Oil: Blood of the Earth

Since the end of WWII, a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy is control of the world’s oil. And since much of the oil was in the Middle East, the U.S. began a concerted effort to dominate the region. First, it displaced the old imperial powers, Britain and France. Then it established a series of military bases, and client regimes subordinate to Washington. Today, the Persian Gulf is patrolled by aircraft carrier battle groups with their cruise missiles and F-16s. These vast armadas, positioned off of Iran, carry out what is euphemistically called “routine naval exercises.” Imagine if the Iranian navy, which barely exists, and certainly has no aircraft carriers, had ships off of Seattle carrying out “routine naval exercises” what the American response would be?

Interview by David Barsamian.