Blood and Oil

“The oil resources (of the Middle East) constitute a stupendous source of strategic power, one of the greatest material prizes in world history.”

-US State department memo August 1945

If since 1860 the United States of America has been the leading consumer of petroleum and today uses 25 percent of the world’s resources, how can we as a country not believe that there was a bit of motive and desire for oil control when we went to war in the Middle East? Our dependence on oil is vast and we no longer produce what we consume much like we did in the 1950’s and 1960’s. According to the US Department of Energy, by 2025 the United States will import 70 percent of its oil from other countries. Even from the time of World War Two and FDR the Middle East has been an interest for oil, so how can we be so ignorant to believe that it is not an interest today?

Part Two offers an fascinating piece of information, the United States has been allies with Saudi Arabia because of a contract made by FDR, despite the fact that they have no inkling of democracy and we attack countries for their lack of democracy. Furthermore we have over looked the lack of religious freedom and a lack of rights for the Saudi people, the very reasons we moved into Iraq, just so that we can have rights to Saudi oil. But when President Bush Sr. found that the public did not agree with sending troops to the Iraq/Iran war he stopped talking about Hussein’s thirst for oil and switched to Hussein’s desire for nuclear weapons. And because of this Congress agreed to send troops for operation “Desert Storm.”

Before Carter, the Presidents masked their motives on why they were supporting Saudi Arabia, but Carter himself said that Saudi Arabian Oil was a matter of national security and anyone who would attack Saudi Arabia would deal with the United States.

Even our enemies see and believe that the Untied States is after Middle Eastern Oil, “The biggest reason for our enemies’ control over our lands is to steal our oil, so give everything you can to stop the greatest theft of oil in history… for that will be the death of them.”

-Osama Bin Laden

Oil was at the root for his hatred and his war against the United States, so why is it difficult to believe that it is at the root for our Middle Eastern conquests, when we have depleted most of our oil sources. 1/3 of our oil went to Europe during the Second World War, and now we are in desperate need to fuel our addiction. It is difficult for me to believe that a new source of energy was not on the agenda when we went into war in Iraq, when President Bush was working on the energy crisis the country was facing at the time of his inauguration.

If we genuinely wanted to help Iraqis from a terrible leader, one we put into the seat of power, why do we treat all of its neighboring countries’ people like scum and pay bounty to countries to sell us their people to pretend that we are capturing the terrorists?

Suicide Bombing: a Sin or and act of Faith?

For many years the Middle East has used suicide bombers as a weapon. This idea has been used as a means to prove a point and defeat the supposed enemy. But in the Middle East suicide missions have not been seen as suicide, instead blowing themselves up is an act of Martyrdom. Often parents and family members are proud of their children who kill themselves and others in the name of Allah, to their societies they are heroes. However, it is not all of the Middle East who partakes in these types of missions, the majority of bombers come from the Gaza Strip. Further more, it is not all Muslims who practice such beliefs, only a certain sect of Islam believes that this act is an act of God, they are the Sufi Muslims

Muslims who participate in this act of violence create mass terror. I believe that the idea of killing one’s self is so terrific to the American culture because of the dominant religion Christianity, in which we are told it is a sin against god for some one to take their own life. As I am not part of this Martyrdom culture I do not understand why some one would want to take their life. How does a fourteen-year-old boy know that blowing himself up is the best path for him to take when he hasn’t lived out his life?

The use of child suicide bombers appears to be increasing, and while many children are educated and reared into this deadly fate, many are thankfully saved or removed before their actions have deadly consequences. Many have seen the images of infants and toddlers dressed in mock suicide bomber outfits in Palestine, and while they may not commit such acts when they grow-up, their fate is one undoubtedly leaning towards violence.

Though we are allies with the Israeli government, we must note that in their conflict, it is not only the Palestinians who wreak violence on their enemy. The feud that has been going on between Israel and Palestine for many years has become sort of a vendetta system. When a Jew attacks a Muslim, the Muslims retaliate, and so begins the on going cycle.

In Death/Family Relationship

In death do we show our true selves? Aunts Safiyya before she slips into her final coma she expresses that she will accept Harbi’s hand in marriage. Does this however mean that she originally want to marry Harbi or if she was really regretting accepting the Bey’s proposal? What is even more interesting is the act of the Father visiting Safiyya in her final throws of life, even though she cut all ties to her adoptive family. If I were the Father character I would have felt a gut wrenching sorrow upon hearing this confession, if that is what Safiyya really meant. The Father’s connection to Harbi is so strong that hearing Safiyya say “If Harbi asks for my hand, tell the bey I agree,” must have produced the thought, what if she had married Harbi? Would Safiyya have remained sane?

Possibly it was truly the Mother’s fault that Safiyya deteriorated, and maybe it was merely her genetic beauty. The Mother treated her daughters more fiercely than she did Safiyya because she knew that Safiyya would easily be married because of her beauty; whereas her children, not blessed with such beauty were treated harshly so that they would become a good house wife. Furthermore, the education that the four daughters received ultimately led to them having an independent mind from their husbands. Safiyya did not finish her education, which led to her being solely dependent on her husband and his well-being. In the event of the bey’s death Safiyya could not survive on her own. Even the life of her son Hassaan meant nothing to her. Now in contrast, the four daughters are educated, marry educated men, move to foreign countries and at least the youngest daughter has a job other than being a housewife. They are independent from their husbands.

Rumors: A Deadly Disease

Within our assigned readings that which has interested me most has come from chapter two; primarily after Aunt Safiyya has been married. Admittedly I felt as though Harbi reacted in an overly excited manner when he heard the news of his uncle’s son Hassaan, but I do not believe that he reacted as such because he now had some one to kill. Insight into who started and why these rumors of Harbi’s desire to murder Hassaan came about is not greatly divulged but even so their destruction of family ties is immense. These rumors were even believed by Safiyya who had grown up knowing Harbi, though that is not to difficult to understand because it is her child she separated herself from the family she grew up with. Our narrator tells us that many were jealous of Harbi because he was so close to the Bey, but then why would the Bey believe these rumors?

For the majority of his life the Consul Bey was a soft spoken man who was kind and giving but even the rumored threat of the death of his son drove him to unspeakable crimes. Because of his beliefs in these rumors he found Harbi one day and ordered men strip him down and to tie him to a palm tree. The men were then instructed to pull the ropes so that Harbi moved up, down, left and right along the tree, needless to say he no longer had skin on his back. The Bey even stated that he would make Harbi beg for death but would not be merciful and do so. He did not want to have to answer for his death. Because of the change in his uncle, as demonstrated by this action, Harbi with the strength of his pain ripped himself from the tree, grabbed on of the rifles held by a guard and shot the Bey in the chest. His shock was so grand and his pain was so fierce that Harbi no longer saw this man as his uncle, his father, and therefore had the ability to shoot him to save his own life.

Another major change that was created by these rumors was one that is probably more shocking. This change occurred in Safiyya. Our narrator, who wept in jealousy when his aunt was married, after a few months of mourning saw nothing left in his aunt except her

green-gold eyes. After the death of her husband Safiyya made predictions, ones than many people could have made, that created the idea that she had a second sight and Bey visited her in her dreams. After this Safiyya was no longer who all men desired but one whom all villagers feared. Even the gypsy woman, Amuna el-Baida was afraid of her, and gypsies are know as the ones who instill fear. Finally the greatest danger that these rumors caused was the fear Safiyya put into her own child. The narrator states that he feared the way she played with him and saw that he was being scared too.

Hollywood: Because we feel that Arab people are so different they deserve to die.

Hollywood, for at least 100 years, has been portraying Arab people as sub-human, worthless, and incompetent. And though I am completely disgusted with the fact that nearly 25% of Hollywood movies have racial slurs against Arabs and Muslims, I do not believe that every one of those movies is meant to attack those people. We, as a country, went to war in Iraq in March of 2003, which has ultimately increased the speed in which our country is becoming racist against Arab people, but even so was the war not made more acceptable to the general public because of the stereotypes we have been exposed to from the time we were beginning to climb out of our cribs? I believe that some of the movies created in collaboration with the department of defense are meant to rally support for the troops who are over seas or who have toured with the military, though the trials have been skewed in the favor of the American soldiers. Despite the few movies that may be geared to supporting the American troops, I cannot get the image of Nazi propaganda out of my head when a Palestinian character is thrown into a movie where it has no real reason to be in such movie or movies. It has been an eye opener to learn that the country I live in is creating propaganda much like that of the Nazi regime. How can the United States of America support such violence toward a people like such when we worked so rigorously to bring down the terror of Nazi Germany; a terror that many are still overcoming?

There are some forms of media in which support for American troops can be rallied and then there are those where my faith in this country falters. Images of troops posing with naked Arab men hanging by their wrists or thrown into piles as if they are autumn leaves makes me cringe, and these are supposed to be the men and women who are supposed to be "protecting our freedom?" Those images coupled with country leaders who merely state that it is just like a high school or college party makes me fear for those who are ignorant enough to trust those leaders and defenders of our country. I do not believe that this movie, “Reel Bad Arabs” showed enough images of people who have overcome these horrible stereotypes, not everyone in American is so ignorant to believe that all people are bad who come from Arabland. Even I, who knows next to nothing about the middle east, know that an entire people can not be based on the actions of one radical group; just because PETA is in existence, does not mean that all of the United States throws red paint on those who wear fur. The clips of comedy shown in this film I thought were hysterical, and do not feel horrible for laughing at these jokes. I believe that those who laugh at these jokes are the ones who understand that these stereotypes have gone too far and have lasted for far too long. In fact I am laughing at those people who fear Muslims when they walk into an airport.

09/09/09: Introduction

Hello,

My name is Molly White and for my first blog I thought I would start out by telling you a little about myself, just so that I could get a hang of blogging and so I could possibly meet a few people. I am a freshman and an English major who plans on becoming a Dance minor and possibly adding Sociology as a double major.

Dance is my first love but every one knows there is little to no money to be made in that industry so I have fallen back on my second love, books. As of right now the career path that I am strongly considering is being a Librarian. Surrounding myself with one of my passions for a career sounds superb. Along with working with books and studies, I would enjoy working with young children teaching them classes and showing them the joys of reading, much like the classes taught at the Portage Public Library on weekends and during the summer.

I have always loved the subject of English but never so much the grammar side, instead I have always had a fondness for reading and I often enjoy writing, but not enough to make a career out of it. I do enjoy discussions on books and their themes and often I would lead in class discussions throughout High School. However, I know very little about the Middle East and its culture so I feel a little wary about how useful my analytical skills will be for Dr. Webb’s class. Despite my lack of knowledge in this field I am excited to learn and to research all that I am able.