Opinion: When they say it's not about oil, is it most certainly about oil?

'91 war, not Iraq war, was over oil, McCain clarifies

Mary Altaffer / Associated Press
MOTIVATION: McCain talks to his press secretary. He’d said his energy policy would cut U.S. reliance on Mideast oil and prevent the U.S. from again having to send troops to the region.
He had said that his energy policy would eliminate U.S. dependence on Middle East oil and prevent the need to again send troops to the region.
From Associated Press
May 3, 2008

PHOENIX -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) clarified his comments Friday after suggesting the Iraq war was motivated by U.S. reliance on foreign oil.

His explanation: He was talking about the 1991 Persian Gulf War, not the current conflict.Read the whole story in the LA Times.

Ethanol defended by President Bush
The corn-based biofuel isn't the main reason for high food prices, he says, and 'it makes sense for America to be growing energy.'
By James Gerstenzang, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 3, 2008
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, MO. -- President Bush on Friday defended his emphasis on ethanol to help the nation meet its energy needs even though increased production of the corn-based biofuel has been blamed for contributing to sharp increases in food prices.

"As you know, I'm a ethanol person," he said, explaining his belief that it can help reduce U.S. dependence on oil. "It makes sense for America to be growing energy."

The president made his comments during a 20-minute speech and a rare, lengthy question-and-answer session with employees of a high-tech manufacturer.

On the day the government announced the loss of 20,000 payroll jobs in April, Bush said he recognized the nation was in a difficult period, "but this economy is going to come on."Also from the LA Times.

And, herewith, a look back to the oil industry's beginnings:

“There Will Be Blood” Resonates with 21st Century Vibes
by James Castagnera
The critics are raving about the performance turned in by Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, the oil tycoon in “There Will Be Blood.” They are making it sound like he’s already got the Oscar in his pocket. I don’t know about that, but Day-Lewis’s Plainview is the best depiction of an early-20th century Robber Baron since Orson Wells gave the world “Citizen Kane” a half-century ago.
“Blood” is based loosely on a novel by Upton Sinclair, the muckraking journalist, who also took Americans into the slaughterhouses, mines and mills of the nation with powerful portraits of corruption, exploitation and danger. Sinclair lived from 1878 to 1968. A socialist, his causes included proclaiming the innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Italian anarchists executed during the 1920s for a robbery and murder thousands thought they’d never committed.
His 1927 novel “Oil” was inspired by real events. During Warren G. Harding’s administration, Mammoth Oil (later Sinclair Oil) won the drilling rights to a Wyoming oil field under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. Harry Sinclair grabbed the lease without the inconvenience of competitive bidding. The Teapot Dome Scandal, named for a distinctive rock that marked the site, marred Harding’s presidency.
Although the 21st Century has been proclaimed the “Information Age” and Bill Gates is the John D. Rockefeller of our era --- Gates’ Microsoft being a goliath comparable to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil a century earlier --- petroleum has lost none of its earlier importance to us. If the Internet is America’s nervous system, oil is still the nation’s lifeblood. To maintain a steady transfusion of oil, real blood still needs shedding. This was well dramatized in another recent film, “Syriana” (2005).
Many, including me, believe that oil is the real reason we’ve been in Iraq these past five years and are likely to remain there indefinitely. The evidence may be circumstantial, but it’s also pretty compelling. Begin with the fact that Presidents Bush the Elder and the Younger are Texas oilmen. Add the absence of any definitive proof to this day that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction or maintained ties to Al Qaeda. Third, consider the geopolitical situation. America needs Mid-Eastern oil. Saudi Arabia has most of it. Allegedly our allies, the Saudis are fickle at best and their kingdom is a political house of cards that could implode, leaving Uncle Sam out in the cold. Since the ousting of the Shah, Iran has been openly hostile. Iraq appeared to be easy pickings in 2003… a potential client state from which the U.S. could project power at the local level into the entire Middle East.
Bush and company made major miscalculations. The rest, as they say, is history: thousands of American lives and many billions of dollars burned up in the continuing conflagration that followed the easy invasion victory. Despite the daunting costs (or perhaps also because of them), I predict an indefinite American military presence in Iraq, regardless of who is elected president in November.
Meanwhile, we have “There Will Be Blood” to drive home the point that the oil business was a hardball undertaking a century ago, just as it remains today. Thanks to Upton Sinclair and Daniel Day-Lewis, we are reminded that the bill being paid every day in Iraq is a bill we’ve been willing to pay since Rockefeller, Ford, and their fellow tycoons launched the Oil Age 100 years ago. We may surf the information highway, but we also drive our real highways and byways in SUVS that demand gasoline. America’s war machine runs mostly on diesel and gasoline fuels. We heat our homes with gas and oil. Plastics, fertilizers and many more products are petroleum based.
If you haven’t already, go and see “There Will Be Blood.” Then, the next time you turn the key in your car or the thermostat in your home, think of Daniel Plainview and thank his real-life models, from Rockefeller to the Bushes, for the black gold that makes those gadgets work.
[Jim Castagnera, formerly of Jim Thorpe, is the Associate Provost/Associate Counsel at Rider University. A collection of his “Attorney at Large” columns is now available at www.lulu.co.]