"Does not ONLY Relate to Oil"

Although the film "Blood and Oil" succeeded in presenting a large collection of one sided information, and presenting it as fact, I would say the film was only one step above Michel Moore's rants and raves about his personal opinions (he too enjoys presenting his opinion as fact).  That being said, what I am about to say is my personal opinion and should be taken as such.  I am not presenting it as fact, because were it fact I would present resources much more concrete than the wonderful reporting provided from choice networks like CNN and ABC.

The film was right in the fact that we are a very oil dependent nation.  However, it failed to address more than just our own economic approach to our oil treaties with the the middle east.  For instance, we do have agreements with Saudi Arabia, but it is also said in the movie that we were the ones who helped develop their oil fields.  If the US puts money into a single oil industry don't you think it would be only logical to protect that investment?  The film made it appear that the US just goes over to third world countries and steals their oil.  We dont!  We pay for it.  The exact price I don't know.  Do we get it at a cheaper rate because we helped develop it and remain present to protect it?  Maybe.  But is that really not just a form of a mutualistic economic partnership? 

And so what of our blind eye to the Saudi's form of government.  The United States has no place to say what form of government is the best (even though we believe it's democracy).  And now you all say "what about Iraq"?  Whether we invaded Iraq for oil or to prevent genocide (that was going on, and still is) is indifferent to the fact that our invasion caused a collapse of government.  In class people were talking about "Charlie Wilson's War," and I love that movie. My favorite part?  At the end when he makes the statement (and its an actual charlie wilson quote) "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the end game."

What a great point Charlie!  The US people called for war after 9/11 and war is what we got.  Did it happen as quickly and as painlessly as the US people had hoped for?  No.  And did we get mad? Yes, because we live in a world were we experience instant gratification on a daily basis.  War is not like the drive through at McDonalds.  There is no fast lane, it is long and it is gruesome.  We screwed things up there and our presence remains because were we to pull out, then we would have a whole set of Humanitarian hippies with a new batch of complaints.  And what would happen?  We would just end up there again. The main point?  Maybe we are there in an attempt to NOT fuck up our end game (if you disagree of need clarification feel free to come talk to me).

Moving on...

George W. Bush, following 9/11 stated that the United States was going to take on a policy of preemptive action, and we did!  And that is good.  Does anyone stop and think that maybe protecting the oil that the US military, and that US society relies on, may not be such a bad thing?  And if it is a bad thing (and I do believe we can argue both ways) how come everyone in the United States drives a fuel driven car?  And they could definitely call our class hypocrites because almost 100% of the class drives fuel driven cars.  Some people will argue that there is no other choice since an alternative fuel source has not been discovered.  Wellllll maybe we should go and discover it?  Sitting in a classroom arguing about how selfish America is does not change the fact that without oil, our society wont run.  

In the movie they constantly show clips of politicians stating that the reason we are at war "does not relate to oil," and yes that is probably a bit of a lie.  But really what they could have said and remained truthful was that our reasons for going to war "does not ONLY relate to oil."  Because it doesn't.  The oil politics that the US and other nations find themselves in are not solely about the oil.  Its what it enables.  There is no short term solution, and our nation as well as the world relies on oil.  

I was going to write more about the economics behind it for other countries as well as our own, but this has turned into a full fledge paper and I will bore you no longer.

Final Thought

"I am not frightened by what lies ahead" -Ronald Regan

As he shouldn't have been.  It is always public opinion of past occurrences that leads to us believing we ensnared ourselves in a full fledge disaster.  Well American public, Hind sight is 20/20, and complaining about things is very easy when you are not the decision maker, and you only reek the benefits from policies and point fingers for the down sides.