It's About The Oil, Stupid!

Ok, Americans are stupidly bitching about the costs of food, clothes, housing, heating, healthcare and every other consumer item while continuing to ignore the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about oil, the costs of fighting those wars are 10.3 billion dollars every month and the use of oil by the military in those wars are conservatively estimated at 50 million gallons a month at an average of over three dollars per gallon. You do the math if the public school system hasn’t failed you in teaching multiplication and division.
So, the American answer to this insanity of oil usage in the face of global warming, deterioration of the environment and more and more shortages of fish and mammal species is to develop off shore oil drilling, oil drilling in national forest lands and the incursion of oil rigs onto the tundra of Alaska. Even after we’ve allowed the environmental disasters that are bound to occur with this oil search the oil gained won’t reach the American consumers for 15-20 years after the drilling begins. We see all the inane ads in this year of national elections railing against candidates who dare speak up against drilling in the ever dwindling open spaces of forests and coastlines but the ads always fail to give the time frame of how long it will take for any oil to reach the consumer.
Meanwhile the development of alternative fuels continues to be the bastard cousin no one wants to talk about. Could it be the profits gained from cleaner and more efficient fuels would be less than those gained from oil? Could it be the automakers would have to retrofit factories to go from the internal combustion, polluting engines to cleaner and safer motors that could possibly reverse the damages done by oil dependency?
Let’s repeat this information about the use of oil by the military. 50 million gallons of oil each month. The American military is the largest single consumer of oil in the world. If we calculated the use of oil by the American military alone, it would rank 35th-38th of over 200 oil consuming nations. And the known military use of oil is only a partial estimate as the true total remains unknown to the public. Approximately 150 million dollars are spent each month for military use of oil.
American politicians are fond of saying the issue most Americans care most about is the economy. Pundits say elections always come down to the concept of “it’s the economy, stupid!” Oil is certainly the catalyst of the world’s economic stability but it is also a finite resource that will be depleted sooner than the greedy big oil companies are willing to tell us.
Bankers and economists are well known for encouraging Americans to save money for their future; especially when deposited in their institutions or invested in their corporations. The same financial geniuses are very quiet when it comes to the national future. They don’t speak out about developing alternative sources of fuel and energy. Apparently taxing and charging for the natural resources of wind, geothermal and sunshine isn’t lucrative enough for their financial genius.
Let’s repeat it again. The American military is the single largest user of oil in the world. For every service member in Iraq it costs 88 dollars each day to continue the war. In WWII the average use of a single soldier or Marine was 1.67 gallons each day. In Iraq that average use of a single troop is 27.3 gallons each day. We’re not talking about the overall use of oil by all Americans. We’re talking about the military only.
The problem with trying to understand the huge amount of oil used to run the war machine is most Americans don’t consider it a factor in their personal lifestyles being changed for the worse. Questioning the military use of oil is probably considered un-patriotic by many Americans. So, Americans continue to believe the lies of Big Oil and lying politicians funded by Big Oil at the same time they voice outrage about the largest profit in one quarter by one industry in the recorded history of such statistics. What part of corporate greed and corruption of government do Americans fail to see?
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about oil and greed. The current conflict in the former Russian province of Georgia is about oil. A vital pipeline supplying much of Europe is within the borders of that province. Do Americans really think the current administration would be talking about Russian aggression and the sovereignty of Georgia if that pipeline wasn’t there? This is the same administration that aggressively invaded two sovereign nations under the premise of fighting terrorism. Both nations are vital links in producing oil for American consumption, creating huge profits for Big Oil and establishing dominance in the volatile region of the Middle East.
If the Bush administration cared about humanitarian relief and sovereignty why has it failed to act in Africa where genocide continues unabated? Darfur lacks the important ingredient for American politicians to care. The Sudan doesn’t have the supply of oil to be found in Iraq. The continent of Africa doesn’t have key pipelines that will lead to full tanks of gas for American SUVs and Bradley armored vehicles.
The war is about oil, stupid! The costs of war are directly related to the price of gas at the pump. The price of oil is directly related to the costs of food, clothing, education, healthcare, heating, cooling, electricity, vacations and all other consumer items Americans care so much about. The price of oil relates to homelessness, foreclosures, lack of jobs, lack of living wages, failed social systems for the marginalized, maintenance of roads and public utilities and most aspects of American lifestyle. The 10.3 billion dollars a month spent on the war with the 150 million dollars spent to fuel the machines of war relate to everyday parts of all middleclass and marginalized Americans. The war is about oil and the economy is about oil, stupid!! And don’t expect any candidate of either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party to bring relief when they’re elected. Follow their sources of funding. At every step there are representatives of Big Oil or multi-national corporations donating to both candidates. Big business is hedging all bets by giving money to both parties.
Our children and grandchildren are being used as cogs in the military industrial complex. Their lives are expendable just as much as the lives of Iraqi children. The loss of liberty will continue until even the cages of “free speech zones” will vanish. The vague and invisible threats of terrorism will continue to be used to keep Americans terrified their lifestyles are threatened by dark bearded bogeymen when the truth is their lifestyles are being stolen by sleazy politicians and corporate CEO’s in dark fashionable suits and designer ties.
What answers do McCain and Obama offer the American people? McCain suggests destruction of pristine lands with roads and huge timber clearance, offshore drilling to endanger our oceans and the permanent destruction of large portions of what little wilderness is left in Alaska. McCain suggests we restart the nuclear energy programs shut down by the shoddy construction and accidental discharges of radiation. He deludes himself and tries to delude his “friends” that more nukes will be safe. Don’t believe him for one minute, my friends.
Obama began as a candidate talking about alternative energy but just as he abandoned his minister he’s also abandoned a pledge to preserve the oceans. Obama is a chameleon who changes his beliefs according to the latest polls. He is at best disingenuous but more likely he’s the same as every other politician in D.C.. He’s been bought by corporate interests and will continue the government of the corporate interest, for the corporate interests and by the corporate interests. If we want to know about Obama we can read the words of Abu Jamal Mumia.
“It is a measure of how dire is the hour that they’ve passed the keys to the kingdom to a Black man.
As in many American cities, Black mayors were let in when the treasuries were almost barren, and tax bases were almost at rock-bottom.
With the nation’s manufacturing base also a thing of history, amidst the socioeconomic wreckage of globalization, with foreign affairs in shambles, the rulers reach for a pretty, brown face to front for the Empire.
“Real change that you could believe in” would be an end to Empire, and an end to wars for corporate greed, not just a change of the shade of the political managers.
That change, I’m afraid, is still to come.”
It seems a captive of the American gulags makes more sense than those citizens allegedly “free”. He sees the lies and has nothing left to lose by speaking the truth. Unless Americans start making the connections between oil, war and the American dream being an illusion they will be in their own gulag of restricted liberty and financial despair.

It is about the oil, stupid!

Wm Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam ’67-‘69