Muses of Murari

I’d confusion regarding connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, while I was at college. This was when America invaded Iraq after 9/11 incident. I thought that there must be some link. Later I was told stories on WMD. Months later, Saddam Hussein was persecuted, Iraq became more dangerous place to live in and posed no major threats. I sniffed some other motivation behind America’s invasion. After reading this book, everything is becoming clear. America went for Oil and not for the reasons it had stated.

This brilliant book by Michael T. Klare, explains history of America’s oil dependency. Right from second world war, the author traced oil consumption and production rates in US and how latter oriented its foreign policies in order to secure oil reserves for it own future.

Author elucidates America’s increasing dependency of oil imports and how that could cost dearly in terms of money & blood. In order to diversify the sources of oil, America has supplied military, technology, artillery and money to the nations in Persian gulf and near Caspian basin. After George W Bush took over presidency, when America’s imported oil touched 50 % of its total consumption, the decision of securing oil reserves even with military action, was made. The decision made after much so called deliberations on pursuit of old oil economy vs new Eco-friendly energy sources. Shocking to know that the energy companies like Enron had close tie ups with Republicans and funded Bush election campaign before he became president. Oil and security policies were then unified and American government declared to do whatever it takes to secure oil reserves and secure American economy. So we saw deployments of American forces in central Asia, in Caspian basin and in Persian gulf.

Author also gives detailed picture on other countries like Russia and China pursuing oil to meet their own demands. The ethnic conflicts in oil producing countries like Nigeria, Angola and  troubled nations like Iraq can worsen the situation of oil production. In order to avoid any attack on oil reserves, more American troops are employed in places like Kuwait, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and others. Already world has seen alienation of American forces and attacks on them in the places like Saudi Arabia, Iraq. Now, if more American forces are deployed to secure the oil reserves and there could be more blood shedding. Moreover, author points out the fact that oil nations need to ramp up their production massively in next decade or so in order to meet world oil demands in 2025. Oil nations cannot do it by themselves. They need technology know-hows from America. This again demands more money and men to flow to oil countries. At the end, he explains the ways America can reduce their dependency on oil to cleaner energy technologies.

And there are many more chilling facts and figures. That can strongly make you to think that it is high time to switch to other energy sources and reduce the world dependency on depleting oil reserves. Luckily, India has not taken this route, in the scale taken by China or Russia, and we are at a critical juncture to take right decisions.

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