 'sovereignty' to. This is how you treat a colony.
This kind of information should be hammered in rural areas. How many farmers want the government telling them that they can't collect the seeds from their own plants? I think that would be...none!
Addition sources:
http://www.genevar.com.au/seedsavers/news/105.html
http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents _Law.pdf
[update]
Many have noted that this is also going on here in the United States. This is true, and also needs to be fought. I am not personally against the idea of genetically modified foods in all cases, but I am against its use to promote a kind of farming 'addiction'. These products creat a vicious cycle of dependency on the seed companies, as you also have to buy their special chemicals to allow your soil to support their products, which encourages further need to buy their seeds in the next cycle, etc.
elfing noted an article about one such instance of dealing with Monsanto.
From the comments below, baldandy posted a link to an excellent article about the plans to divvy up Iraq from Harpers magazine.