by Harry Davidson, Ph. D.
-Guest Columnist-

The fact that so many Blacks and whites were killed on Sept. 11, 2001 understandably touches the emotions of all people. However, we must look beyond emotions to achieve greater understanding. The perpetuation of terrorism can be compared to rival gangs committing a series of large scale "drive-bys" that kill innocent people. Gangs don�t commit drive-bys for strictly emotional reasons. Gangs play on the emotions of potential members so as to recruit the soldiers they need to secure and defend "drug turf and the economics involved." Likewise, we must decode words like foreign policy to determine the U.S.�s real economic interest in the Middle East and the Caspian Sea regions.

We can ill-afford to send our sons, daughters and grandchildren to war without understanding. When you analyze the misinformation the media is engaged in, what rings clear is that the U.S. is as determined to be involved as the radical Islamic groups are determined to rid themselves of U.S. and Western powers out of the Middle East and the Caspian Sea Region.

The reason is obvious when you consider that the region is important to world markets as a result of the large oil and gas reserves that are being developed�some of the largest reserves in the world are in this region. The alternatives to exporting gas and oil involve the interest of the world�s major players. Foreign policy has become code words for oil.

In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the United States financed Osama bin Laden and the Taliban to run the Soviet Union out. Shortly thereafter, the U.S�s interest in dictating policies in the region became clear. The oil wealth of the Caspian Sea region has resulted in competition between corporations to get the contracts to develop this potential, and between nations to determine the final export routes.

On Oct. 7, 2001 the Bush administration notified the UN that the war on terrorism may extend beyond Afghanistan, even if Osama bin Laden is killed or captured. We are told to be ready for a long, drawn out campaign, the likes of a cold war. Afghanistan is strategically located as a military base to be used to control the region. The war on terrorism is the latest episode in the struggle for oil power.

Michael Tanzer, in his book "The Sick Society: An Economic Examination" (1971), refutes the "accident theory" as an explanation for America�s involvement in wars. He views America�s involvement as a part of a pattern of wide spread foreign involvement stemming basically from U.S. economic expansionism. The corporate-controlled media promotes the notion that America is engaged in a moral crusade to protect the world from tyrants.

In the book, "Oil Power", Carl Soberg (1976) states that the political power backed by oil is commensurate with its economic and social importance. Oil is at the root of the power of all governments and politics. The oil industry selects presidents and influences both the State Department and America�s foreign relations. The historical Federal Trade Commission�s secret report exposed a cartel of American oil operations in the Middle East, which included criminal indictments of the major oil companies for cartel operations in the Middle East, involving higher-ups in the government of the United States.

Michael Tanzer suggests that America�s economic interests, rather than military security, determines U.S. foreign policy. According to Tanzer: The power of the corporate community to influence foreign policy decision makers and decisions, along with the general harmony of interest among economic, military, and political expansionists, is sufficient to make economic interests the propelling force of U.S. foreign policy. Since 1969, earnings on all U.S. private foreign investments amount to 25 percent of the after tax profits of all corporations. Oil constitutes over 60 percent of all U.S. foreign investments.

On Oct. 30, 1998 the Board of Amoco Oil approved its $61.7 billion acquisition by British Petroleum. The plan is to construct a Caspian Sea pipeline route to transport oil from the Caspian Sea into Southeast Europe. British Petroleum indicated that a $3.5 billion oil pipeline is not justifiable without more oil or larger subsidies. In May of 1998 Iran announced plans for a major pipeline from the Caspian Sea into Europe. In August 1998 the United States intensified efforts to quietly put pressure on the former Soviet states to accept a U.S. version of the East-West pipeline and to forgo any relationship with Iran.

On October 30, 1998�the same day of the B.P. acquisition�the UN Security Council refused Iraqi demands to lift sanctions. The next day Iraq cut off the inspections for chemical and biological weapons. The United States and Britain retaliated with a warning of possible military strikes to force Iraq into cooperation. Five days later the UN Security Council condemned Iraq�s actions as a violation of resolutions. Within two weeks of the B.P. acquisition, Clinton had deployed a strike force to the gulf area. The continued military crisis in the gulf area stems from predictions that a major oil crisis would occur between 1990 and 1992.

OPEC controlled 75 percent of the non-Communist world�s known oil reserves. Two-thirds of those reserves were in the Persian Gulf region. Saudi Arabia ranked first in the control of the world�s oil reserve, Kuwait ranked second and the Soviet Union third. The United States was a distant ninth. Historically, Middle Eastern leaders that challenge the expansion of Western oil tycoons into their regions have been demonized.

In 1990, in an attempt to control 54 percent of the world�s oil reserves and the global economy, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and threatened to push on into Saudi Arabia. America demonized Saddam Hussein and further economic embargoes were imposed. The goal of the 1990 embargo against Iraq was to starve the Iraqi people into overthrowing President Saddam Hussein. When the plan failed it was followed by military intervention. The 1991 Persian Gulf incident was not about controlling "Satan," it was about control of the Kuwait oil fields. In 1998, more economic embargoes and finally military intervention was employed in an attempt to destroy him. Saddam Hussein is currently ranked second on the U.S. Most Wanted list.

Economics is the underlying motive for most wars. During World War II America prospered from European dependency on American weapons and technology. Following the war, under the Marshall Plan, corporate executives were placed into senior government posts. This initiated the first major massive U.S. economic foreign intervention program.

Between 1948 and 1952 the Marshall Plan financed almost $2 billion in European oil imports, primarily supplied by the five leading U.S. international oil companies. The Marshall plan allowed for large-scale outlets for post-war discoveries of low-cost Middle Eastern crude oil. Ninety percent of a shipments value was clear profit. America intervened in Iran in the early 1950s. Iran had been the exclusive reserve of the British oil industry. In 1951 when Iran nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the U.S. government and leading American oil companies staged an effective worldwide boycott of Iranian oil exports and the CIA overthrew the Iranian government. Following this overthrow of the Iranian government, forty percent of the former Anglo-Iranian Oil company shares went to the five leading U.S. international oil companies.

The countries having the most abundant oil reserves are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Libya. The Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was demonized when he emerged as a threat to oil interests in the late 1970s. When Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser attempted to unify the Arab world�to control oil�he fell into disfavor with America. Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi was Nasser�s ardent disciple. During the post-1972 era, Gadhafi gained control of oil in the Middle East and brought the Western world under the submission of OPEC.

In 1986, America demonized and targeted Gadhafi, who followed Nasser�s opposition to the America oil tycoons. Whereas the horror of Sept. 11, 2001 touches the emotions of all Americans, we must look beyond our emotions to achieve a greater understanding of war.