When
Oil And Water Mix
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
27 May, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The
concoction becomes lethal. America’s relentless drive to dominate
the Middle East and its oil, blends well with Israel’s insatiable
appetite for water and unstoppable expansion. It is said that oil and
water do not mix – but when they do, it becomes a lethal concoction
with no easy solution. The fatal blend engulfing the Middle East today
seems to have no end in sight other than darker clouds showering more
innocent blood.
The relationship between
war and resources is nothing new. “One drop of oil,” said
Georges Clemenceau, the Prime Minister of France in the second half
of World War I, “is worth one drop of blood of our soldiers.”
Today, the U.S. policy makers seem to think that one drop of oil is
worth one drop of blood of soldiers and the slaughter of thousands of
Arab and Muslim lives. However, to cover their racist ambitions, they
disguise their greed as ‘war on terror’ or ‘democratization’.
Knowing that by controlling the world's energy resources in conjunction
with the superiority of the U.S. military, the United States would be
able to intimidate and coerce the world more effectively, oil policy--wars
or covert actions -- have become the overriding determinant of the American
foreign policy.
In a New York Times article
on February 24, 2006, “Ted Koppel responded to what he described
as the Bush administration's "touchiness" about the charge
that we are in Iraq because of oil by stating the obvious, though often
unsaid, truth, "Now that's curious. Keeping oil flowing out of
the Persian Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz has been bedrock American
foreign policy for more than half a century." Today control over
the world's oil supply is at the forefront of Washington policy makers'
thinking, even if the president and his team deny any such intent and
talk publicly of reducing dependence on Middle East oil by three-quarters
of present levels, an absurdly impossible goal. Two-thirds of the oil
in the world is in the Middle East, much of it under Iraq and Iran,
the axis of oil, the current targets of the U.S. War on Terrorism. Control
of oil is integral to Washington's official goal of world domination,
a goal stated this baldly in national security documents.”[i]
While oil is the primary
motive for the United States, water ideology and expansion are Israel’s
motives for giving the Bush administration reason for war, leaving Israel
room to benefit from the Bush administration’s ambitions.
In an astonishing interview[ii],
the world renowned Israeli military strategist, Martin Van Creveld,
whose books are required reading for the U.S. Army officers, revealed
that there was “no danger at all of having an Iranian nuclear
weapon dropped on us. We cannot say so too openly, however, because
we have a history of using any threat in order to get weapons. And it
works beautifully: Thanks to Iranian threat, we are getting weapons
from U.S. and Germany. I think some people in Israel are deliberately
exaggerating our fears because it prompts the response, "Oh, those
poor Jews. They're going to have the Holocaust again. Give them weapons"[iii].
Israel needs weapons for
wars of aggression and expansion. In its nascent stages, Zionism not
only advocated a return to Palestine, but also the redemption of the
Jewish people through agrarian physical labor, “and the transformation
and rebirth of the ‘wasteland’ of Palestine into a ‘land
of milk and honey’”. The goal of the early Zionist leadership
became not only to secure all water resources, but control them at their
sources.[iv] Following independence, the same doctrine continued. Israel
continued its policy of establishing Jewish settlements in areas of
Arab majority (e.g. Galilee) as well as peripheral areas alongside the
borders of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Negev. Saul Arlosoroff, Chairman
of the Israel-Water Engineers Association says:
“The whole philosophy
of the Zionist movement was that you maintain control of the land, over
your country, by working there and being there. There’s no doubt
that if they move out of the border with Lebanon, somebody else will
be there, and that somebody is Arabs, not Jews, and the government of
Israel doesn’t want Arabs to be there on the border, because the
border will move further and further south. The same is true in the
Negev.”
Although today Israel imports
most of its food staples from the US, and while agriculture is economically
insignificant, in territorial-political terms it is of utmost importance.
In July 2006, Israel bombed and destroyed Lebanon for 33 days as the
world stood by. This was oil and water mixing. Israel did not want Arabs
on the border, the United States wanted Hezbollah disabled, a fact readily
admitted by then ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton[v].
In January the Jerusalem
Post announced that Israel the Israeli Air Force had plans to buy military
equipment from the United States that would help transform regular missiles
into precision, satellite-guided weapons. Israel is busy bombing and
destroying Palestine and the Gaza at the moment. While on the other
hand, it would seem that even a year is too long for the people of Lebanon
to recover from destruction and death. Lebanon is being subjected to
internal conflict; Arab is being set up against Arab. After the renowned
investigative reporter Sy Hersh revealed that the United States, the
Saudis, and the Siniora government are engaged in covert operations
in funding and supporting the Jihadist movements in Lebanon in a fight
against Hezbollah, the Bush White House had to reveal that it was sending
military aid to the Lebanese army[vi]. Once the administration is assured
of a full scale civil war which will no doubt engage Hezbollah, the
U.S. will attack Iran.
The stage has been set. As
nine more U.S. warships enter the Persian Gulf threatening Iran, and
with news leaked (informative leak in this writer’s opinion) that
the Bush administration has authorized new covert actions against Iran,
it is undoubtedly a sign that Bush & Co. hope to provoke a strong
reaction from Iran in an attempt to justify a military attack. Having
convinced the world that Iran’s nuclear program is an existential
threat to Israel, and outrageous accusations abound, where even the
once reputable paper The Guardian is repeating the warmongers allegations
of linking Iran with al-Qaeda, the only enemy recognized by the less
savvy global citizen, and those thought to have been responsible for
9/11- given that perhaps differentiating between Sunni and Shiite may
be too much of a burden for some to consume,[vii] the U.S. seeks to
commit mass murder for the sake of power and greed while Israel will
expand unhindered.
One has to wonder how many more millions have to be slaughtered before
the collective consciousness of humanity is stirred into action. Has
the ongoing stench of the genocidal concoction obscured our compassion?
Perhaps the fatal potion brings with it another message - shame? Or
perhaps even a glimmer of hope that there is still time.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
has lived and studied in Iran, the UK, France, Australia and
the US. She obtained her Bachelors Degree in International Relations
from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and she is
currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Middle East Studies concentrating
in Political Science. She has done extensive research on US foreign
policy towards Iran and Iran’s nuclear program.
[i] Tabb, William, K. “Monthly
Review.” New York:Jan 2007. Vol. 58, Iss. 8, p. 32-42
[ii] Levin, R. “Reality Fights: The Future of War, A talk with
military theorist Martin Van Creveld” Playboy Magazine. June 2007,
pages 52-53
[iii] http://img158.imagevenue.com/
img.php?image=68991_VanCreveld_122_899lo.jpg
[iv] Selby, Jan. “Water, Power & Politics in the Middle East:
The Other Israel-Palestinian Conflict” Palgrave & MacMillan
NY:2003 pp65-69
[v] http://news.bbc.co.uk:80/2/hi/
middle_east/6479377.stm
[vi]
UPI
[vii] Guardian
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