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If this were any country OTHER than the USA, which produces the petro-dollar as fiat currency, I would agree 100%. But our economy doesn't work the way the rest of the worlds does. In fact, as long as the USA maintains Dollar Hegemony and maintains the status quo of the petro-dollar system, the US has it's hands on the printing press as far as money goes. We cannot run out of money until the worlds oil runs out. And as a side benefit (or curse, depending) dollar hegemony is both the ONLY reason that the USA is able to even *think* about projecting its power the way we do, and the ONLY reason we live even REMOTELY as comfortably as we do here in the USA.
For better or worse, the real cost of FAILING to maintain this advantage would so COMPLETELY dwarf the numbers listed here as to make them chump-change. Although I don't agree w/their overall analysis of what 'good' can be done by invading and occupying Iraq in order to control the oil, I understand their thinking. Which was that the USA cannot afford to allow oil to be sold in euros, as Saddam was trying to do, because this practice might then spread amongst oil-producers, which then would severely diminish the wealth and power of the USA in the world. And this could be quite a bad thing, because it would mean pretty quickly we'd be living like the average farmer in Bangladesh. Also, overall, this is still the greatest country in the world when it's being run by decent, honest people in the government, and according to its Constitution, and there's no OTHER country I'd rather see as the world's vanguard. I think we all agree on this point.
Now, ideally, in a democracy like ours, a decision to launch an imperial adventure to control the worlds energy resources should not be made behind closed doors, sheltered from the public by lies, etc. Our Soldiers, and the innocent people of Iraq, should NOT be dying for these lies, they should be told the truth, and the subject debated. The supposition that the Euro might take the place of the dollar if Saddam began marketing oil in euros should also have been publically debated, the case for both sides laid out to us by serious experts. The public should be educated about things like the phenomenon of peak oil, the role of the petro-dollar and dollar hegemony, and all the other pieces of this puzzle I call 'the real reasons' for the invasion. But, that would be in an ideal world, and we clearly do not live in one of those.
Fact is, it would be a serious disaster for any government to openly admit on the world stage that that they are doing what the US is doing in Iraq. And ESPECIALLY to admit the real reasons for doing so. The ramifications to all our livelihoods could be pretty extreme, if bushco admitted the whole truth about this fiasco. So, they obviously made a calculated decision that they had to make up a bull$hit excuse for why we went and did what we did. And this lie was both for domestic AND international consumption. Not saying I AGREE with the reasoning entirely, but I DO understand why they did it.
Knowing what I know, my problem w/Bush and the Iraq War is that I don't honestly believe he is doing it to benefit AMERICA, but rather, for his cronies in Big Texas Oil and the Defense industry. Because this whole thing was decided behind closed doors, there is tremendous opportunity for massive fraud and corruption in it's execution, and it certainly appears that bushco are intent on directing any potential benefits towards themselves. Which makes this dirty undertaking all the more difficult to live with, and exposes ALL of America to the repercussions of an act which was in all likelihood intended to benefit only a few greedy, power-hungry fundamentalist zealots.
At the end of the day, bottom-line, the fact that it has come to this is very depressing and very scary. Because it means that our Nation has failed in any number of very meaningful ways. Most significantly, it means that because we, as a society, arrogantly refused to even attempt to develop a society that was sustainable according to ecological/chemical/thermodynamic LAWS. Laws that we understood to be LAWS about a hundred friggin years ago. We are now forced to become murderers and thieves in order to cheat the laws of thermodynamics for a few more measly years at best before we are crushed by the weight of our folly and arrogance.
And when our Nation falls, nobody outside our borders is going to give a flying f***, because we were the first Nation, that anyone will personally remember, that, when the chips were down, chose to basically say 'f*** you world, its every man for himself now!', broke all our treaties, and undermined the only international agency that could have POSSIBLY formulated and implemented a global, semi-humane 'soft-landing' policy to mitigate the Peak Oil problem.
The Iraq War signifies that the USA believes it's 'okay' to invade, slaughter, occupy, etc, in order to preserve it's energy supply and it's standard of living. And is so doing, render the very concept of sovereignty meaningless.
The worst, scariest part is that this most likely means that this oil raiding cabal doesn't really care about the sovereignty of the USA, either. So any of you wingnuts that are coming on DU reading this and thinking that you love bushco even MORE now that you realize he's out there raping and pillaging for the USA, don't kid yourself! YOU are not going to be a beneficiary, just cause YOU are a right-wing American, too, just like your Emperor! Oh, no. The plan is for a New World Order, my friend, and to these people determined to take charge of the world by controlling the oil supplies, you are nothing more or less than another imperial subject, a citizen of the world, a cog in the machine that exists to serve the New World Empire, for as long as it pleases them.
Again, although I understand the neo-cons rationale and thought-processes, I still think Iraq was an evil choice to make in a democracy w/o a serious public debate wherein we discuss ALL the facts, and ALL of our options. I also believe that little or no 'Good' will come of this evil act of attacking Iraq. In fact, the decision to do so will likely precipitate the exact OPPOSITE of what the hegemonists ultimately hoped it would. Life tends to work out that way... But since plan B was just to at least get really rich by ripping Iraq and the Treasury off, so that they will get to survive the oil crash longer than the rest of us, they probably will achieve at least some measure of success, pyrhhic (sp) though it will be for everyone else in the World ...
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