Wofford 1

George Wofford

Mr. Sampson

English

11/13/09

The Cost of Oil

In 1932, The Saudi tribe, with the help of the Wahabi Islamic warriors, took control of

the Arabian Peninsula. When the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 was first

founded, it was fiercely anti-western. They wanted to go back in time to a purer world, to an

Islam in tradition that wasn't threatened by western culture and where the words of the

Mohammed, as they believe it today, ruled (The Kingdom).

In 1933, Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia by an American expedition. “It was by

chance we discovered oil. We were looking for water” (The Kingdom).Despite criticism of

foreign presence the in their country, the king allowed commercial oil production to begin. The

first union between Saudii Arabia and the United States was founded; the American-Arabian

Company known as ARAMCO. To accommodate the foreign work force, the first housing

complexes are created. The strict laws of the Islamic enforced outside of these walls did not

apply inside the complex (The Kingdom).

1945: “West an East came together in Egypt when President Roosevelt and Abdul-aziz

bin Abdurrahman Al Saud met to discuss politics between their two countries.” (The Kingdom).

The Saudi wanted the Americans pumping the oil because we were their security, oil for

protection. “The Saudi elite became notorious big spenders, and lost credibility and respect

among religious conservatives.” (The Kingdom). In response to the U.S. support of Israel, and

the Arab-Israel war in 1970, Wahabi Muslims pressured Saudi monarchy to stop pumping oil.

(The Kingdom).As a result, the oil embargo began in 1973. Those who controlled the flow of oil
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(OPEC) reduced the flow of oil and oil prices quadrupled. America used oil for food, plastics,

medicine, energy, and most importantly, national security. Oil was a national security priority for

the US. (The Kingdom).

The embargo ended 1n 1974. But, it radically redefined the balance of power between the

oil producers and the oil consumers. (The Kingdom). In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait as Saddam

Hussein wanted to avail himself to their oil fields. Iraqi tanks swept across Kuwait’s borders at

first light, literally uncontested. As a Saudi national, Osama bin Laden offered his services to the

Saudi Royals. He told them we could bring his battle-ready army from Afghanistan to repel the

Iraq invaders from Kuwait. But the Saudis had a better offer in the form of 500,000 troops from

the United States. His offer rejected, Osama took to the streets and Mosques to denounce the

Royal Family, the United States, and their “unholy alliance”. (The Kingdom). Terrorist attacks

increased around the world in the 90’s. Osama bin Laden lashed out at the Royal Family. He

attacked the Riyadh Compound in Saudi Arabia, Nairobi in Kenya, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

In addition, he attacked and the U.S.S. Cole in Yemens’ waters, a direct attack on the US. (The

Kingdom).

The new millennium saw Saudi Arabia as the largest producer of oil in the world. Saudi

Arabia possessed 25% of the world's proven petroleum reserves, and ranked as the largest

exporter of petroleum. Saudi oil reserves are the largest and Saudi Arabia continues to be the

world's leading oil producer and exporter. Oil accounts for more than 90% of their exports and

nearly 75% of government revenues. Proven reserves are estimated to be 260 billion barrels;

fully one-quarter of world’s known oil reserves. (LiveLeak)

The new millennium also saw United States as the largest consumer of oil in the world.

The U.S. uses about 6.6 billion barrels per year. According to the EIA, the United States had 21

billion barrels of proven oil reserves as of January 1, 2000. This equates to about 3 years of US
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consumption while Saudi reserves would supply the US for about 40 years. The United States

used more than double the oil that Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle

East use combined. (LiveLeak)

Osama bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.

This was the first attack on American soil in over 200 years, 4 wars ago when the British

attacked New Orleans in the Battle of 1812. When it became known that 15 out of the 19

hijackers were Saudi it was an enormous political disaster that made the Saudis, in the minds of

most Americans, a deceptive and cowardly enemy.

The Saudi monarchy very quickly condemned the attacks. “We are with you to

get to the perpetrators to this cowardly attack.” Said a Saudi representative. “How dare they say

they are Saudi?” (LiveLeak).

Saddam Hussein was by far the most hated Arab leader, and is in the running for the most

hated dictator in history. He controlled everything his subjects did, down to the social aspect,

making people say pandering slogans about him in everyday speech. The penalty for failure to

say “Long live Saddam” whenever you said goodbye to someone, was death. Besides being

morally bankrupt, Saddam Hussein led Iraq to financial bankruptcy.

As a teenager, Saddam was part of the Baath tribe. One of his operations was to

assassinate the Iraq military officer and prime minister of Iraq, Abdel-Karvim, also known as

Al-za’im aka “The Leader”. When the assassination failed and he was found out, he fled the

country.

After the Baath tribe took over Iraq, he came back. The tribe ended up controlling

Baghdad, and Saddam was chosen as dictator. Not that much later, the Baath tribe was

overthrown, but he had consolidated control of the military. From the position of overwhelming
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firepower (compared to his internal enemies), he used “Harsh Rule” to keep his divided nation

together.

The War in Iraq has cost over 1 trillion dollars, in contrary to the officially estimated

500,000 billion. We continue to spend about 16 billion monthly to support our war effort. By the

time the war is over, the war is going to cost us 3 trillion at a minimum.

Many people forget the cost of the war also includes our obligation to pay veterans and

those permanently injured in battle. The war also costs us in lives. There have been 30329

recorded wounded as of may 26th, 2008.

Other estimates of US deaths: Since Election (1/31/05): 2647. Since Handover (6/29/04):

3225. Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3623. Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 3945.

Since war began (3/19/03): 4084 (Blimes 39), and sadly the death of over 500,000 Iraqis.

There are also many disease outbreaks in Iraq. 2/3rds of the evacuated troops have some

kind of disease. This includes: Chronic Diarrhea, Acute Respiratory Illness (Severe Cold),

Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Conjunctivitis (Eye infection), Measles, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Cutaneous

Leishmaniasis, Meningococcal Meningitis, Malaria, Cholera, and Meningitis. Not to mention

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, a psychological cost that the Veterans Administration seems to

be addressing with the same denial afforded Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

There are also social costs to the war. Our original intention was to “seize the weapons of

mass destruction”. In his campaign, John McCain practically admitted that the war in Iraq was

strictly over oil. (LiveLeak).

A soldier’s reality in Iraq is not glamorous. On a daily basis, he has to wear at least 50

pounds of equipment. Much of this is Kevlar, which gets very, very hot.

“Around mid summer, it gets to be about 120 degrees” […] “If you lost your water hole;

you are pretty much dead unless you can find another one in about an hour.” […]
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“I’m not saying that it is entirely its fault, but sometimes heat… makes people go a little

bit more… crazier than they normally are. I’ve seen a few of my buddies get heat stroke so many

times they started to go insane. […] “All I’m saying is, maybe if it wasn’t as hot as it is, people

wouldn’t be strapping bombs to their chest and running into crowed intersections.”

[…] “And I would have to say, it is by far one of the most boring places on Earth. It is

kind of like the deserts we have here, except, no plant life whatsoever. It’s just flat sand as far as

the eye can see. And not even varying hills, or colors of sand. At one time, I was seriously

contemplating shooting myself in the foot so I could just go home and play Super Smash

Brothers.” […]

“Over all, it is worth it. The Iraqis love me over there. Of course, they don’t have Fox

news, so they don’t know everything is going to be okay. […]

One thing I liked to do in my free time is draw pictures for the kids. One I drew about the

bombs that we dropped, that looked exactly like the food packets dropped by the red cross, got

50,000 copies distributed by the U.S. army to small villages.”

[…] “And I think Bush got way to much credit for dropping those bombs. As a nation we

are treating him like he came in second place in the Special Olympics. I mean, Gandhi would

have bombed that country, yet we are all saying “Good job! Good job buddy! Look at you, look

at you!” (Aketnu).
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Works Cited

Aketnu. Aketnu, Austin. Personal Interview. 5/10/2008

BBC. 1/4/01. BBC World Services. 5/11/08, http://www.new.bbc.co.uk

The Kingdom. Peter Berg. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhorn. DVD.

Universal Pictures, 2007.

LiveLeak. LiveLeak. 5/3/2008. LiveLeak. 5/9/2008

The Three Trillion Dollar War. Stiglitz, Joseph. The Three Trillion Dollar War. New York:

W.W. Norton & Company, 2008.