BLOOD & OIL — Brave New Review

2008-11-24T14:14:45Z

(Blood & Oil – documentary – 52 min – directed by Jeremy Earp – narrated by Michael T. Klare)

If you want to understand how the US got into the predicament we're in with oil and the wars we fight to get it, Blood & Oil, the Media Education Foundation's newest documentary, is required viewing.

(Full Disclosure: Jeremy Earp and his team at MEF were instrumental in the making of FOX ATTACKS! Iran. They provided much of the early FOX footage during the lead up to the Iraq war, and I'll always be grateful for their assistance.)

Last year, I reviewed MEF's terrific documentary, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, and was mightily impressed with the long, non-partisan view of how the media and the US government convinces Americans of the "necessity" of going to war. After seeing Blood & Oil, I now realize that this long view might be MEF's signature strength. Narrated by Michael T. Klare, correspondent for the Nation and one of the world's top experts on energy and security issues, B&O takes you through the complete history of America and oil, from when the US produced nearly 100% of its own oil (and used it to win World War II) up to the embarrassing, self-destructive mess we now find ourselves in, where more and more of our paychecks go towards buying an increasing amount of oil from governments that don’t like us.

While WME did a fantastic job of smashing the myth of a “liberal” media that is oddly enthusiastic about repeating the government’s warmongering propaganda, B&O dispels the right wing myth that the US never goes to war for oil. From FDR to Jimmy Carter to the Bushes to Bill Clinton, America’s hunger for and pursuit of oil has been at the heart of US foreign policy for the past 60 years. Like WME, B&O lets no party or administration off the hook. The film contains footage, declassified documents, and excerpts from presidential doctrines to show that the US government has long believed that control over the world’s dwindling supply of oil is worth sacrificing countless American lives and dollars while supporting some of the world’s most repressive, anti-democratic regimes.

The idea that the US goes to war for oil is not a liberal conspiracy theory — it’s America’s officially-stated foreign policy. In most cases, America’s foreign policy and energy policy are virtually indistinguishable. The problem is that Americans overwhelmingly do not view oil as a suitable reason to go to war, which is why “freedom”, “new Hitler”, and “WMDs” becomes the justification while we give billions of dollars a year to a country that forbids women to drive.

If You Want to Learn How Politicians and the "Liberal" Media Lead Us to War, See WAR MADE EASY

2008-10-28T11:48:25Z

I came across this film as I was doing the research for FOX ATTACKS! Iran. I had been searching with little success for information and footage of FOX before the current Iraq war — while much had been written about the supposedly "liberal" media's overall failure to do its job before the war, I could find surprisingly little that was specifically about FOX. Robert lent me a copy of War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, a terrific documentary that traces the history of the American media's unholy relationship with the government to convince US citizens to support wars, and I quickly realized that this movie had exactly the kind of footage I was looking for.

Robert got me in touch with Jeremy Earp, who co-wrote and co-directed WME with the film's producer, Loretta Alper. I was hoping to lock FA Iran in about a week, and Jeremy and his crew at the Media Education Foundation (which produced WME) worked with astonishing speed to get us the footage we were looking for. This is essentially a long way to explain my biases in writing this review — there would be no FA Iran if it wasn't for Jeremy and the folks at MEF, and I'm forever indebted to them. And Jeremy is a super cool guy, to boot.

However, even if I had never had contact with Jeremy, I would be just as enthusiastic in my praise and admiration for War Made Easy. The film, based on Norman Solomon's book of the same name, expertly uses footage from World War II to present day to illustrate how both Democratic and Republican administrations have used the same set of propaganda tools and a compliant, fawning media to repeatedly push the US into war. Some of these tools, created by the government and internalized by the media, include comparing our enemies to Hitler, celebrating military technology (instead of the death and destruction it is designed to inflict), the silencing of dissenting voices, the sanitizing of the realities of war, and false pronouncements of America's reluctance to fight, even as it leads the attack. WME is occasionally narrated by Sean Penn, though an interview with Solomon provides the bulk of the dialogue.

War Made Easy at Brave New Films

BLOOD & OIL — Brave New Review

If You Want to Learn How Politicians and the "Liberal" Media Lead Us to War, See WAR MADE EASY