The Secret War: All About Oil

The video I am posting today is from a 1987 PBS broadcast that addresses the use of the CIA and other such secret agencies by administrations in order to further America's interests. One of the examples given in this broadcast is the toppling of a freely elected Iranian prime minister, and his government, by the covert actions of the CIA. The American government, with the help of the British as usual, replaced the democratic government of Iran with the Shah. This was done to insure the ownership of the Iranian oil fields by these two western industrial giants.

It is highly ironic that the present US administration is accusing the Iranians of interfering in the internal politics of the Iraqi state in order to further their own political interests. This is a prime example of the pot calling the kettle black.

Just as oil was the prime motivation behind the overthrow of the Iranian government in 1953, it is also the prime motivation behind the overthrow of Saddam Hussein fifty years later. The industrialized nations of the world depend on oil for their survival and growth. The problem is that oil is fast reaching peak production. Soon, perhaps twenty years or less, the world's oil production will begin to fall far short of consumption. There will be severe repercussions for the industrial economies. Control of oil supply determines the national interests of those nations that are industrialized, and those nations that aspire to industrialization. New industrial economies, like China and India, will enter into fierce competition with the older established industrial giants for their share of what remains of the worlds fossil fuels.

So this war in Iraq, while not the first war over oil, is far from being the last. When governments start describing national interests in terms of promoting democracy and freedom in the developing world, read between the lines. It is, and will be for the foreseeable future, all about oil.