After watching Blood and Oil, I can’t help thinking that trying to solve the current crises in the Middle East is a lot like putting toothpaste back in the tube. This enlightening documentary by Marty Callaghan, a student of military history, follows the Ottoman Empire’s entry into World War I and shows how “The War To End All Wars” and Western political intrigue laid the foundation for the violence, revolts and military interventions that followed in this volatile geographic area.

It’s a shame President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld failed to learn some of the history lessons covered by Callaghan in his well-researched film before undertaking the latest Iraq invasion. “I have been concerned about the Defense Department’s use of a false model in dealing with the Middle East, a model that was forged by Western Imperialism 90 years ago,” writer/director/producer Callaghan says.   

Using riveting interviews, stunning photographs and involving archival footage, Blood and Oil, part of Inecom Entertainment’s The Minutes of History Series, presents many facts that should have been taken into consideration by the US in developing our strategy regarding Iraq. For example, as early as 1916, France and Great Britain adopted a plan to carve up the Middle East. They agreed to the establishment of artificial states, and the West continues to regard these creations as real nations. Iraq was one of the states created to protect British oil interests, and the Shias, Sunnis and Kurds -- very different cultural groups --  were forced to live together in this artificial nation. Later, armed invasions by London and France (in the 1920s) caused violent reactions all over the Middle East. After many years of bloody struggles, Britain and France finally learned that sending armies into the Middle East was a very unwise thing to do.

Interspersed throughout Blood and Oil are trenchant observations by three articulate experts: Edward Erickson, author of Ordered To Die: A History of the Ottoman Empire; David Fromkin, author of The Peace To End All Peace; and David Woodward, author of Hell in the Holy Land: World War I in the Middle East. The DVD also includes extended comments from these distinguished scholars in the Special Features section.   

What accounts for filmmaker Callaghan’s intense interest in the Middle East? He claims it all started with one of his all-time favorite movies, Lawence of Arabia. “The factual accuracy throughout this work may be questionable, but the depiction of Colonel T. E. Lawrence’s exploits in the Arabian Desert during World War I left an indelible impression on my mind,” he explains. Callaghan’s studies of the war against the Ottoman Empire led to a realization that “a direct relationship exists between U.S. troops fighting and dying in Iraq today and the political aftermath of World War I in the Middle East.”

It’s important to note that Blood and Oil was completed prior to Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation and the recent election victories for the Democrats. I pray the new “powers that be” will take advantage of the harsh lessons it teaches.   

My urgent recommendation? Send a copy of this powerful documentary to Rumsfeld’s successor and, of course, to President Bush -- and do it right away! 

(Released by Inecom Entertainment; not rated by MPAA. For more information, click here to visit the official website.)