Tonight, I went to a screening of The Oil War: Behind the War on Terror hosted by writer/director Gerard Ungerman. The film was deeply informative regarding the oil assets of Central Asia, and America's relationship with that part of the world vis a vis oil and gas supply and demand.
America and the people of this nation are in a deep ethical quandry regarding the demand for oil. 3/4 of America's oil comes from abroad. Americans are responsible for fully 25% of the world's daily oil consumption - even though the American population accounts for less than 5% of the world's population.
We are dependent on oil and gas in so many ways: the food we eat, transportation, storage, the multitude of technological devices, (which we have so rapidly, and readily, become accustomed to using.)
I recommend your viewing of this film, especially if you have any doubt about the motivating factor of oil behind the wars on (attacks of) Iraq, Afghanistan and more broadly "terror."
What gives America the right to spread death and disaster in the Middle East, so as to benefit our own energy markets and economy? What gives us the right to trample on the lives and well-being of others for our own benefit?
Here's a link to the website (Free Will Productions.)
I also wrote a diary entry at Daily Kos on this same topic, there is a poll associated with that: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/9/11649/2779
The film dragged on toward the end, it could have been more focused and edited more.
ReplyDeleteIt was somewhat repetitive, but I found it to be an effective refresher for me. The war is about oil, it is disgusting - really, it is utterly atrocious what the US Gov't has done in Iraq. It is economic imperialism and blood lust for want of oil.
It is sickening to behold the scope of the whole operation considering how far removed we are from it on a daily basis. People drive around, peeling out at intersections, not even thinking about the american soldiers who have died, or have suffered other permanent war related casualties.
People don't think about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who've died or otherwise suffered as a result of this debauched colonial occupation/annexation of the nation of Iraq by the US gov't military forces.