WE FIGHT FOR OIL: A HISTORY OF U.S. PETROLEUM WARS
A history of U.S. oil wars is a work-in-progress which began when President Wilson landed U.S. troops at Tampico. Future historians may very well have to fill in the blanks. The history of U.S. involvement in Persia (now Iran) and Mesopotamia (now Iraq) centered around the quest for oil and control of it as a vitally-needed natural resource. With this in mind, the reader may well come to the conclusion that news from U.S. (and British) sources has to be taken with a large grain of salt.
Oil diplomacy is governed by commercial and eventually, military considerations. Thus every U.S. President since Woodrow Wilson has formulated U.S. foreign policy to take care of oil interests. President McKinley said "isolation is no longer possible," and President Wilson echoed that sentiment when he said: "We are participants whether we would or not in the life of the world. The interests of all nations are ours also. We are partners with the rest."
Therefore this book affects or should affect every American, because modern international power is economic, just as all wars are economic in origin. Remember this the next time your sons and daughters are called to fight for the country. If Iraq did not contain huge oil resources, would the U.S. be bogged down in that country today Fear of domestic shortages of oil seems to be the driving force at play. American strife over foreign resources has become the major factor in international affairs. These are issues examined in this book which should be read by every American interested in the future of their country.
The American imperiali** is a fatal product of economic evolution. It is useless trying to persuade our northern neighbor not to be imperialistic, they cannot help being so, no matter how excellent their intentions...