It's not just about oil....but
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 8:27PM 
As we all know, the slightest slip up or misinterpretation on the Twitters can lead to some serious upset. I have made many twitter boo boo’s but in my top ten all time stinkers was a mention on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 massacre of the link between the attack and our dependence on oil.
This really upset people, I got a lot of very angry tweets, yet again surprising myself with my naivety and possibly stupidity. Many American’s admonished me for daring to make a connection. ‘It had nothing to do with oil, it was to do with terrorism and religion.’
I backed down pretty fast, what can you say to explain your position in 140 characters. Not much.
If you have more than 140 characters to play with it may be a little easier.
The developed world needs a lot of oil, the Middle East has a lot of oil. Yes, there’s political and military interference, there’s Israel, yes there’s funda-mentalism, but behind much of this strife there is oil. I’m not saying it’s the only reason, or even the primary one, but it’s a pretty damn chunky part of the problem.
I won’t bore you with figures but we send a lot of money into the Middle East to buy oil, really a lot, let’s just agree that it’s billions of dollars every week.
I don’t think anyone of any political outlook can deny that the Western world has meddled in a very serious way for many decades with the internal affairs of these countries.
We have either supported despots, bullies and screaming buffoons who have played along with us and sold us the back gold, or we have invaded them, killed hundreds of thousands of them and toppled the thugs we’ve spent the previous twenty years supporting and, ahem, clears throat just to hammer home the point, ‘installed democratic regimes.’
Like most people in the UK, I only have the faintest grasp of the incredible events currently taking place in the Middle East. I’m not going to pretend I have any special knowledge, I’m trying to take a broad, objective view of what is going on.
Essentially the despots we have been supporting, and when I say we I mean the UK and US governments chiefly, these brutal thugs have slowly lost their grip over the people they oppress with our direct military, technical and financial help.
They sell us oil, we sell them guns, tear gas, ammunition and any other tools they might need to maintain their grip on power. Last year alone we (the UK) sold Libya £33,899,335 worth of military equipment. I didn’t make that figure up, it comes from the UK governments own Export Control Organisation that gives licenses to manufacturers of such equipment in this country. The bullets and teargas, the rifles, machine guns and night sticks being used to kill and beat the people of Libya are made in factories in this green and pleasant land. I don’t know about you, but I’m not proud of that fact.
Of course, as any drug dealer will tell you, if we didn’t supply them, someone else would, but the simple fact is, we did supply them, just like we supplied Mubarak and of course, our old favourite, Saddam Hussein.
Our governments are under enormous pressure to make deals with people even they would probably rather not have to deal with because of one simple fact. We are massively dependent on what lies deep beneath the Middle East. We need their oil, simple as that, and we have to do anything and everything in order to secure that supply. If it destroys the country we get it from, that’s the price we, and obviously they have to pay. If the despots and power crazed loons we support cause such oppression and misery and some people turn to fundamentalist religion as an alternative, so be it. We must have the oil. Nothing else matters.
Did the endless flow of oil money help fund the fundamentalist fanatics? What do you think? Which incredibly powerful, mind numbingly rich family is old Osama a member of? Weirdly enough the same hyper rich family the Bush family have done business with for donkeys years. The jolly old Bin Laden’s.
They are not all terrorists, far from it, but loony Uncle Osama is. He’s exactly the same age as me by the way, spooky.
No one planned this ugly situation, no one is truly at fault, it’s just the way it’s happened. History has lead us here and we have to deal with it.
So when I said that the West’s need for oil had something to do with the 9/11 attacks I’m not citing some weird conspiracy theory, the history of the Middle East over the last 100 years has been at the same time empowered and destroyed by our addiction.
Surely one solution to this seemingly never ending distress is to wean ourselves off the stuff. If we stopped buying it, the result would be catastrophic, not for us, not for the general populations of the Middle East, but for the rulers. The mass of people there derive little or no benefit from the billions we send there every day, in fact most of the time they derive palpable harm from that money. It has created a brutal, bloated, ruthless ruling elite who will, as we have seen, do anything to cling to power.
And if, as we have seen with Mubarak, they are eventually toppled and they flee with billions in Swiss banks, how long will any new, democratic leadership last with the corrupting power and wealth of the oil corporations having lunch with them? Not long I fear.
I don’t blame the oil corporations, they are under enormous pressure from us to keep the sweet crude flowing. There is only one tap that can turn this off, that’s us. If we stop buying it, they will stop supplying it.
How can we stop buying it? Only by making an amazing effort and changing the way we live, travel and consume. I’m not saying it will be easy or cheap, but I am saying it is possible.
So, the factors behind the upheavals in the Middle East are many and complex, the factors behind the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks likewise, but however you look at it, oil is part of the equation.
Reader Comments (28)
Judging by past and current UK weapons systems and the procurement of them, the items we sold will probably never work, or not work in dusty climate in Libya. Or any spares the Armed Forces of Libya require (which they will), will never turn up.
I can just imaging a Libyan on the phone to a British Aerospace call centre in India trying to explain his gas canister did not go off LOL
1073 words comes over better than 140 chars. Thanks for airing that.
May I share a link to a book I read by Edwin Black; Internal Combustion (http://www.internalcombustionbook.com/).
For me it laid out the foundations of the events that lead us to today. It does it in a very clear and matter of fact way. Unfortunately, it leads to the same conclusion that you've reached here... We're in trouble and it was pretty much our fault.
Yep, The UK -leading the world in helping Russian gangsters launder their loot and Arab dictators suppress their people.
Michael Thwaite
I have read Internal Combustion, and I agree, it's very hard not to be a little bit depressed after reading it. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for sharing that.. sobering...
A relevant and timely article by the BBC
"Arab protests pose energy threat"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12534961
And one more that tells the same tale through the sedative of comedy:
Robert Newmans History of Oil:
http://bit.ly/fWFeKe
The sad fact of life is that nearly every thing revolves around oil eg. Plastics, rubber, fertilizer, etc, so I don't think it's possible to wean ourselves off the stuff unless we undergo a major cultural paradigm shift that will not be pretty.
So the excuse (sorry reason) is that guns don't kill but people do yet in the UK guns ARE banned because they do kill?
It is pretty immoral what our governments are doing to keep oil coming into our country and that many human lives are being lost in the proccess.
The only reason i'd stop using oil is because of that, it wouldn't be because of IPCC lie of "AGW global warming". The IPCC has been defunded in the US house of Representatives because lets face it, most of the human race doesn't follow the global warming gaia worshipping religion of global warming.
Paul, I was going to write a long and complex response on how AGW is the opposite of religion and the deniers of AGW are much more akin to religious behavior, but honestly I don't think you will listen (one of the traits of religious people). Just go and have a read of http://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
AGW seeks to control the population through communist china style one child policy and if anyone has more than one then they will be asked to abort the rest. They will say having less children will "help the environment" and stop global warming because in their minds these extra children are dirty little carbon emitters. But the rich and famous will deffinately be allowed to have more children to expand the gene pool. In fact eugenics seeks to destroy people of coloured skin and to get rid of poverty by taking the lives of the poor. It is just like Nazi Germany all over again, NO, it is worse than Nazi Germany turning human beings into cattle.
and that my friend is the agenda of the globslists and why AGW is a lie. AGW theory is a very pro abortion pro euthanasia theory that seeks to destroy human life.
I will give you a link to the population research institute and their series of videos they did recently.
http://www.pop.org
http://www.overpopulationisamyth.com
Paul Bennett
Oh dear, well, there's nothing I can say, you are determined to believe what you believe, I am a wet liberal apologist, I want to kill billions of babies obviously, I'm renown for it. I want to hold a gun to people's heads while there're having sex and scream at them, 'do not procreate, sinners!' That's what people like me are desperate to do, oh, and of course increase taxes and force everyone to be gay, Muslim and stumble around in the dark because we have to use wind power and we all know that doesn't work.
What a weird world we both live in, but I have a bit of hope, and as little hate as I can manage. That. maybe, is the difference between us.
One of the sayings often quoted in the late comic strip Pogo was; "We have met the enemy and he is us!"
I think that was never more true than it is here. Very insightful Bobby.
As a fellow "wet liberal,"I would also like to say that these despicable actions are not the fault of religion, but in fact the failure to follow the actual religious teachings. Neither Christianity, Islam nor Judaism will support the actions of those fundamentalists, extremists and populists who have perverted their actual religious teachings to support personal, political or economic goals.
Many people are very suspicious of AGW because it is being used to set up another market to profit from the sale and trading of "carbon credits," a nonexistent entity and another vehicle that can be used by the rich to make enormous profits. The "poster boy" of AGW, Al Gore, is one of the chief instigators and investors in that market. I have found that it always pays to "follow the money" when seeking to discover the actual cause of most events in today's world.
Global warming theory also seeks to destroy World economies
Global warming theory also seeks to destroy World economies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9aHC2tSmRM
Paul, no scientific theory seeks to destroy anything. A scientific theory is a explanation of a process that fits the observable facts. In AGW the observable facts include raised temperatures melting ice caps, receding glaziers and many others. The only scientific theory that matches these observed facts is AGW.
Now if we don't do something then extrapolating the theory means that the world (as a place, as a people, as an economy) will face a very dire future. Economic studies performed by many sources have shown that if we Don't do something the impact on the economy would be much worse. http://skepticalscience.com/co2-limits-economy.htm
The video you linked to about the Lima declaration signed in 1975 (yes I have listened to it all) and in the video the person says that over 50% of Australian's will become unemployed. I think his theory is not holding up to observable facts. The person in the video I think is taking the whole this a bit to far... but I do agree that current world economic practice is not ideal, but the aim is not to enslave us... just to allow the rich to become richer. Motivation from the corporate is all dollars they attempt to change policy (world or county) to make it easier for them to make more money.
Now lets try a thought experiment. Lets bring in Carbon and transport mile charges.
Now the locally produced foods and goods are cheaper, off setting the "Lima agreement" and others. Exporting and importing become expensive. This would re-invigorate local commerce, manufacturing and services. So if your concern is that the UN as big brother or that Big business is attempting to control you by moving your work off shore then AGW and the actions to reduce that work in you favor.
NOTE that the same big business the video points too are the ones NOT wanting to accept AGW's outcomes or perform the actions required to protect the world (people and economy).
I hope you read some of the links and think about carbon pricing impacts (more local everything).
The globalists plan to use AGW theory to bring about New World Order, eugenics, abortion, euthanasia. As the previous poster before me said, "follow the money". The who AGW ruse has nothing to do with the environment.
Did you know the government is already bringing out the military against people in the USA? Hello New World Order, police state.
Being a Christian myself, it utterly annoys me when those on the conservative right (I don't like using the term evangelical because those two terms are not always synonymous), use scriptures like Genesis 1:28 to justify a complete plundering of the Earth's resources. They conveniently ignore plenty of other references in the same Bible that make it absolutely clear that the Earth belongs to God... and that we are successive caretakers of the world we live in. In fact the term "subdue the Earth" is more about using the planet for God and our mutual benefit... not raiding the planet's cookie jar irresponsibly.
The irony is not lost on me that you could interpret many of the doom-laden symptoms described in apocalyptic writings to man's influence. I feel that sometimes the things that people describe as God's "wrathful judgement" are actually more likely to be God's pointing out the consequences of our own stupidity and complacency.
It seems to me that a lot of greedy self-righteous people out there exploit this planet, get rich doing it, then point their fingers at the world falling apart and say "It's because you lot are all evil", without acknowledging the consequences of their own evils... which have a large impact on everyone else. To them we should say "take the log out of your own eye".
That is exactly what al gore, Julia Gillard, Bob Brown and the global warmists are doing; pointing the finger at everyone else, calling them evil as if they were as perfect as the day adam and eve were born from the earth.
The thing is Paul... making it about the people and not the issue itself is often akin to plugging your fingers in your ears and singing "lalalalalala not listening".
That works on both sides of the debate.
After your comments on twitter I've lost all respect for you, I just hope none of your family ever need help/rescuing just for doing a job. Not all people are as privileged and lucky as you and your family.
Strangely/ironically sometime in a renewable-energy dominated future the Middle East could be manufacturing hydrogen using solar power in the desert and transporting it (using some of that clean hydrogen) to the West. And we could still have to send in the SAS to rescue energy workers from some conflict.
Fortunately the sun's energy is more evenly distributed than the oil resources so there would not be reliance on just a few countries.
"Fortunately the sun's energy is more evenly distributed than the oil resources so there would not be reliance on just a few countries."
Good point!
"Sun's energy is more evenly distributed"
Except if you live in good old Blighty! ;-)
It is about human life. Human life comes first. It is more important than the whales, trees and polar bears.
Solar and wind aren't strong enough to be a base load to power a whole country.
Mr Payne, you are the one who is sticking his fingers in his ears and saying "lalala, not listening" because if you go to http://www.overpopulationisamyth.com and http://www.pop.org you will see who invented the idea of over population and population reduction and you will also see why we don't need to reduce human life on this planet. Now if you are open please do open these URLs.
God bless you.