Why Syriana Is Frighteningly Close to the Truth

The Bush administration is in the midst of a major Christmas (to use the language insisted upon by the administration’s Fox media news outlet) offensive against critics of the President’s foreign policy. Vice-President Cheney visited both Iraq and Afghanistan, while the President in a series of addresses defended the war in Iraq and his authorization of National Security Agency spying upon American citizens. The President’s poll numbers have risen slightly, leading some observers to believe that his use of the “bully pulpit” is winning over the American people and gaining popular support for the war. On the other hand, a more likely explanation for an improvement in the Bush approval ratings is the reduction in gasoline prices which make holiday traveling easier for Americans. A majority of Americans now believe the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, but the public appears as confused as the Democrats in Congress regarding a clear exit strategy. In a similar fashion, Americans appear to have few alternatives to our dependence upon oil and the automobile. Seeking to link support for the troops and expanding oil reserves, Republicans in Congress have attached a provision for drilling in the Artic wilderness preserve to military appropriations.

Our dependence upon foreign oil, especially in the Middle East and the Eurasian nations of the former Soviet Union, is the focus of the holiday Hollywood film release Syriana. This film which takes a somewhat radical approach to the politics of oil should not be construed as proof that the film industry is some type of left wing cabal, despite some hand wringing among the religious right regarding the male lovers of Brokeback Mountain. The holiday season’s major releases primarily focus upon family comedies and biographical pictures of individuals triumphing over adversity, while the current box office champion remains a giant ape from the 1930s.

Syriana is directed and written by Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for his Traffic screenplay; a film suggesting that the American consumption of illegal drugs contributes to the instability of the Mexican government and economy. In Syriana, Gaghan argues that the American appetite for oil is responsible for the political discontent in the Middle East and fueling terrorism. Although loosely based upon the memoir See No Evil by CIA operative Robert Baer in Beirut, Gaghan focuses his critique well beyond the shadowy manipulations of American corporate and governmental figures.

At first glance the film comes off as a somewhat traditional leftist condemnation of capitalism and the relationship between big oil and politics. The oil companies Connex and Killen are merging due to the fact that Killen signed a deal to exploit the oil fields of Kazakhstan, while a Gulf state approved an oil agreement with China and expelled Killen. To reassert the American oil presence in the Middle East, there is a CIA-authorized assassination of the emir’s eldest son who is opposed to concessions for the American companies and wants to use oil revenues for the benefit of his people. In addition, there is concern in Congress regarding the record profits earned by the Connex-Killen merger. In the final analysis, the merger is approved, although a few executives are scapegoats and sentenced to relatively short jail terms for antitrust violations.

A scary byproduct of this maneuvering is corporate support for a shadowy group known as the Committee for the Liberation of Iran. This smacks of the Neo-Conservative intervention in Iraq and the assumption that the people are awaiting American liberation. The reality of the situation in Iraq is that Bush’s invasion provided a base in Iraq for Al Qaeda where no such support existed prior to the administration’s intervention. The Sunni insurgency cannot really win unless there is a widening of the conflict, for they only constitute 20 percent of the population in Iraq. On the other hand, the current Shiite government in Iraq may reflect the majority will, but democracy is often difficult to control (consider the decision to cancel Vietnamese elections in 1956 due to fears of an electoral victory by the communists and Ho Chi Minh). Participation in the Iraqi electoral process may be viewed as a means through which to drive the invading Americans from the country. And a Shiite government in Baghdad is the goal Iran failed to achieve in the bloody 1980s conflict between Iran and the United States-backed regime of Saddam Hussein. Of course, the “liberation” of Iran might be the means to prevent an anti-American alliance between Iran and Iraq. Such a course of action would, nevertheless, risk a broader Middle Eastern conflict and swell the ranks of terrorism.

This is the world with which we are left in Syriana. Unfortunately, the film’s scenario has some horrifying parallels with Middle Eastern politics. The film suggests a radical answer to the question of why oil mergers and profits are allowed to happen, along with Middle Eastern interventions which enhance recruitment for Al Qaeda. It is not simply the greed of oil company executives and their allies in the government. It is because this is what affluent American consumers want—cheaper oil and continuing dependence upon the automobile. The government and oil executives in Syriana remain in power because they cater to the desire of consumers for lower oil prices. Meanwhile, despite growing discontent with the war in Iraq, Brush’s approval numbers improve with declining oil prices. In his epic work The Prize, Daniel Yergin well documents the role played by oil in World Wars I and II along with the Cold War. Unless, we can shake our dependence on oil and produce leaders who are willing to challenge some of our fundamental assumptions, we may reap the whirlwind in the twenty-first century.