I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy Chomat's work, but I am compelled to
comment that his review, such as it is, of the Iran / Iraq War and of the
1991 Gulf War (the 1991 Gulf Massacre) is at best politically naive; at
worst a complete travesty...
Tony
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Totten" <shimogamo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "A-List" <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 2:32 AM
Subject: [A-List] Oil Addiction: The World in Peril - 5
by Pierre Chomat (Universal Publishers, 2004)
translated from the French by Pamela Gilbert-Snyder
Part I. Man's Egosystems
Chapter 5. The Oil Addicts go to Market
How did our excessive appetite for ergamines become a problem for
humanity? Only
ten years ago, this question would not have received much attention -
although
many countries had already taken up arms to satisfy that appetite.
One would think that the world's disadvantaged, way off over there
somewhere -
the ones we barely know about - must look at the way we live and wonder
how
anyone can behave so carelessly. Perhaps they are amazed that we take
airplanes
at the drop of a hat, sometimes just to satisfy some vague curiosity. Or
that we
like to show off our superiority by parading around in SUVs, perched high
above
the rest. Or that we live in huge houses while they, for the most part,
have to
be content with shelters lacking all conveniences. Or that we illuminate
the sky
over Las Vegas with millions of electric lights, just for fun. Or that we
roar
around on snowmobiles over the hideouts of hibernating bears, badgers,
and
squirrels in national parks where we pretend that Nature still reigns
supreme.
Or that we make a deafening noise with our leaf blowers, just to push a
few dead
leaves off into the street.
We may be ready to admit in the West that we have taken our energy
consumption
way too far. We may even be ready to admit that our mania for automating
everything around us has become downright eccentric. But it seems we
still
have
trouble accepting that our oil-addicted lifestyle is threatening our very
future.
The abundance of the petroleum reserves we have discovered so far has led
us to
believe that energy is Nature's gift to Man. These incredible reserves of
power,
stored within the Earth for so long as if waiting just for us, have
certainly
given us some strange habits. We have been unable to adequately grasp
just
how
much we really use them and how precious they are. We have not relied
solely on
Nature's renewable energy sources - wind and water - for many, many
years.
By
relying on the Earth's stores of fossil materials, which can be renewed
only
over millions of years, we are living beyond the means of our globe!
Worse
yet,
most of the industrialized nations now depend on far-off
hydrocarbon-producing
nations to meet their domestic energy needs, which have become
gargantuan.
Western Europe and Japan have been in this situation for some time. The
United
States, which once had its own rich reserves of oil and natural gas, has
also
reached this stage.
The industrialized world has placed itself in a situation of dependency.
Its
strength is based on weakness!
The first danger we face due to this paradoxical dilemma is an ongoing
one: our
society, high on energy, has to continually mobilize its modern-day
centurions
in the constant search for oil. The slogans of my dream come to mind:
"Find the
oil and bring it to us! Wherever it may be!" and "I Vroom, Therefore I
Am!"
Another more insidious - and equally alarming - complication is that the
ergamine, as it dies, does not vanish without a trace. The carbon dioxide
gas
that it releases, which we negligently allow to escape into the
atmosphere, is
not just "passing through"; it is here to stay! We will talk more about
this in
the chapter entitled "The Earth's New Cloak".
Sometimes countries that claim to be rich, despite not having easy access
to the
fuel needed to maintain their industrial standing, adopt very aggressive
energy
policies toward the oil-producing nations. I saw this firsthand, between
1975
and 1978 in the Middle East. At that time I was closely involved in the
development of the petroleum reserves of Iran, but my work took me also
often to
Iraq. This gave me the opportunity to witness the implementation of the
industrialized nations' geopolitical strategies in and around the Persian
Gulf.
The Gulf region may seem to some to be nothing more than an immense
market
for
ergamines. But the Middle East is much more than oil. Some of
civilization's
oldest and most inspiring historical sites are located in this region.
The history of Persia is visible in its ancient glorious monuments. The
Chogha
Zanbil ziggurat in the land of the Elamites, the palace at Persepolis,
and,
nearer to our time, the Isfahan palaces and Shiraz rose gardens, where
Saadi
wrote his poetry: all were extremely important to the development of
Western
civilization.
Thanks to Firdausi, Omar Khayyam, Saadi, Hafiz and some other Persian
writers,
it is still possible to conjure up the memory of the palaces and gardens
of
ancient Persia.
That castle once
claimed to rival
the whirling
heavens.
How many Kings
have fallen
prostrate
at its doors?
And on its ramparts
now a ringdove sits
and mourns.
- Omar Khayyam {4}
Iraq's history, even more than Iran's, is directly linked to our Western
past;
its history is that of Mesopotamia, where our culture had its first
stirrings.
Traveling across that country, I could not escape the feeling that I was
traveling back in time. In Sumer, I could sense the bustle of the world's
first
cities, Ubaid, Ur, and Uruk, and I caught a glimmer of our present
civilization.
Walking along the stone walls eroded by time, I "heard" the sound of
chiselers
engraving the first lines of writing ever set down in the West. Thanks to
them,
the Sumerians and Akkadians still speak to us.
In ancient Babylon, I imagined Hammurabi discussing his code of laws. On
the
banks of the Euphrates, I "saw" Queen Semiramis in her gardens presiding
over a
reception in honor of some mysterious emissary. I trod lightly, not
wishing to
disturb her ...
In 1978, Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. His
Islamic
revolution was largely the result of the years of exploitation Iran had
suffered
at the hands of Europe and the United States.
In 1980, a conflict between Iraq and Iran erupted in a war which lasted
up
to
1988. It claimed millions of lives, all of them unfortunate citizens
reduced to
dust to satisfy Saddam Hussein's policy of war, which not many Iranians
or
Iraqis, beyond the Sovereign of Baghdad's faithful few, even knew about.
And yet
this war was about oil. For, in fact, Saddam was seeking control of the
rich oil
fields of Iran's Khuzestan province, which borders Iraq. In 1990, he
tried
again,
this time invading Kuwait. Given the importance of this tiny country's
oil
to
the Northern hemisphere, the United States and Europe could not stand
idly
by
and watch this act of aggression; they had to do everything they could to
rout
the Iraqi troops. Once again many Iraqi soldiers and civilians paid with
their
lives for this latest incursion on the part of their master. Perhaps
one-third
of the Iraqi soldiers who took part in those battles now lie buried in
the
desert.
Let us return later to those dramatic events, which were never clearly
explained
to the world. Saddam Hussein's excesses were attributed sometimes to the
actions
of a power-mad individual, sometimes to an attack against an Islamic
fundamentalist regime, sometimes to a great Satan. These judgments were
obviously made with little reflection. The truth is not so simple. It
lies
elsewhere. The Iraqis, Iranians and Kuwaitis who died in these wars gave
their
lives for the control of oil.
And when I hear the word "oil", I cannot help but think of the nations of
the
Northern hemisphere. They are the ones who give black gold its excessive
value.
Even though Saddam Hussein behaved with murderous aggression in seeking
to
secure more reserves of this fabulous elixir, we cannot completely
exonerate the
West for its share of responsibility in these conflicts. All of us, in
Europe,
Japan, and America, who benefit from the Middle East's hydrocarbons,
share
responsibility for what occurred there. The West's great interest in the
petroleum of the Persian Gulf was profoundly disrupting these countries'
histories. Oil confers great economic power on the industrialized
nations,
but
it also makes them just as powerfully dependent on the Middle East.
However,
such dependency has also changed the entire direction of this region, and
its
peoples' way of thinking. The source of Saddam Hussein's murderous
madness
lies
at least partly in the West. That is where he acquired weapons for his
wars, at
any rate.
Then, in 2003, the West entered into another conflict with Iraq, a war
instigated by the American government. Why, once again, would men risk
being
blown apart by missiles in this region? Why was another American general
bound
for glory?
When the plan to attack was announced, my first reaction was that this
was
completely unacceptable and the words of an Iraqi I had met in Baghdad
during
the 1970s came to mind.
"In the developing nations", he said, "the future is still mired in the
past.
For years we have made great plans, formulated the best resolutions;
sometimes
we have even written beautiful constitutions for our citizens. But
history
does
not respect them. We cannot leave our past behind because we are in
denial
as to
who we really are. Our plans have no basis, because our leaders' goals
are
constantly at odds with the interests of the wealthy nations. Our plans
are only
fairy tales. Our future does not belong to us."
Thirty years later, I suddenly felt as if I were finally grasping the
full
import of his words. In 2003, Iraq was officially considered an
independent
nation; it was even a "republic" with representatives "elected" by the
people.
But in reality these people did not possess the thing that was most
essential to
them - the freedom to make their own decisions regarding matters that
directly
concerned them. The tragedy Iraq was about to experience had been
organized
according to the needs of foreign interests. This war served the
interests
of
the United States, above all, as well as England and a few other
countries, but
certainly not the interests of the Iraqi people. Without a doubt, the
history of
Iraq still does not belong to the Iraqi people.
As the days went by, it became increasingly clear that the United States
intended to make Iraq one of its guaranteed oil suppliers, like Saudi
Arabia.
This strategy was apparent in all of the news, so carefully distilled by
the
American media day after day. The battle to be launched against Saddam
Hussein,
the "evil" master of Baghdad, was an ideal alibi. At the most official
levels,
Hussein was depicted as an imminent threat, even though the CIA clearly
had
trouble delivering the necessary arguments to support its government's
thesis.
The American government reported that Saddam Hussein had thumbed his nose
at
international conventions, but it failed to mention that the United
States
was
doing the same. It had rejected any form of agreement to attempt to slow
global
warming. It had not signed the 1997 Geneva Convention prohibiting the
production
and storage of landmines. It had withdrawn from the anti-ballistic
missile
treaty with Moscow. It was even refusing to submit to the jurisdiction of
the
International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Washington claimed that pre-emptive action - in reality, a "preventive
war" -
was the way to stop terrorism, although there was not a shred of evidence
that
Iraq had participated, directly or indirectly, in the attacks on New York
of
September 11 2001, to which the US government referred unabashedly in its
justifications.
It was difficult to understand how, in the 21st century, the government
of
a
democratic nation could still twist information so easily to manipulate
its own
people. When you live far from North America, you tend to believe that
the
United States is the land of total political transparency - that its
words
and
actions are even somewhat naive. If that had ever been the case, it was
no
longer so. The government was lying to its own people, manipulating
information
to suit its purposes. The six groups that own the majority of the
country's
fifteen hundred daily newspapers {5} assisted their president in this
task. An
American citizen who wanted to know how the nation's intellectuals were
reacting
to the president had no alternative but to turn to specialized or foreign
media.
Like other American intellectuals at the end of 2002, university
professor
and
author Michael Klare had to rely on the European press {6} to make his
opinions
known.
By this time, it was clear that we were witnessing the attempt of an
oil-addicted nation to secure its ergamine markets, and that the war that
the
American government was preparing against Iraq served a strategy that
certain
events, real or fabricated, had given it the opportunity to implement.
There was
no longer any doubt that this war had been in the making for some time,
that it
was a way to satisfy the great American machine's insatiable appetite for
energy.
The United States Army was being sent into combat as part of the nation's
energy
strategy. The United States was heading to Iraq, preceded by missiles, to
secure
its oil market.
To disguise its aggression, the United States government was talking
about
national security and whipping up a frenzy of fear among its citizens in
order
to hide the truth and to instill a feeling of hatred for the Iraqi
leaders. And
we all know what happened next.
The energy we draw from the Earth is no longer merely our source of
well-being,
our way of life. It is much, much more. It is almost the sole guarantor
of
power
for the countries of the Northern hemisphere; it is certainly the
guarantor of
United States supremacy. These nations are forced to acquire from
countries
beyond their borders the magic potion that constitutes their strength.
And
they
are doing it! Without scruple! Their might justifies their right!
It is sad beyond words.
Notes
{4} Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat.
{5} "Matters of Scale: The American Way of Choice",
World Watch Magazine, (March-April 2001): 19
{6} Le Monde Diplomatique, Paris, France, November 2002.
Bill Totten http://billtotten.blogspot.com/
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