“We tie ourselves in knots when we act as if democracy is good for the United States and Israel but not for the Arab world. For far too long, we've treated the Arab world as just an oil field.” IfsWorldLongStatesUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyFieldsSpringIsraelOilTreatedTiesKnotsArab WorldArab SpringOil Field Author:Nicholas D. Kristof
“The government may change faces from time to time, but it's not like we fight wars for democracy - we fight wars for capitalism and for oil.” MayWarGovernmentFacesFightingDemocracyCapitalismOil Author:Woody Harrelson
“The issue is: $1 trillion or $2 trillion is a lot of money. If our objective is to have stability in the Middle East, secure oil, or extend democracy, you can do a lot of democracy buying for this sum. To put it in context: The whole world spends $50 billion a year on foreign aid.” IfsWorldYearsWholeCan DoDemocracyIssuesMiddleOilEastAidsBillionsWhole WorldObjectivesSecureBuyingStabilityMiddle EastLots Of MoneyForeign Aid Author:Joseph Stiglitz
“The world has paid a heavy price for the lack of democracy in most of the Middle East. Operation Ajax [CIA code for the August 1953 coup] taught tyrants and aspiring tyrants there that the world's most powerful governments were willing to tolerate limitless oppression as long as oppressive regimes were friendly to the West and to Western oil companies. That helped tilt the political balance in a vast region away from freedom and toward dictatorship.” WorldLongGovernmentPoliticalPowerfulCompanyDemocracyMiddleTaughtWillingBalancePaidWestWesternHeavyOilEastOppressionCodeOperationsRegionsFriendlyMost PowerfulTyrantsRegimesMiddle EastDictatorshipTolerateLimitlessCiaAugustCoupsTiltOil CompaniesAjaxPowerful Government Author:Stephen Kinzer
“It turned out that [Bill] Clinton had authorized Texaco to illegally ship oil to the military junta [in Haiti] during a time when we were supposedly opposing the military junta and supporting democracy instead.” DemocracyMilitaryBillsClintonOilShipsOpposingHaiti Author:Noam Chomsky
“If you look at the Associated Press wires, there's a constant flow of information coming in. At that time I happened to have direct access to AP wires. The day the marines landed in Haiti and restored [ Jan Bètran] Aristide there was a lot of excitement about the dedication to democracy and so on. But the day before the marines landed, when every journalist was looking at Haiti because it was assumed that something big was happening, the AP wires reported that then [Bill] Clinton administration had authorized Texaco to ship oil illegally to the military junta.” IfsLooksBigsDemocracyHappenedMilitaryInformationHappeningsFlowDirectBillsPressesConstantClintonOilAccessShipsAdministrationJournalistExcitementDedicationMarineWireHaiti Author:Noam Chomsky