British comedian Robert Newman's humorously insightful perspectives on oil and how the world became addicted.
Open Access Article Originally Published: February 19, 2007
Did you know that World War One actually started because of Iraqi oil?
That's right... or at least that's comedian Robert Newman's take on history, which would appear to be supported by the oft-ignored footnotes of history. In fact, some of the first British troops to see battle was during the campaign to capture Basra, Iraq in November, 1914.
According to Newman, it wasn't because of the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand that World War One began. Instead, it was the geopolitical and economic threat to the British Empire posed by Austro-Hungarian-Turkish alliance, the symbol of which was the Berlin-Baghdad Railway -- subsequently known as the famous "Orient Express" after it was taken over by the French and the British. [See also my blog Mister Churchill's Battleships].
If you doubt Newman's premise, do a quick Google search for "Berlin Baghdad Plan". Actually, I did it for you. Below the video is one description of the plan from The Geography of the Great War.
According to this scheme the Middle-Europe project was to be extended so as to include southwestern Asia. Asia Minor just south of the Black Sea is held by Turkey, and to the south and southeast of that region are a number of weak Mohammedan states somewhat under the control of Turkey. Through a close alliance with Turkey, Germany secured valuable rights in this entire area, including the right to plant colonies, develop trade, and build railways. An especially important feature in the plan was the building of a railroad all the way from Constantinople to Bagdad, more than a thousand miles distant, on the Tigris River. This river flows through the famous country of Mesopotamia and to the Persian Gulf. This road would, of course, be connected with the road from Berlin to Constantinople, so that Berlin, and even Hamburg, would be directly connected by rail with Bagdad; hence the name, the " Berlin-to-Bagdad Plan." The right for its construction was obtained from Turkey by Germany in 1902-1903. Figure 5 (see below) shows how nearly completed this railroad was in January, 1918.
Curious, isn't it how Germany wasn't allowed to finish the line, which was supposed to run right through the middle of the oil-rich city of Mosul, bypassing the British and French-controlled Suez Canal.
Newman's quasi-documentary-stand-up comedy routine touches all the hot-buttons: Iraq, Iran, petro-dollar warfare, peak oil, the fabled hydrogen economy, and even zinc-air fuel cell cars.
He has done his homework, apparently reading Matthew Simmons' "Twilight in the Desert," Richard Heinberg's "The Party is Over", and William Clark's Petrodollar Warfare.. He may even have stumbled across this web site, but that's only speculation on our part.
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5 comments so far...
19-Feb-2007
49344
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None of this is funny actually. Both WWI and WWII were lost by the Germans and their allies because they could not get oil. In fact Germany was kept in war long after they were starving (1916) by American aid called the Belgium Relief Fund. It was administered by Herbert Hoover. There was an English nurse named Edith Cavell working in Belgium who let it out to the world press that American ships were being off loaded to rail cars, which went directly to Germany. The British ask the Germans to shoot her, and they said we don't want to do that! They said if you shoot her for us we will shoot one of yours for you. So the Germans shot her. End of story, may be not! It does go far to show things are not always as they seem, or to say the very least, the popular stories you hear as history may not be all there is to it!
Posted by: John Gilkison
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19-Feb-2007
49348
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John... you're correct that it's not really funny. It is painfully perceptive and sadly right on the mark, but if I said that right up front, who would want to watch it?
Posted by: Bill Moore
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20-Feb-2007
49357
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This is a fantastic video! Thanks for posting it here, Bill. I would never have seen it otherwise. I did find it quite funny in places. There is a psychological thing that happens when the bad news gets so bad that you have to laugh. I've seen enough lies and deception lately that I'm near that edge of laughter a lot of the time, so something like this can be quite funny. It's the best laugh I've had since I found out Second Lady Lynne Cheney is a director at Reader's Digest (which explains a lot about their recent content), and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (which was accused of taking Exxon Mobil money to dispute global warming). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Cheney
Posted by: Steve Ward
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20-Feb-2007
49420
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Is it possible to get/buy this video on a DVD? I think it should have a much wider audience. I am sorry, however, that credit wasn't given to Harry Truman for refusing to approve the Kermit Roosevelt caper that Eisenhower finally allowed. Had Stevenson won the election the course of history would might have been quite different. I guess you might say the same of 2000!
Posted by: Ellen H Anderson
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23-Feb-2007
49759
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Thanks, EVWorld. Where else can I see a comedy
routine that invokes Richard Heimberg? I'm foisting this on all of my friends now.
Posted by: Joel Couch
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