A Century of War

“A Century of War, Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order”, by William Engdahl is, in my opinion, a fascinating read. The book basically portrays how Anglo-American financial and energy interests have dominated the world for over a hundred years. His hypothesis that the World Bank and the IMF and the "dollar system" are used to cement this control is sound and for that alone the book is worth reading. However, more than this he shows how, beginning with early British interest in the Gulf those financial and strategic interests have been linked to the black black gold. No surprises there and the "Orwellian Newspeak"; the "war on terrorism", "democracy", "moderate Arab states", "genocide in Dafur" rhetoric is only blatant hypocrisy.
An easier piece to read is, "The New great Game, Blood and Oil in Central Asia", by Lutz Kleveman and it achieves what it is trying to achieve. It makes us aware of the conflicting interests of the major players in Central Asia. China is one of those major players. It is, however, China's activities on the African continent that I want to look at briefly, where soft loans or 100% grants have gone into building schools, roads and hospitals in some of the poorest regions. These soft loans and grants are in stark contrast to the strict measures imposed by the IMF and the World Bank and in return the Chinese already receive 30% of their crude oil from Africa. A lot of that oil comes from the Sudan and it is, therefore, not surprising that Washington has leveled genocide charges at the Sudanese government only too well aware that if accepted in the United Nations those charges could ultimately lead to real intervention by Washington in the region. Let us be aware, atrocities have been committed in the Sudan, misery is extensive and there have been up to 300,000 deaths but let us too not be fooled as to the United States true motives.
Elsewhere it is a similar story; Kosovo, Myanmar, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and all the other "stans". The stakes, of course, are high with China set to overtake the United States as the greatest consumer of oil in a few years time and, perhaps too, in the not all too distant future refusing to buy US government debt. We should at least remain focused on 'Uncle Sam's' real motivation when preaching human rights, democracy and free trade. In doing this we could, perhaps, remind ourselves and others that we are indeed living on a planet where resources are finite. This will mean that we can all at least understand that as things are conflict is almost inevitable and that very real changes in our thinking and in the world's economic system are required if it is to be avoided.
The picture is of the cover to William Engdahl's book; "A Century of War".