Library Video of the Week, January 28, 2013.

Blood and Oil the Media Education Foundation presents; featuring Michael T. Klare; directed by Jeremy Earp; Library Call Number: HD9566 .B66 2008.

From the Film Synopsis:
          “This film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines, showing how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years. As a result, the contemporary energy and military policies of the U.S. are virtually indistinguishable…
          “At the heart of this story is a meeting between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Saudi King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud on Valentine’s Day, 1945, aboard the USS Quincy in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake. In that meeting, President Roosevelt made a pact with the King that still resonates today: the United States will provide military protection for Saudi Arabia in exchange for privileged American access to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves.  With methodical precision, Klare details how this meeting has spawned a series of events and presidential policies that have resulted in repeated American military operations and wars in the Persian Gulf.”

        Anyone skeptical of the idea that oil drives American military and strategic policy in the Mideast and the world should see this movie.