"Ungerman and Brohy spread themselves a little thin across the map of U.S. intrigue, abruptly losing sight of Iraq while retreading familiar ground about early American backing of the Taliban."
- LA Weekly

"The interviews are carefully augmented with speeches by President Bush and other administration officials, plus footage from Iraq and Afghanistan, and powerful graphics detailing the depletion of the global oil supply."
- Los Angeles Times

"It brings the truth about Bush's War to our attention. Many still believe Iraq attacked us on 9-11. The truth needs to be brought forth no matter what the means. I give the producers credit for having the courage to speak the truth in this time of censure and fear of the Bush Administration. Some may already know the facts, but some may be enlightened."
- Jason H.

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/oilfactor

Honestly am sick and tired of snotty journalists in Los Angeles thinking that their personal level of knowledge equals the rest of society who have better things to do then watch documentaries and be caught up in Hollywood. They have collectively reviewed this movie negatively and that of course affected it's marketing across the wider US, even when it's not as slanted as Micheal Moore.

Sure it's slanted, however it puts forward wider geopolitical and economic issues that one would not know of unless they willing research those topics on their own.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unocal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_American_Century
http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-irq/index
Short term energy assurances at the expense of long-term security and diplomatic relations IS not a valid reason for these steps.

A good chunk of this doc explores the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which the U.S. has essentially repeated now in Iraq - and it's ending the same way, with help from other countries in expelling the occupiers.

This was Reason #1 for me when opposing the Iraq war - it was just dumb, dumb, dumb strategically; a trap that Bush walked right into.

But then, those who never learned history are doomed to repeat it - right, George?

If anyone is interested there is a great book called "America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier" by Robert Vitalis - recently published by Stanford University Press.

"America’s Kingdom debunks the many myths that now surround the United States’s “special relationship” with Saudi Arabia, or what is less reverently known as "the deal": oil for security. Taking aim at the long-held belief that the Arabian American Oil Company, ARAMCO, made miracles happen in the desert, Robert Vitalis shows that nothing could be further from the truth. What is true is that oil led the U.S. government to follow the company to the kingdom. Eisenhower agreed to train Ibn Sa’ud’s army, Kennedy sent jets to defend the kingdom, and Lyndon Johnson sold it missiles. Oil and ARAMCO quickly became America’s largest single overseas private enterprise.

Beginning with the establishment of a Jim Crow system in the Dhahran oil camps in the 1930s, the book goes on to examine the period of unrest in the 1950s and 1960s when workers challenged the racial hierarchy of the ARAMCO camps while a small cadre of progressive Saudis challenged the hierarchy of the international oil market. The defeat of these groups led to the consolidation of America’s Kingdom under the House of Fahd, the royal faction that still rules today.

This is a gripping story that covers more than seventy years, three continents, and an engrossing cast of characters. Informed by first hand accounts from ARAMCO employees and top U.S. government officials, this book offers the true story of the events on the Saudi oil fields. After America’s Kingdom, mythmakers will have to work harder on their tales about ARAMCO being magical, honorable, selfless, and enlightened."


The book is really very good and it offers a detailed survey of the origins of American imperialism in the Middle East. The book also challenges the prevailing idea that Wahhabi ideology alone is responsible for the wide-spread dislike of Americans in Saudi Arabia. Instead, the book identifies the racial discrimination which Saudis experienced in the Dhahran oil fields - including forced segregation - as a major factor in explaining Saudi attitudes towards Americans and other foreigners.

oops....

Related sifts

Iraq is in chaos, with sectarian violence, any force increase will only increase the exposure of US forces to enemy action.
Iraq - The Hidden Story

Russia has been conducting it's own form of energy supply assurances by holding Chechnya under the banner of fight the war on Terror. Which gives them the carte blanche on action as long as they give the Americans the same at the moment.
Dispatches - The Dirty War in Chechnya

The reason the American Energy companies, Oil lobby groups and their contacts (Cheney) in the US goverment would want to flood the market with cheap Iraqi oil is because they are afraid of recent steps in Venezuela, discussions in OPEC towards putting crude oil off the US dollar due to it's military incursions and foreign policy actions. Which would threaten the US current account which relied on the printing of US dollars for oil trade to stabilize the debt. China has the largest US reserves in the world, the US owes them billions. We have become complicit in supporting a communist regime that still oppresses it's population. Even large corporations such as Google that *ahem DO NO EVIL are involved in the Chinese economy.

The Chinese Communist goverment of course finds this a perfect position, they have the US politically by the pursue because at any moment they can pressure OPEC to stay on the US dollar or not, since they are quickly foreshadowing the US in terms of energy usage. If however OPEC would switch to the Euro if say the US continues on it's war path, the US economy will crash rapidly far worse then the great depression.

If we continue to push for war and lack of diplomatic action our position only gets worse, if albeit OK for the short-term. Leading us to only one path and one solution a war for energy supplies, until the lights go out... and there is no Oil left for fight for, and just when we need international cooperation it will be marred by previous hostile actions.
China has US by the purse.

The threat of energy depletion in the long run is more important issue then global warming, and in many ways totally related. As it is better to tackle it when Oil supplies are high and related R&D would be easier compared to when the lights go out and we're fighting wars of dwindling energy domination.
Robert Newman's - A History of Oil

RE: Related sifts, I mean seriously I understand Lara Logan. But Chris Rock + Senator Boxer?

Good contribution, farhad, thanks.

*waronterror

Adding video to channels (Waronterror) - requested by MarineGunrock.

*documentaries

Adding video to channels (Documentaries) - requested by mauz15.