Blood+And+Oil

**Director:** Jeremy Earp **Release Year:** 2008 ** What was the central argument or narrative of the film? ** The film spend a great deal of time present evidence to support the idea that several of the wars fought by the U.S. in the past couple of decades have been based on ensuring the smooth flow of oil. There was evidence showing that both Gulf wars were to secure oil supplies for the U.S., not to protect the mistreated people in the area and resist acts of war and terrorism like the government lead the public to believe. ** Who are the key social actors and stakeholders of the film? ** The main stakeholders in the film are the U.S. residents that the film is trying to educate about the complex political problem that the nation’s dependence on oil has cause of the past several decades. This dependence has lead the U.S. government into forming relationships with nations that do not uphold proper human rights standards, something the people of this nation take pride in. This has gone unnoticed or ignored by the people of this country because there is such a dependency on the oil those nations provide. When the U.S. government goes into a country and supports an unjust regimen they are involving all the people that will be subject to that oppressive rule. This has extended the unjust rule of many leaders in the Middle East and other oil rich nations. The U.S. government supports which ever ruler will supply oil cheaply, in return they are protected. ** What does the film convey about the matrix of the factors that contribute to our dependence on oil? ** There is a great dependence on oil in the U.S., about 98% of transportation is powered by oil based fuels. Also most of the products that people have come to rely on are made from oil based products. This great reliance on inexpensive and readily available oil has put the nation into a position of constantly finding and securing a constant supply of oil. This oil based society began after WWII. The nation had created a great industrial war machine that was powered on oil. The people coming home from the war were expecting to continue that production and therefore that consumption of oil. This dependence lead President Roosevelt to begin developing a foreign policy based on the acquisition of oil. This policy later lead to the close relationship with the monarchy of Saudi Arabia. The oil based foreign policy has worked very well for many decades. There had been inexpensive oil in the U.S. for the majority of the time even till the present. The prices of oil in this country are still much lower that the price in the rest of the world even after recent increases. People have developed lifestyles that are only possible with inexpensive and plentiful oil. To continue this oil base policy in government that has been proposals to open exploration and drilling in some of the last untouched landscapes. Also the government has compromised the values of the nation by fighting wars and supporting unjust leaders to secure oil. ** What does the film convey about the matrix of problems caused by our dependence on oil? ** The U.S. government has led decades of war and world turmoil to secure its oil. This began with Roosevelt’s oil base foreign policy. Then it was contoured by Truman, he created plans to fight the Soviet Union if they invaded the Middle East. He stated it was to protect free nations, later it was revealed that this was actually a plant to defend the supply of oil form the area. Later Nixon supports forces in third world countries that are fighting with similar interests as the U.S. In later years the U.S. when back to fighting for its own oil supply, in the Iraq-Iran war there were U.S. military ships protecting the movement of Kuwaiti oil tankers in the area. There was no protection of peace or free nations with this action, it was clearly to protect oil. The film also brings up strong evidence to show that both Gulf wars were fought to protect oil. Even when the government clearly said it was a war on Terrorism, and to protect the abused people of Iraq. The government mislead its people, in the end there were no weapons of mass destruction, which was one of the main reason for going into Iraq the second time. These actions by the Government have caused the loss of many lives in the past decades because of conflicts that could have possible been avoided if the country did not depend on oil so heavily. This has put the U.S. in an increasingly venerable position as oil becomes more and more scares in the world. The country will have to continue its involvement in unstable and dangerous areas of the world. This can be seen with the possible involvement in Libya because of their decrease in oil production. ** What parts of the film convey about the matrix of affects that would be mobilized by a shift away from oil? ** Before the attacks on September 11 the President was making a push for moving away from an oil economy, “the country is addicted to oil”. He had a great opportunity to change the energy policy and the future of the nation. However when the attacks happened he chose to fight the problem with war. This war has just furthered the countries dependence on oil. It may have been just as effective for the country to invest in alternative energy rather than going to war. Those nations that support terrorist are funded by oil sales. With no oil sales to the U.S. those nations would be greatly weakened. This type of change is very difficult to accomplish because the nation is very involved in oil. Companies based in oil have great political power and would resist such a change. Also people are comfortable with an oil society and would resist such changes on a local level. There would need to be a large government movement to change society. ** What part of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? ** I have heard several arguments on the fact that the Gulf wars were fought because of oil and not the reasons the government gave, freedom, weapons of mass destruction. I have wanted to believe the government was fighting to the right things. This video has finally convinced me that oil was a large factor in the decision to invade Iraq. Even if everyone involved in the decision was not motivated by oil, it is still sad that there were enough people afraid of the changed that would take place without oil to cause such a decision to be made. This shows the desperate level that this nation is addicted to oil consumption. ** What part of the film did you not find compelling or convincing? ** There was a lot of evidence provided in the film to support the accusation that the U.S. has only been involved in the Middle East for the oil. There must be other reasons that were not looked at in this film, rarely in life are things done for only one reason. I was not completely convinced that the government only has oil as it reason for being involved with such unstable countries. ** What kind of corrective action are suggested by the film, if the film itself does not suggest a corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective ** The film does not suggest a specific solution to the problem of the nation’s dependence on oil. It portrays the problem and the evidence to support the statements. However this evidence does show that there needs to be a shift away from the present method of politics. There needs to be changes in the way we view the world, it should no longer be a place where the strongest nation takes the resources it desires. This practice has created many extreme enemies for the U.S. the film does show that there is hope for the nation to move away from an oil based economy. President Bush was prepared to make that push before September 11. There is hope that another leader could make a similar effort and follow through on the promises. **What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out, provide two examples of what you** **learned?** There was one quote in the movie that said that $137 billion has been spent on wars in the U.S. since 2007, the movie was only released in 2008. There was $137 billion in military spending in about a year. This led me to look into the military spending in this country in the past decades. I found a report for congress on spending during various wars. The total for the wars since Korea was about $3 trillion. That is only military spending in war. It does not include research and peace time spending. The film leads one to believe that many of these wars were fought to secure a supply of oil. If only a small fraction of that money was spent on development of renewable energy there would be no need for the most recent wars which happen to be some of the most expensive in the past 60 years. Investment in alternative energy could eliminate the need for a large military to control oil supplies. []
 * Title:** Oil and Blood