[.ca] It's the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the ... (ISBN 0385660103)

Amazon.ca:
When Linda McQuaig started writing her new book, It's the Crude, Dude, in 2002, she thought it would be old hat by the time it came out. She was sure everyone would be talking about how oil was the real reason U.S. President George W. Bush invaded Iraq. But the Toronto Star columnist and author discovered that she needn't have worried. Oil, McQuaig argues, is still virtually a taboo subject in U.S. media discussions of the motivations for the Iraq war: "Oil remained strangely offstage, obscured, invisible, hidden in plain sight." In It's the Crude, Dude, McQuaig's seventh book, she investigates what she calls "the big elephant in the room": oil. The result is a spirited and timely inquiry into a super-powerful industry that she suggests played a central role in plunging the U.S. into a quagmire in Iraq. Before the conflict, she writes, U.S. companies had long salivated over Iraq's "virtually endless" oil fields. One Wall Street analyst she cites calls the country "the most sought-after real estate on the face of the earth. It is the superstar of the future." Talk in the White House about what to do with Iraq started well before the 9/11 attacks, McQuaig writes. She cites internal U.S. government records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that suggest U.S. officials were already discussing action against Iraq within weeks of Bush's inauguration in January 2001. McQuaig makes a convincing case that the world has become dangerously dependent on dwindling oil supplies, which are at the ! heart of not only a great deal of conflict but also pollution that is disrupting global weather. --Alex Roslin

The great wake-up call re modern democracy vs. capitalism:
As someone who gets to travel a great deal as part of my career, the first thing people should know about this book is not the opinions regarding the "left-wing" leanings of the author or the "right-wing" leanings of those who are offended by it, or see it as liberal fantasia. A person could easily be led astray as to what significance this book has by looking at it from that perspective without the clarity of context. In fact the three things people should know about this book by Linda McQuaig is the following, in order of importance: 3) The United States Freedom of Information Act of 1975 has made all kinds of otherwise classified documents of the Pentagon and earlier Presidential administrations available to any historians or investigative journalists with the actual interest of knowing just how the world has worked in the past and continues to work for those running it today. McQuaig's source material is not a collection of out of touch flower-child opinions gained from smoking too much pot and listening to too much Jimi Hendrix, nor a metaphoric use of a pseudo-Freudian projection/transference regarding some undistinguished child abuse. It is these documents, political, economic and military in nature; combined with the truism of Iraq's oil fields being second in volume of product only to Saudi Arabia in the world, and the game plan of the current American administration--which has been in the world news for several years now. 2) Dr. Noam Chomsky of MIT; considered the most important intellectual of the 20th and 21st century since Einstein; whose books--the latest being HEGEMONY OR SURVIVAL--routinely make the bestseller's list of papers around the world, despite his censorship from American television, has given this book the most impassioned review I have personally ever heard or read him give anything. This includes the work of some of his best friends, like Howard Zinn (A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES) and the late Edward Said (ORIENTALISM). Most authors in this vein, like Ahrundati Roy, Nafeez Mosadeq Ahmed, Tanya Reinhart and William Blum are happy with a kind blurb on their books from the Godfather of political criticism; one with ten percent of the passion in which he has reviewed this. And most importantly: 1) THIS BOOK IS NOT AVAILABLE IN THE UNITED STATES. Not even the American Amazon.com, or the British Amazon.co.uk will sell it. I discovered this book in a bookstore while on business in Toronto a couple of months ago; else I would have never heard of it--and that's in New York. Imagine the chance of Dallas, Texas or Lexington, Kentucky ever even hearing of this. If she were nothing but a Michael Moore wannabe, as some would like to attest, considering how famous/infamous he is--and therefore easy to trivialize with conservative opinion pollstering--wouldn't it be logical to expect her book to be held up to the light of day and excoriated as commie-leftist/liberal propaganda? Or at least debated in some American circles? You cannot find the book in the United States at all, unless you search on the web. Not even Gore Vidal has experienced censorship in America to this degree. Without the Information society's computers most Americans without frequent flyer miles out the wazoo wouldn't even know she exists. This book is effectively censored from the one population of voters who, in a democracy, could effect change on the world policies she blisteringly analyses, if they knew the truth. =Without taking these three unassailable, unarguable, non-negotiable facts into careful consideration you cannot understand the impact of this book, and cannot therefore have an actual opinion worth registering. Could it be possible that what we call democracy and globalization is really just window dressing and social control through docility, draping over the 15th century feudalism that really runs the world? And could that be pushing us all toward an apocalyptic return to that violent age in every way, when the oil of the world runs out? I'd love to spend my entire life with my head in the sand avoiding those questions. But I discovered (not thanks to my government or marketplace) Linda McQuaig and IT'S THE CRUDE DUDE: WAR, BIG OIL AND THE FIGHT FOR THE PLANET. And now I can't. Buy this book. Read it. Be afraid. Then don't just stand there; do something.

politics of oil for the uninitiated:
There is no eureka moment in this book where Linda McQuaig reveals the smoking gun linking the Iraq war to what she deems the U.S. administration's lust for oil. Nevertheless, 'It's the Crude, Dude' offers powerful arguments as to why the current United States administration feels it needs Iraq, and other major oil-producing nations, in its economic stable. This is a great introduction if you're interested in learning how the oil industry is layered into the conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. It also serves as a dire warning of the consequences of failing to wean ourselves from our oil addiction and find sustainable alternatives.

Same Old Same Old:
This book is typical of the Chomsky-Naomi Klein "blame the U.S." for everything approach to writing. McQuaig uses innuendo, iffy sources and quantum leaps to try to piece together her thesis. Unfortunately she's more adept at shooting her lippo than shooting the hippo.

Boring self-righteous diatribe...:
...by one of Canada's preeminent left wing scribes, and she titled it "It's the Crude, Dude..." AFTER the release of Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's My Country". Now that's integrity.

Get up to speed regarding Big Oil and its impact on the world:
While I think Mcquaig might know more than she presents here, this book is a great way to understand Big Oil/Big Business, and US and Canadian foreign relations. Not only is it informative, but entertaining enough that people who normally wouldn't have the patience for books about politics or economics (such as my wife) will be captivated from the first chapter. Important reading.