As a 10 year old i was a die-hard John Rambo fan, i always thought War was one-man game where the Hero pumps bullets, rescues the innocent, wins over the girl and eventually saves the day for the world.
I witnessed the Afghanistan War(War on Terror), Iraq War, Libyan War, Donbass War (War in Ukraine), ISIS war and it has made me think over n over. If you see in every case there is one bad guy who was good once upon a time and was accepted by the people, but then he turned rogue, committed Mass killings, torture, rape till one NATO country(US Led or Ally led) jumps in, kills the rogue and saves the day just like John Rambo.
This was till I observed this map recently
The above map is of the OPEC or Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a list of 12 countries which have 81% of the worlds proven oil reserves,with middle east amounting 66% of the OPEC total.
Now Petrol or Crude Oil controls economies, the higher the price of petrol, the higher the costs of transport incurred eventually leading to rise in prices of basic commodities, that's the reason Petroleum is called "Black Gold" and a change in crude oil price fluctuates stock markets and economies likewise.
Coming to the map, a question comes up, What binds all these 12 countries in the world?, No culture, religion, politics or military aid binds them all, but then there is one common thread that runs through all of them that is Each of them is either a U.S ally or at War with U.S or under an ongoing conflict within itself.
KUWAIT : In 1990, Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait its relatively smaller and richer neighbor over oil-pricing issues, in retaliation Kuwaiti Government paid $60 Billion to the U.S led coalition to help it overthrow Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Uncle Sam readily did so and since then Kuwait has great political relations with U.S.A
U.A.E : There is no question about the friendship between U.S.A and U.A.E, Dubai has huge U.S and western investments which led to its growth in the past 10-15 years. In 2009 U.S signed a bilateral deal which for peaceful nuclear cooperation in U.A.E, it is also a major supplier of Arms and ammunition for the U.A.E army.
IRAQ : In 1970's and 80's Saddam was shown as a good guy by the western media, till he went rogue fighting with Iran, Kuwait and eventually expelled post 2003 Iraq War. Iraq's economy today stands at adverse conditions with its Iraqi Dinar 17 times lower than the Indian Rupee today. Baghdad was once called the "Paris of the Middle East" while today it stands as a extremist infested nation, Vice President of Iraq Nouri Al-Maliki had openly accused the United States of using ISIS as a pretext to maintain its military presence in Iraq
IRAN : U.S and E.U has placed unprecedented Trade sanctions on Iran since 2006, it is said that if the sanctions against Iran are removed crude oil prices could go down by 10% but that I am personally sure would not happen so soon. Iran's economy has been plagued by the sanctions and will keep doing so till it doesn't come out clean on its Nuclear weapons.
SAUDI ARABIA: The Ultra-Conservative Islamic Monarchy made a $60.5 Billion arms purchase, the biggest ever in American History. KSA has always been an important ally to the U.S.A and relations never got affected despite the fact that Osama belonged to the Royal Saudi family and the fact that there are 5000 U.S troops stationed in Saudi since 1993, which increased to 10,000 in 2003. King Abdullah shared a great rapport with U.S.A with King Salman expected of carrying it forward.
QATAR: Though not a great Ally compared to others mentioned here, In 1992, Qatar had built intimate military ties with the United States, and is now the location of U.S. Central Command’s Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center.In 2014, the United States sold $11 billion worth of arms to Qatar, including AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, Patriot and Javelin systems. U.S thus has two strong military bases in Qatar.
LIBYA: The story of Muammar Gaddafi is not much different compared to Saddam Hussain, Gaddafi was portrayed a bad guy initially because he nationalized oil exporting companies in 1970's, then a good guy just because he signed the International Atomic Energy Agency protocol and then a rogue again when the Libiyan Civil war erupted and the U.S.A helped Libiya overthrow Gaddafi.
NIGERIA: The U.S.A shared great ties with Nigeria which is a predominantly Christian country till Boko Haram caused problems in Nigeria. The U.S.A under its "Leahy Law" does not sells arms to Nigeria for reasons pertaining to Human Rights Violations but interestingly last month the U.S.A lift the ban and is ready to supply arms and ammunition to help Nigeria fight Boko-Haram.
I witnessed the Afghanistan War(War on Terror), Iraq War, Libyan War, Donbass War (War in Ukraine), ISIS war and it has made me think over n over. If you see in every case there is one bad guy who was good once upon a time and was accepted by the people, but then he turned rogue, committed Mass killings, torture, rape till one NATO country(US Led or Ally led) jumps in, kills the rogue and saves the day just like John Rambo.
This was till I observed this map recently
The above map is of the OPEC or Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a list of 12 countries which have 81% of the worlds proven oil reserves,with middle east amounting 66% of the OPEC total.
Now Petrol or Crude Oil controls economies, the higher the price of petrol, the higher the costs of transport incurred eventually leading to rise in prices of basic commodities, that's the reason Petroleum is called "Black Gold" and a change in crude oil price fluctuates stock markets and economies likewise.
Coming to the map, a question comes up, What binds all these 12 countries in the world?, No culture, religion, politics or military aid binds them all, but then there is one common thread that runs through all of them that is Each of them is either a U.S ally or at War with U.S or under an ongoing conflict within itself.
KUWAIT : In 1990, Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait its relatively smaller and richer neighbor over oil-pricing issues, in retaliation Kuwaiti Government paid $60 Billion to the U.S led coalition to help it overthrow Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Uncle Sam readily did so and since then Kuwait has great political relations with U.S.A
U.A.E : There is no question about the friendship between U.S.A and U.A.E, Dubai has huge U.S and western investments which led to its growth in the past 10-15 years. In 2009 U.S signed a bilateral deal which for peaceful nuclear cooperation in U.A.E, it is also a major supplier of Arms and ammunition for the U.A.E army.
IRAQ : In 1970's and 80's Saddam was shown as a good guy by the western media, till he went rogue fighting with Iran, Kuwait and eventually expelled post 2003 Iraq War. Iraq's economy today stands at adverse conditions with its Iraqi Dinar 17 times lower than the Indian Rupee today. Baghdad was once called the "Paris of the Middle East" while today it stands as a extremist infested nation, Vice President of Iraq Nouri Al-Maliki had openly accused the United States of using ISIS as a pretext to maintain its military presence in Iraq
IRAN : U.S and E.U has placed unprecedented Trade sanctions on Iran since 2006, it is said that if the sanctions against Iran are removed crude oil prices could go down by 10% but that I am personally sure would not happen so soon. Iran's economy has been plagued by the sanctions and will keep doing so till it doesn't come out clean on its Nuclear weapons.
SAUDI ARABIA: The Ultra-Conservative Islamic Monarchy made a $60.5 Billion arms purchase, the biggest ever in American History. KSA has always been an important ally to the U.S.A and relations never got affected despite the fact that Osama belonged to the Royal Saudi family and the fact that there are 5000 U.S troops stationed in Saudi since 1993, which increased to 10,000 in 2003. King Abdullah shared a great rapport with U.S.A with King Salman expected of carrying it forward.
QATAR: Though not a great Ally compared to others mentioned here, In 1992, Qatar had built intimate military ties with the United States, and is now the location of U.S. Central Command’s Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center.In 2014, the United States sold $11 billion worth of arms to Qatar, including AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, Patriot and Javelin systems. U.S thus has two strong military bases in Qatar.
LIBYA: The story of Muammar Gaddafi is not much different compared to Saddam Hussain, Gaddafi was portrayed a bad guy initially because he nationalized oil exporting companies in 1970's, then a good guy just because he signed the International Atomic Energy Agency protocol and then a rogue again when the Libiyan Civil war erupted and the U.S.A helped Libiya overthrow Gaddafi.
NIGERIA: The U.S.A shared great ties with Nigeria which is a predominantly Christian country till Boko Haram caused problems in Nigeria. The U.S.A under its "Leahy Law" does not sells arms to Nigeria for reasons pertaining to Human Rights Violations but interestingly last month the U.S.A lift the ban and is ready to supply arms and ammunition to help Nigeria fight Boko-Haram.
All in all the same story runs in case of Hugo Chavez for Venezuela, and relatively similar stories in cases of Angola, Algeria and Ecuador who buy heavily from the U.S.
To sum it up I call these the "Petrol Wars" which are not meant to rescue a country from a dictator or control Nuclear War heads or rescue civilians from Barbaric acts but with a mission to improve sale of arms, increase trade relations, fluctuate crude oil prices or destroy economies.
All this has made me realize the "silly me" as a kid, who thought wars stood for truth to prevail and death of the "Ugly Guy".
All this has made me realize the "silly me" as a kid, who thought wars stood for truth to prevail and death of the "Ugly Guy".
No comments:
Post a Comment