Klare: A new book, another old cliche

Has it not struck us that the book "Resource War" is the presequel of the latest story in Klare new "Blood for Oil". Indeed, Klare did explain to us about the significance and the strategy that the US was involved in even before 9-11 in regard of "oil resource" in his previous book. However, he expanded and went further into researching the historical tie of the US and Saudi Arabia to build the foundations for his new episode. Klare traced the root back to the end of WWII, when the Franklin Roosevelt's administration was still in power. According to Klare, Roosevelt was the first President to fully acknowledge and understand the power of oil and its influence on the US economy. It may be just a selling tactic when Klare said he had not been aware of how important oil was in America at that time because everybody knew that the US had become a world power by 1945 partly because of its discovery of "the new energy", which rendered steam power obsolete. Klare, nevertheless, pointed out the impact of oil in the war in which America was the sole energy supplier to the Allies and has taken for granted that oil was an inseparable part of the whole economy. Here, the drama unfold, when Roosevelt was informed that the US oil reserves would be exhausted in the near future if used at the current pace, he desperately went in search for an alternative. All research pointed to a country which has the most oil to offer but had never been in diplomatic relation with the US: this country was Saudi Arabia. Then came the pact in which America would protect the royal family in exchange of a privilege to tap on the huge reserves inside Saudi. Klare brought up the fact that Standard Oil became the first multi-national corporation as a direct result of this agreement on oil. Klare argues that the policy involving Saudi Arabia has become the guideline for the US foreign diplomacy since. It has not changed much from administration to administration, only the intensity and the approaching method. Klare gave a reason why America had to eliminate Saddam when they knew of his ambition of controlling the region: the threat of having a "stranglehold" on the independence of the US economy was too great. And for this reason, the US unknowingly created a powerful enemy in Binladen, whose offer for help was denied by the Saudi king. It has become a situation of friend of enemy is enemy. After all, Klare contemplates that the greed of the US has created bloodshed and potential bloodshed one after another. However, it is unfair and overmaneuvering to say that conflicts and blood were caused by resources only. The Middle East had been plagued by internal strifes for a long time before the presence of the US. Saddam attacked Kuwait not because of the US. Binladen did not become enemy of the US but of the whole Western ideology. In ignoring the truth that the citizens in countries having US investments are a lot better off then others, Klare has underscored the relevant benefit of business. Lastly, Klare forgot to mention the involvement of other oil-crazed countries in the picture of global conflict.