When early man first discovered fire, it was the most significant discovery of all time. Now he could start fires at will to keep his cave and tents warm, cook his food, and clear land for planting crops. When man first discovered oil, he saw at once that it would burn. Just imagine such a glorious gift from the gods, he must have mused. Oil could be easily extracted in liquid form from the ground under your feet, and it would become the igniter and sustainer of fire. Fuel. Eons later, man found that oil could be easily transported in modern new inventions to propel automobiles, trains, and farm trucks to transport produce and cattle over great distances to market. Later oil would be used in making plastics that are now essential to most everything we touch from fabrics, synthetic shoes, leather, artificial heart valves and body limbs, to circuit boards for computers. Oil enabled the world to engage in world commerce and trade. And war.
And war and oil go together quite well.
As the Neanderthals protected their source of fire, whether the origin was of flint rocks or of friction from a round stick twirled on a wooden base, modern man became the protector of oil. Oil was and still is the one ingredient a nation cannot do without. And the real estate where oil is present, the very ground, is essential to the prosperity and the very survival of a nation. Early man would fight another clan to protect his source of fire, and from that early time to present, nations are at war with each other in order to protect their vital sources of oil wherever it exists on planet earth.
The Spindletop Oil Field discovery in South Texas was one of the first bonanza discoveries that made real estate zoom many times in value in short periods of time, sometimes in mere hours. And then many of the modern discoveries such as the automobile had yet to be invented and mass-produced. Even then oil was more precious than gold.
Saudi Arabia with its deep pools of oil leads the world in oil exports. It is the most influential member of OPEC, a group of Arab nations which dominate world oil prices. It has vast underground oil pools that supply oil to the whole world, and that has made Saudi Arabia worth protecting militarily. The United States has been the primary protector of the Saudis and their oil so far. Many other small countries in that same region, Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen and hundreds of oil-rich countries all over the world have protection in place to guard their precious oil, too. While the Saudis generally show disgust for Americans and western ways, they tolerate us because our military protects their oil. And we could care less whether they like us Yanks or not.
As a result of the world deciding a century ago to give oil the honor of being the foremost source of energy on our planet, many other side businesses have grown into their own and have flourished. The protection business is possibly as big as the oil business itself. The United States with its superior military can and does occupy over a hundred countries all over the world with its 1000s of military bases. In many countries like Iraq, South Korea, and Afghanistan, the United States has boots on the ground by the 100s of thousands. One can say what one believes about the necessity of our overseas bases, but the bottom line every time is that our presence in other countries is to protect the oil nearby or directly underfoot.
China and France both have little oil as a natural resource. So they must import oil from overseas or pay countries like Ghana or Libya to let them drill and extract oil. Without a source of oil, these 2 countries would go to war at the drop of a hat to get and secure it. Why? Every country in the world must have oil or cease to exist. And what country would lay off all its dictators, kings, and mayors, turn the lights out and call it quits? If you answered ‘None’, correct. And China and France have megaton-yielding nuclear weapons and delivery systems. And would not hesitate to use them if their world sources of oil were threatened.
Terrorism has caused America and other countries of the world to attack, invade, and occupy countries that sponsor terrorism. When Osama bin Laden crashed planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the world was devastated. President Bush knew he would have to react with force. He did by attacking Afghanistan, a country whose government, the Taliban, was known to allow bin Laden to train his terrorist forces there. But for good measure (and against the advice of many experts like Richard Clarke, Hans Blix, and our own CIA) Bush also attacked Iraq. Of course the wars were deadly and still are because we are still there. But why did we attack Iraq?
Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense, said it was the best target. Say what? But was it the right target, the just target? So what wrong did Iraq do to the United States? Well, Bush and Cheney said Saddam Hussein had been hanging out with Osama bin Laden. No intelligence report has ever proven that to be true. To get us into a war with Iraq, Bush said, in his address to the nation, Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy Uranium (Yellow Cake) from Africa. British intelligence quickly refuted that intelligence report as bogus. So did George Tenet, then head of the CIA when he cautioned Bush not to mention that falsified intelligence report in his State of the Union Address. Bush did anyway. Funny thing, eh? So why did the United States attack Iraq? Could it be that Iraq has the second largest known deposits of oil in the entire world? Many peoples of the world thought so. And rejected America as an honest, benign world power that would protect the less-powerful countries of the world.
After almost 9 years of occupation, and 10s of thousands of deaths and casualties later, American forces still occupy Iraq. President Obama says our troops are all coming home soon. But will we give up such valuable real estate laden with oil? We shall see. We recently built the biggest and most expensive American Embassy in the world there, and just how many Marines will it take to protect that? And the airstrips. And of course, the oil. The United States cannot allow Iraq’s oil to get away from a country running quickly out of this black life’s blood to all countries of the world.
Oil creates many new industries. Especially when terrorists are afoot trying to set fire to oilfields and to kill Americans. Take Blackwater. Please. Blackwater, an organization of lawless “contractors” as they are called, are a civilian group of paid mercenaries to supplement our own armed service personnel to help fight in Iraq. The owner at the time, Erik Prince, a born-again Bible-thumping Christian, charged George W. Bush about 5 times the normal pay per head uniformed soldiers of the United States Army, Marine Corp, Air Force and Navy were receiving. The first year the United States taxpayers paid Prince a cool Billion dollars for his services, namely mercenary soldiers who flew about in black helicopters shooting people. And these soldiers were immune from being prosecuted for crimes and wanton shooting of civilians. Doesn’t sound much like America, does it? Where oil is, there is corruption, it always seems.
Take Rudy Giuliani. Please. As mayor of New York City when the terrorists hit the Twin Towers, Rudy became an instant hero, a rock star of sorts. Neatly and smoothly he slid into a post Twin Towers attack face of benevolence and formed a consulting company. He hired himself out as a consultant to sell his services as an authority on how to protect a city or state or a sovereign country from terrorist attacks. Must have paid top dollar for Rudy to capitalize on terrorism because he took his former police chief, Bernard Kerik, with him. Kerik, among other sideline ventures into the anti-terrorism enterprises and consultations, was reportedly awarded $10 million in stock warrants for a Taser gun company he owned and used to sell products to city police forces all over the world.
Giuliani recommended Kerik to President George W. Bush to head Homeland Security as the replacement for Tom Ridge. Bush appointed Kerik who quickly withdrew investigations pending against him for criminal activities and ties to organized crime. He was later convicted. Some NYPD head cop, eh?
Kerik’s Felony Convictions in Living Color
Giuliani's police chief could be problem
Bernard Kerik, ex-NYPD Top Cop, Faces Sentencing Thursday
Oil. It’s all about oil. And its ongoing impact on the world and humanity.
Next, in Part III we will discuss the US Energy Department, Alternative Energy sources and why they have been stifled here at home and why European countries lead the world in green energy today. And how our mimicking the green countries of the world might just save us from destruction and death by oil.