Most of us are ‘probably’ aware that the world we inhabit today is extremely oil-intensive and oil-obsessed. Oil prices accompany most, if not all of the twists and turns of the modern economy. Oil-producing nations are frequently embroiled in conflicts that endanger the lives of millions or are ruled by despotic governments. Environmentalists continue to obsess over our oil-dependence as the Earth continues to cook, while oil companies and governments continue to turn a blind eye. There is clearly something quite wrong with the black subterranean goo that everyone seems to be preoccupied about. Yet, what exactly is the problem? The implications of this question turn out to be immense, as Michael Klare explains in his appropriately titled book, Blood and Oil.

The United States, according to Klare, while constituting less than 5 percent of the total world population, consumes about 25 percent of the world's oil supply. This amounts to 20 million barrels of oil a day. Americans move around in their huge ‘gas-guzzlers’ on their well-paved roads, spend vast amounts of oil-generated electricity on their televisions, computers, and iPods. Perhaps more importantly - and uniquely - America boasts a diverse range of oil-dependent industries, from intensive farming to manufacturing and fields the most powerful, and thus most fuel-intensive military force in the world. In other words, petroleum props up the United States’ economic and military power, and ensures its largely uninterrupted hegemony in world affairs. Once self-sufficient, the U.S. is now hugely dependent on oil imports (around 60 percent of its total consumption) to fuel its increasingly hungry economy.

Klare’s book largely addresses America’s continued love affair with foreign, mainly Middle Eastern oil, and the countless repercussions this has had on world events. For example, starting from 1945, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been one of America’s leading suppliers, and thus one of its most important foreign partners. Klare blasts this half-century old ‘honeymoon’ between the House of Saud and America, as an ironic alliance with the antithesis of America’s beloved ‘democratic ideals’. He argues that modern Saudi Arabia is mostly a creation of the U.S. itself, being supplied with arms, advisors and technology to prop up an increasingly corrupt and decadent monarchy.

However, the procurement of a suitable source of oil alone is not enough; one needs to secure the routes along which it is carried. Consequently the Persian Gulf, one of the leading shipping lanes of oil, has been jealously guarded by the United States military starting from the 1970s. This, along with the increasingly fragile position of the Saudi monarchy, has predictably led to a growth of American military involvement in local affairs, which in turn has contributed (quite unsurprisingly) to rising anti-American sentiments among Arab countries. Klare particularly mentions that the bane of modern America, the notorious Al Qaeda, grew out of anti-Saud Islamist movements that took offense to the U.S.’s coddling of the hated monarchy.

From the perspective of an American during the Bush administration, Klare states that recent American involvement in Middle Eastern affairs will lead to more friction. He states, perhaps a little too speculatively and yet plausibly, that in “the months before and after 9/11… the Bush administration fashioned a comprehensive strategy for American domination of the Persian Gulf and the procurement of ever-increasing quantities of petroleum." This "strategy of maximum extraction" involved three goals - the stabilization of Saudi Arabia‘s monarchy, the removal of Saddam Hussein and his replacement with a stable government that would boost Iraqi oil output, and the escalation of pressure on that other thorn in the side, Iran. This plan, he states, was the very essence of the War in Iraq: a bid to remove a potential threat to U.S. oil supplies that came in the form of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist government, and to secure more oil in the process.

Through his sometimes hasty, yet generally well-structured reasoning, Klare forces his audience to come to terms with the question: “Should more lives be paid for the sake of maintaining America’s - or for that matter, even Korea’s - luxurious petroleum-based economy?” It is surely an unsettling question; especially for all the people within the top 8 percent of the world’s consumption bracket (if you use the internet, you know you are). Knowing that the oil we squander on our computers and lighting today possibly came from the sacrifices of many less fortunate people is not comforting to most. The bloodshed is not going to be limited to oil-producing regions either; Klare predicts that the rise of several other powers, most notably China, will precipitate a global struggle to secure the limited oil that is left on the planet. Everyone will be at risk then.