Blood Oil
Introduction
Oil is a strategic commodity that underlies our way of life and the ability to sustain it. Oil and petroleum supplies at least 98% of American transportation energy and is a crucial component in the production and distribution of every basic commodity from plastic bottles to toothpaste. The United States currently consumes a quarter of the world's oil, and with only 3% of the world’s oil reserves has to import over 60% of it, that percentage predicted to rise even further as time goes on.
At least two thirds of global oil reserves are located in the world’s most volatile region, the Middle East. While American oil imports from the Middle East are currently only 25% this is expected to double by 2020.
With rising gasoline prices, a weakening dollar, and growing global energy demands, major oil producing states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, have earned billions in petroleum dollars and continue to do so by the minute. Vast amounts of this money are used to directly fund radical Islam and terrorism as it continues to spread across the globe.
Saudi Arabia
The Saudi regime has been the single greatest force in spreading Sunni radical Islam throughout the world.
Beginning in the late 1970’s and 1980’s after the Iranian revolution and the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia began to spread its austere puritanical form of Islam known as Wahhabism around the world. Flush with petrodollars, Saudi Arabia poured over $70 billion in oil wealth into countries throughout the Muslim world, from West Africa to Indonesia and even to the United States fueling the proliferation of madrassas (Islamic religious schools) where radical Islam, Wahhabism, and virulent anti-Americanism is propagated. This has created an ideological climate conducive to generating new recruits for the jihad movement and new a generation of radical Islamists. Money was also used to lay the foundation for thousands of radical mosques and Islamic centers that have acted as support networks for the jihad movement. Paramilitary training camps were created and violent jihad was sponsored from Algeria to the Philippines to Bosnia to Israel. Arms and money were given to the Taliban in Afghanistan and terrorists in Chechnya as well.
None of this activity would be possible without the money made from oil. Saudi oil revenues make up over 90% of their total export earnings and between 70% and 80% of the total state revenues. In fact, most of the wealthy Saudis who sponsor charities that funnel money to terrorist groups have earned their wealth through the petroleum industry. With vast oil wealth, the radical Islamic apparatus is funded primarily through large unregulated Saudi charity organizations.
Saudi Arabia has no income tax and instead a religious tax known as zakat is levied requiring all Muslims to give at least 2.5% of their incomes to charities. While many of the charities are dedicated to good causes, others serve to funnel money to terrorist and jihad organizations under the guise of humanitarian work. Many wealthy Saudi businessmen and citizens have sent money to charities that are routed to terrorist organizations. Al-Qaeda has been able to collect between $300 and $500 million from these charities and private donors to continue to wage their global jihad, with the Saudi regime largely turning a blind eye. The U.S. government has known for years about Saudi involvement in this funding and has done little to confront it and to stop it.
In addition to funding radical Islam and terrorism, the Saudi regime itself has used oil as a weapon against the West. Saudi Arabia was a leading instigator of the 1973 embargo on oil shipments to the United States because of its support for Israel. The Saudis are also one of the principle founders of OPEC, who continues to restrict oil supply in order to keep prices high.
Iran
While Saudi Arabia fuels radical Sunni Islam, Iran is the primary engine behind the proliferation of radical Shiite Islam. Iran is OPEC’s second largest oil producer, holds of 10% of the world’s proven oil reserves and has the world’s second largest natural gas reserve. Like Saudi Arabia, Iran is heavily dependent on petrodollars since oil and gas revenues constitute over 80% of Iran’s total export earnings and at least half of the country’s gross domestic product. Also flush with petrodollars, Iran has spread its violent radical theology throughout the Middle East and sponsored terrorism throughout the world. Iran is currently the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, supporting and funding some of the world’s most radical Islamic movements and terrorist groups such as Lebanese Hizbollah, Palestinian Hamas, and has trained and armed Shiite militias in Iraq that have killed American soldiers. Moreover, Iran’s threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, the key outlet to Persian Gulf oil threaten great economic harm to the oil dependent West, especially the United States. Most significantly, Iran has used increasing oil revenues to insulate itself against sanctions meant to prevent Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, which Iran continues to do aggressively. Iran also uses oil revenues to purchase more sophisticated weaponry with which to threaten other countries in the region and the United States.
Conclusion
It is clear that if not for Western oil money, that states like Saudi Arabia and Iran would not have the wealth that allows them to invest in the spread of their radical Islam. The best way to confront radical Islam, terrorism, and the states that sponsor them is to decrease American dependency on foreign oil by increasing fuel efficiency and introducing next-generation fuels. Ending dependence on foreign oil is therefore a key component to winning the War on Terrorism.
