To assuage their guilt-ridden consciousness about being the biggest per capita consumers of the world's energy resources, Americans can now fill their SUVs with Terror-Free oil. On February 1st, a gas station in Omaha Nebraska will be the first in the nation to sell Gas that does not originate in Middle East, where of course, every cent made from oil goes to finance terrorism. What is most disturbing about this preposterous notion is that the American public will swallow the simple-minded concept whole and without much question. For the last six years the American media has been filled with stories about how we, in the Middle East, are fed anti-Western propaganda and blame the West for all that ails us. Although, there is more that a grain of truth in this, the Western media fails to look at itself in the mirror. There are deep-rooted cultural biases against Muslims in general and Arabs in particular that were always kept in check by political correctness. Since the terrorist acts of 9/11 though, all pretenses have been dropped and now well-known syndicated columnists routinely publish hate-filled anti-Arab and anti-Muslim drivel without anyone batting an eye.
It is in this atmosphere, compounded by a president who fudges the facts and is fighting an amorphous "war on terror" that the logic of "terror-free oil" becomes acceptable. No facts, context or reason are needed; it sounds good, so it must be right.
When I first heard the story, I thought it sounded more like right wing propaganda than anything else. My suspicions were immediately confirmed when I logged on to the Terror-Free Oil initiative site. On the upper right hand side is a changing banner that changed from "God bless America" to "We stand with Israel". Look at their blog links and you realize that this initiative is not about stopping financing of terrorism as much as about anti-Muslim hate mongering.
4 comments:
Hi Abu Kareem
Let's hope that this trend catches on and that the American public eventually is led to boycott Arab oil. It will be a dream come true as most of the American oil companies might go bankrupt. The American policy makers might also get on this bandwagon and decide that they don't want anything further with the Middle East. They can continue calling us terrorists or by any other name they choose as long as they really get off our back. It will be greatly appreciated as the local regimes supported by successive American governments will crumble. We might get a chance finally to start our own Middle East without the American contineous meddlin and sabotage.
Good point, Abu Fares. I often wonder how our part of the world would have been different -better-if there was no oil.
I'm 100% with abufares on this one. But there are still the American religious fundamentalists to contend with. They have adopted the Zionist agenda and oil or no oil they and the Israeli lobby will still try hard to influence US policy in the Middle East.
I agree with you, guys.. Oil has been a curse for our Region.. For all the wealth it brought some countries, it also brought immense misery and never-ending catastrophes.. So, perhaps if it dries up, or if ME oil is boycotted, we might get the chance to get off our lazy bums and do something with our lives..
On another note, perhaps we in the ME should take a leaf out of the same book, and truly boycott American goods and services.. then we'll find out who will hurt first...
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