The film “Blood and Oil”, I found to be very interesting and though provoking. To learn that the United States has had a specific interest in the Middle East since the Roosevelt administration was rather startling. In the video it is stated that America has an addiction to oil and this statement answered a lot of questions that I had. To put the situation in terms of an addiction is very relevant, I feel, because then you can picture the America in a different light. Unable to get enough so they go to the extremes to get their fix. The United States’ interest in the Middle East has always been directly related to oil and to our assumed inherent right to that oil. It seemed to simply develop and grow through the continuing administrations until we felt it was our duty to go in and use military force to secure the areas. I understand that as a leading consumer of oil in the world that we felt it was important to protect our interests in that area for very specific reasons; I just think that we should have been using that same amount of time and energy to research renewable sources as well. I know that we’ve begun to expand our national research and funding in that area in the recent years, but to just imagine how much more advanced we could be in that department of our nation makes me rather ill. I really don’t agree with the statements about the United States having to be a world police, and protector of all. I think those reasons are scapegoats for the actual reasons for us to be in that part of the world with the influence that we have. It comes down to simply one thing they have the oil that we need and we’re willing to do anything to keep it that way. It was quite apparent in the movie that the government, in the first Bush administration, was aware that we would no longer be able to use the excuses of oil to protect our interests and soon turned to policing those nations because of suspected WMD and other dramatic reasoning. If you’re going to be in a foreign land spilling blood of Americans and natives alike, at least be honest about why you’re there.
If they were honest about why they were doing it, not only would they not have their own citizens support, but the rest of the world would be even more upset with us than they are now! (But I think that might be your point. ;) )
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about the amount of money delegated to renewable resources. The end of the film says that in 2007 we spent $137 BILLION on oil-related defense, 70x higher than on alternative energy. That means only about $2 billion spent on alternative energy. Where would we be is it was $10 billion!? $20 billion? Those numbers look huge until you compare them to that defense number!
Hey Andrew!! I thought you might be interested in a book/journal I found online! It's called Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East. I was actually looking up images for my blog on google and this came up. Again GREAT job in class on Tuesday! I feel as if I learned soooo much about the Middle East culture in a totally new perspective!
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