Blood and Oil

Media Education Foundation (2008)

R1 DVD

Michael T Klare’s important documentary serves two purposes. It gives a concise yet comprehensive history of the United States foreign policy as it related to oil supplies from World War II until the present, and more sinister, it shows how readily the media, especially in the U.S., are ready and willing to accept whatever they are told almost without question.

World War II used up almost a third of the world’s known oil reserves. Recognising that the U.S. could never again be self-sufficient in oil President Harry Truman arrived at a policy that would protect access to the Middle East oil reserves. This policy was known as the Truman Doctrine and proposed supporting stable regimes in the area They in turn would ensure supplies of oil to the U.S. Successive Presidents endorsed the policy but it had its weaknesses. One by one the countries fell to alternate regimes – Kuwait to invasion by Iraq, Iran to a religious-led revolution, and Iraq to the mercenary Saddam Hussein. Only Saudi Arabia seemed to hold out (mostly by ruthless suppression of opposition by its leaders) and even it is now facing internal dissent from religious extremists.

The U.S. is now in a dilemma. It can’t afford the continuing military presence in the Middle East but if it withdraws it risks losing its supply at the whim of hostile governments. It is now examining African nations as a possible replacement source.

“America is addicted to oil..” George W Bush

This understanding goes back as far as President Roosevelt, but successive policies have been concerned not with reducing the addiction or finding alternatives but with securing the supplies of what is left.

The question of the media is a different matter. Mostly the U.S. reporters accepted what they were told without question. If your President said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction it was unpatriotic to question this, even when it became obvious that he had lied. It was left to foreign journalists to find out the truth. Klare gives an example of government officials saying the Iraq invasion was necessary to protect the oil supply lines, then hurriedly changing the reasons to “Saddam is a monster” or “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction”. A poll of citizens showed that the majority thought oil was not worth going to war over.

There is no doubt that a constriction in the flow of oil would cause massive economic hardship in the U.S. but successive governments have simply refused to come to grips with the problem. A Presidential advisory committee on energy policy appears to have only been given evidence by the existing three main energy suppliers – coal, oil and nuclear. Alternative supplies like solar or tidal or geothermal do not appear to have been investigated. The government has refused the results or details of what witnesses appeared so the people of America are unable to question the report. The main thrust seems to be not to reduce oil dependency but to increase oil extraction regardless of environmental damage. This may include drilling in sensitive areas like the Arctic.

Meanwhile the U.S. keeps going on its way pretending that the crunch will never come. We need documentaries like this to inject some reality into the situation.

“Our military policy and our energy policy have become intertwined. They have become one and the same… And if we continue to rely on military force to solve our resource needs, we’re in for a very bloody and dangerous and painful century indeed.”

– Michael Klare

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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