The "Demonization" of Muslims and the Battle for Oil
by
Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, January 4, 2007
Throughout history, "
wars of religion" have served to obscure the economic and strategic
interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. "Wars of
religion" were invariably fought with a view to securing control over
trading routes and natural resources.
The Crusades extending from the 11th to the 14th Century are often
presented by historians as "a continuous series of military-religious
expeditions made by European Christians in the hope of wresting the Holy
Land from the infidel Turks." The objective of the Crusades, however,
had little to do with religion. The Crusades largely consisted, through
military action, in challenging the dominion of the Muslim merchant
societies, which controlled the Eastern trade routes.
The "Just War" supported the Crusades. War was waged with the support of
the Catholic Church, acting as an instrument of religious propaganda and
indoctrination, which was used in the enlistment throughout Europe of
thousands of peasants, serfs and urban vagabonds.
America's Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East
In the eyes of public opinion, possessing a "just cause" for waging war
is central. A war is said to be Just if it is waged on moral, religious
or ethical grounds.
America's Crusade in
Central Asia and the Middle East is no exception. The "war on terrorism"
purports to defend the American Homeland and protect the "civilized
world". It is upheld as a "war of religion", a "clash of civilizations",
when in fact the main objective of this war is to secure control and
corporate ownership over the region's extensive oil wealth, while also
imposing under the helm of the IMF and the World Bank (now under the
leadership of Paul Wolfowitz), the privatization of State enterprises
and the transfer of the countries' economic assets into the hands of
foreign capital. .
The Just War theory upholds war as a "humanitarian operation". It serves
to camouflage the real objectives of the military operation, while
providing a moral and principled image to the invaders. In its
contemporary version, it calls for military intervention on ethical and
moral grounds against "rogue states" and "Islamic terrorists", which are
threatening the Homeland.
Possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central to the Bush
administration's justification for invading and occupying both
Afghanistan and Iraq.
Taught in US military
academies, a modern-day version of the "Just War" theory has been
embodied into US military doctrine. The "war on terrorism" and the
notion of "preemption" are predicated on the right to "self defense."
They define "when it is permissible to wage war": jus ad bellum.
Jus ad bellum serves to build a consensus within the Armed Forces
command structures. It also serves to convince the troops that the enemy
is "evil" and that they are fighting for a "just cause". More generally,
the Just War theory in its modern day version is an integral part of war
propaganda and media disinformation, applied to gain public support for
a war agenda.
The Battle for Oil. Demonization of the Enemy
War builds a humanitarian agenda. Throughout history, vilification of
the enemy has been applied time and again. The Crusades consisted in
demonizing the Turks as infidels and heretics, with a view to justifying
military action.
Demonization serves geopolitical and economic objectives.
Likewise, the campaign against "Islamic terrorism" (which is supported
covertly by US intelligence) supports the conquest of oil wealth. The
term "Islamo-fascism," serves to degrade the policies, institutions,
values and social fabric of Muslim countries, while also upholding the
tenets of "Western democracy" and the "free market" as the only
alternative for these countries.
The US led war in the broader Middle East Central Asian region consists
in gaining control over more than sixty percent of the world's supplies
of oil and natural gas. The Anglo-American
oil giants also seek to gain control over oil and gas pipeline routes
out of the region. (See table and maps below).
Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the United
Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, Kazakhstan,
Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, possess between 66.2 and 75.9
percent of total oil reserves, depending on the source and methodology
of the estimate. (See table below).
In contrast, the United States of America has barely 2 percent of total
oil reserves. Western countries including its major oil producers (
Canada, the US, Norway, the UK, Denmark and Australia) control
approximately 4 percent of total oil reserves. (In the alternative
estimate of the Oil and Gas Journal which includes Canada's oil sands,
this percentage would be of the the order of 16.5%. See table below).
The largest share of the World's oil reserves lies in a region extending
(North) from the tip of Yemen to the Caspian sea basin and (East) from
the Eastern Mediterranean coastline to the Persian Gulf. This broader
Middle East- Central Asian region, which is the theater of the US-led
"war on terrorism" encompasses according to the estimates of World Oil,
more than sixty percent of the World's oil reserves. (See table below).
Iraq has five times more oil than the United States.
Muslim countries possess at least 16 times more oil than the Western
countries.
The major non-Muslim oil reserve countries are Venezuela, Russia,
Mexico, China and Brazil. (See table)
Demonization is applied to an enemy, which possesses three quarters of
the world's oil reserves. "Axis of evil", "rogue States", "failed
nations", "Islamic terrorists": demonization and vilification are the
ideological pillars of America's "war on terror". They serve as a casus
belli for waging the battle for oil.
The Battle for Oil requires the demonization of those who possess the
oil. The enemy is characterized as evil, with a view to justifying
military action including the mass killing of civilians. The Middle East
Central Asian region is heavily militarized. (See map). The oil fields
are encircled: NATO war ships stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean (as
part of a UN "peace keeping" operation), US Carrier Strike Groups and
Destroyer Squadrons in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian deployed as part
of the "war on terrorism".
USS Enterprise Strike Group
The ultimate objective, combining military action, covert intelligence
operations and war propaganda, is to break down the national fabric and
transform sovereign countries into open economic territories, where
natural resources can be plundered and confiscated under "free market"
supervision. This control also extends to strategic oil and gas pipeline
corridors (e.g. Afghanistan).
Demonization is a PSYOP, used to sway public opinion and build a
consensus in favor of war. Psychological warfare is directly sponsored
by the Pentagon and the US intelligence apparatus. It is not limited to
assassinating or executing the rulers of Muslim countries, it extends to
entire populations. It also targets Muslims in Western Europe and North
America. It purports to break national consciousness and the ability to
resist the invader. It denigrates Islam. It creates social divisions. It
is intended to divide national societies and ultimately trigger "civil
war". While it creates an environment which facilitates the outright
appropriation of the countries' resources, at the same time, it
potentially backlashes, creates a new national consciousness, develops
inter-ethnic solidarity, brings people together in confronting the
invaders.
It is worth noting that the triggering of sectarian divisions and "civil
wars" is contemplated in the process of redrawing of the map of the
Middle East, where countries are slated to be broken up and transformed
into territories. The map of the New Middle East, although not official,
has been used by the US National War Academy. It was recently published
in the Armed Forces Journal (June 2006). In this map, nation states are
broken up, international borders are redefined along sectarian-ethnic
lines, broadly in accordance with the interests of the Anglo-American
oil giants (See Map below). The map has also been used in a training
program at NATO's Defense College for senior military officers.
MAP OF THE NEW MIDDLE EAST
Map: click to enlarge
Note: The following map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters.
It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006, Peters is a
retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy. (Map Copyright
Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters 2006).
The Oil Lies in Muslim Lands
The oil lies in Muslim lands. Vilification of the enemy is part and
parcel of Eurasia energy geopolitics. It is a direct function of the
geographic distribution of the World's oil and gas reserves. If the oil
were in countries occupied predominantly by Buddhists or Hindus, one
would expect that US foreign policy would be directed against Buddhists
and Hindus, who would also be the object of vilification..
In the Middle East war theater, Iran and Syria, which are part of the
"axis of evil", are the next targets according to official US
statements.
US sponsored "civil wars" have also been conducted in several other
strategic oil and gas regions including Nigeria, the Sudan, Colombia,
Somalia, Yemen, Angola, not to mention Chechnya and several republics of
the former Soviet Union.
Ongoing US sponsored "civil wars", which often include the channelling
of covert support to paramilitary groups, have been triggered in the
Darfur region of Sudan as well as in Somalia, Darfur possesses extensive
oil reserves. In Somalia, lucrative concessions have already been
granted to four Anglo-American oil giants.
"According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds of
Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco [now part
of BP], Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S.
President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into
chaos in January, 1991. Industry sources said the companies holding the
rights to the most promising concessions are hoping that the Bush
Administration's decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard aid shipments
to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-dollar investments
there." (America's Interests in Somalia, Global Research, 2002)
Globalization and the Conquest of the World's Energy Resources
The collective demonization of Muslims, including the vilification of
Islam, applied Worldwide, constitutes at the ideological level, an
instrument of conquest of the World's energy resources. It is part of
the broader economic, political mechanisms underlying the New World
Order.
NOTES PERTAINING TO THE TABLE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF OIL RESERVES
Indicated are the world's main oil reserve countries. Countries with
less than 0.1 % of total reserves are not indicated.
The Oil and Gas Journal figures indicated above are based on proven oil
reserves including the bituminous oil fields (oil sands or tar sands).
The World Oil figures indicate oil reserves without the tar sands. The
difference between the two sets of figures largely pertains to the
position of Canada and Venezuela. The tar-sands are considered by some
experts as not recoverable with present technology and prices, although
this issue is the object of heated debate.
Muslim countries are indicated in bold. Percentages are rounded up to
first decimal.
*Canada appears according to this estimate as the Second Country in
terms of the size of proven reserves, due to the size of its bituminous
oil fields. The Oil & Gas Journal's oil reserve estimate above for
Canada includes 4.7 billion barrels of conventional crude oil and
condensate reserves and 174.1 billion barrels of oil sands reserves.
In other recognized estimates, where the oil sands are not accounted
for, Canada's reserves are much lower (in billions of barrels):
BP notes that "the figure for Canadian oil reserves includes an official
estimate of Canadian oil sands "under active development"." BP says of
its data sources for oil reserves that "the estimates in this table have
been compiled using a combination of primary official sources,
third-party data from the OPEC Secretariat, World Oil, Oil & Gas Journal
and an independent estimate of Russian reserves based on information in
the public domain.
World Oil's Canadian oil reserve estimate "does not include 174 billion
bbl [barrels] of oil sands reserves."
