Carrson Davis
daviscarrson@seattleu.edu
October 7, 2018
UCOR 1100-11
I found an excerpt from Toby Craig Jones’ book “The Journal of American History”. In this excerpt, titled ” America, Oil, and War in the Middle East”, Jones explains how America gets involved with the Middle East. Jones speaks on how in the 1930’s the Standard Oil company discovered that there was large quantities of oil in Saudi Arabia. The British landed in the Middle East in 1914 to expand their resources. Jones also speaks on the issues that came during the 1970’s and the upcoming of militarism in the Middle East. One instance would be the October War when Egypt attacked an American ally, Israel. This made American oil prices skyrocket. Jones states how the American Militarization of the Middle East has brought some security to the region. However, he also states how constant war is not security, especially with the deaths and poverty in the Middle East. Ultimately, Jones believes that America needs to take account of the financial costs of keeping militarization in the Middle East. I believe that this article is interesting because it debates whether keeping a large military presence in the Middle East is really keeping peace and how that relates to the oil situation.
Carrson Davis 