Homework Question on Blood and Oil Documentary Review
Please comment on the film Blood and Oil and describe whether the presentation follows the conventional (realist) explanations for the War on Terror, or whether it could be interpreted in a more critical way (through a lens of Western imperialism).
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuOQ4KgTkAI
Homework Answer on Blood and Oil Documentary Review
The documentary highlights American military activities in the Middle East and Africa terming the engagements a conspiracy motivated by America’s need to control world energy as opposed to seeing it as a war on terror. According to the narrator, Michael T. Klare, for over 60 years, American foreign policy has been geared towards maximum extraction of oil. The argument that comes across from the documentary is the extent of western imperialism driven by the US as opposed to the theory of war on terror.
Most regimes “friendly” to the US in the Middle East are compliant with America’s need for oil while receiving goodies in the form of weaponry, military advisers and technology. Footage of a meeting between then US President Roosevelt and the Saudi Leader King Ibn Saudi shows America’s imperialist strategy in the Middle East. The meeting was controversial because during that period America was against the Saudi regime. The result was the development of the country’s military in return for oil.