Why they hate us: World politics in a nutshell

I’m about half way through Noam Chomsky’s book Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance, and on page 163, how the world works became abundantly clear.

Chomsky writes:

The year 1958 was highly significant in world affairs. The Eisenhower administration identified three majjor crises: Indonesia, North Africa, and the Middle East. All involved oil producers and Islamic political forces, which were then secular.

Wondering why Islamists hate us so? Wondering why Osama bin Laden wants to destroy the United States? Wondering why Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez called Bush ‘the devil’?

It’s not ‘freedom.’ It’s not our ‘way of life,’ — unless, of course, by “way of life” you mean “the ability of wealthy, (mostly) British and American men (almost exclusively), to keep making billions by forcefully snatching up natural resources and supporting repressive regimes so long as they give us oil and/or oil pipeline rights.*”

Perhaps Bush the oil man would think it’s about ‘our’ — meaning, ‘his’ — way of life.

That’s right: the issue is oil. Specifically U.S.-based corporate control over it as set forth in the Carter Doctrine.

The region which is now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two-thirds of the world’s exportable oil. The Soviet effort to dominate Afghanistan has brought Soviet military forces to within 300 miles of the Indian Ocean and close to the Straits of Hormuz, a waterway through which most of the world’s oil must flow. The Soviet Union is now attempting to consolidate a strategic position, therefore, that poses a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil.

This situation demands careful thought, steady nerves, and resolute action, not only for this year but for many years to come. It demands collective efforts to meet this new threat to security in the Persian Gulf and in Southwest Asia. It demands the participation of all those who rely on oil from the Middle East and who are concerned with global peace and stability. And it demands consultation and close cooperation with countries in the area which might be threatened.

Let’s look at some maps, which I hope prove the point.

The World Oil Endowment

Source: Wikipedia: List of Oil Fields

Mostly-Christian versus Mostly-Muslim countries

Source: Wikipedia: Major Religious Groups

There’s an awful lot of green in both maps where oil fields and Islam co-exist. That’s an awful lot of Muslims we’d have to demonize and subjugate in order to get that oil.

And hmm, Venezuela has a nice, deep green patch too. Is it possible that oil is the reason why we supported a coup against the populist president Hugo Chavez? No, Chavez isn’t Muslim, but he is certainly against United States hegemony and the North-South economic divide.

Maybe oil is also the reason we’re so reluctant to send troops into Southern Darfur, Sudan. After all, the Janjaweed is knocking the Nuer and Dinka off of land that just happens to sit on top of some oil. The oil industry knows that it stands to make a killing from the killing. Far be it from the current administration — with its pro-corporate stance and significant energy sector ties — to call it genocide and support a United Nations peace-keeping mission.

And need I even mention Iraq, home to the world’s second-largest reserve of oil? Saddam was our boy until he got uppity and invaded Kuwait, thereby putting just a little too much oil under his control. Hell, maybe Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be worried about a U.S. attack considering the country produces just under 4 million barrels per day. Since Iran’s oil industry is currently state-owned (if I’m not mistaken), that’d be one hell of a prize for U.S.-based oil companies.

I’m not making a new point. Indeed a whole slew of books and articles have been written about world history, globalization, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and American elites’s quest for global dominance though oil.

Our elites — those with money and the power that money brings — are crafting policies that are putting the rest of us at risk. Every dollar spent to snatch Iraq’s oil is a dollar that can’t be and won’t be spent on things like disaster relief, education and public health. Every dollar spent to snatch Iraq’s oil is one less dollar being spent on research into alternative, non-climate-change-causing fuels. Every dollar spent to snatch Iraq’s oil is one more dollar that we have to borrow from a foreign government (like China), putting our entire economy at risk.

I’m not sure what to do about it. But I’m entirely outraged by it. You should be too.

*Yes, Seth Stevenson argues that we are at war with Afghanistan because Terrorists headquartered in Afghanistan attacked America’s financial and military centers. But I think you could easily argue in the other direction: the United States supports repressive regimes in oil-producing countries that gives rise to a global militant movement that wants to attack U.S. interests. In fact, that’s al-Qaeda’s stated raison d’être.