The Oil Factor

Just finished watching the documentary The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror (by Free-Will Productions - Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy), so figured I'd write a review with my thoughts before they vanished into some inaccessible recess.

The first thing you should watch on the DVD is not the movie but the special features, namely a Pentagon 'informational' video on depleted uranium use. The video will leave you with absolutely no doubt that lunatics are in charge.

The documentary is a great summary of most of the critical events that have occurred since 9-11. While I was for most part familiar each individual incident described in the documentary, a very coherent picture seemed to emerge from all the individual bits and pieces.

1. Iraq and Afghanistan have been subjected to the an incredibly vicious brand of violence, aggression, assault, indifference and arrogance whose full impact can never possibly be understood by anyone looking in from the outside.
2. An armed struggle against the US occupiers is the only viable option for most Iraqis
3. Majority of the world population detests the US
4. Except to see continuing violence across the globe indefinitely (mainly over control of oil rich locations)
5. Fighting "terrorism" is clearly not the objective. The real objective is to maintain global hegemony and consequently total energy security. Any resistance to this brutal juggernaut will be construed as terrorism.
6. Things are going to get way worse before they get better (just kidding about the better part)

The documentary follows somewhat of a non-linear timeline first going into Iraq and then tackling Afghanistan later and lightly touching on Iran.

PNAC

Of course, any documentary regarding the Middle East is almost certainly going to mention PNAC (Project for the New American Century) and we have an interview with PNAC spokesperson, Gary Schmitt. Schmitt makes the following comments:

1) We (i.e. you and me) are foolish to think that money is better spent on American domestic programs than in Iraq (yes, he definitely called that foolish, claiming the Medicare & education get enough already). (he also equates American citizens with pennies and Iraqi oil with pounds)
2) Schmitt says that there was no push for oil when the US invaded Iraq and that the US has enough oil. This is just semantic sleight of hand. While he's correct that the US has enough oil currently (domestic and imported supplies) and doesn't necessarily need Iraqi oil as of this minute, what he conveniently avoids saying is that the US invasion of Iraq is initially for "control", not direct, immediate profits from oil. The goal of the US in Iraq is to prevent any other foreign country from establishing a presence there in direct opposition to US dominance.
3) Without a hint of irony, he talks about how the war on terror involves states who produce/intend to use WMD (hmmm... lets see which country comes to mind first .... ) and states that harbor terrorists (Florida, School of the Americas .. anyone?)

Iraq Sanctions:

There is brief mention of the sanctions that have been imposed on Iraq since Gulf War I and the constant bombing of Iraq between the first & second Gulf war and the devastating effects it has had on the Iraqi people. Additionally, the reasons why the sanctions were not lifted (until Gulf War II) , was because foreign countries would have secured all the oil contracts from Saddam, and once foreign countries had a presence in Iraq, it would have been difficult for the US to launch an invasion (at least the assumption is that the US doesn't plan on killing Western Europeans)

Other topics covered regarding Iraq include the "constitutional fiction" managed by Paul Bremer, continuing deterioration of infrastructure, privatization of Iraqi resources, war funds, Cheney's Energy Task Force and so on.

Depleted Uranium

Depleted uranium weapons were used in Gulf War I & Kosovo as well. And they were used again in Gulf War II. The difference being that this time, the depleted uranium weapons were targeted against civilian areas. The Pentagon instructional video is pretty clear about the hazards posed by the depleted (U 238) weapons. The fact that these weapons were used simply defies all common sense and humanity.

We also have cameo appearances by Noam Chomsky, David Mulholland (of Jane's Defense Weekly), former Pentagon analyst Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski (who jokingly mentions that Turkey is nowadays a problem because they're a democracy), Michael Ruppert, Zbigniew Brzezinski and more.


Back to Afghanistan:

• The only reason US has bases in Afghanistan is not to fight "terrorism" but to prevent other foreign countries from intervening.
• The countryside is littered with cluster bombs & land mines. We then see several Afghanis who have lost their limbs from accidental detonation of land mines and cluster bombs.
• Heroin production is in full swing and controlled by the warlords and the revenue from drug trafficking is used to procure weapons to retain territorial control.

Col Rod Davis, Spokesperson, Coalition Force in Afghanistan keeps repeating the same mindless mantra: "Our mission is to kill, capture and deny sanctuary to anti-coalition forces in Afghanistan. We aggressively seek anti-coalition forces. We're looking for them 24x7 and will stay here till the job is done". Well, I have news for the Col. --- All the anti-coalition forces have all moved elsewhere, so your job is to look for something that doesn't exist. I'm afraid you are going to be there for a very long time. And by the way try not to kill any civilians, I know that's hard.

Finally:

The 2 statements that sum up the conflicting US & Iraqi perspectives are from:

1) Gary Schmitt of the PNAC: "The future security of the US depends on the President's program for transforming the Middle East and Iraq is the first step in doing so."
2) Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim - Iraqi Governing Council : "The responsibility of changing Iraq is on the Iraqi people"


The defense contractors appear to be involved in a bloody, vicious cycle of destroy, rebuild, destroy, rebuild ad nauseum. Clearly, the same corporations that are responsible for manufacturing the weapons to destroy all existing infrastructure then come in after the destruction, salivating like rabid dogs at the prospect of huge no-bid contracts paid for by the American taxpayer.

Some minor quibbles:

1) While the subject of the number of Iraqis dead as a result of the invasion is touched upon, no mention is made of the Iraqi death toll figures from 2 very important reports (Johns Hopkins & Lancet)
2) Ed Asner (narrator) has a drab voice :-) (OK, that's not really a valid criticism)
3) That somehow, Russia was responsible in large part for America's "defeat" in Vietnam (conveniently ignoring the fact that it was an independent nationalist movement in Vietnam that forced the Americans out).

Kudos to Free-Will productions for making a very instructive documentary.