12 May, 2009

The Petro-Euro

Watched a BBC documentary, searched the internet afterwards:

Essentially Saddam Hussein was about to begin trading with Europe in Petro-euros (began talks in 2000) as he could not trade with us due to embargoes, and Europe was all too willing. Iraq, which has as much oil as Saudi Arabia and was our enemy was and remains poor while OPEC countries remain allies and make profits. It's the real reason for the rift between the USA and Europe that formed while Bush was president. Never heard of this angle till today, yet I find the Internet over-flowing with petrodollar vs. petroeuro info.

"Petrodollar Warfare" by William R. Clark or click:
http://www.tacomapjh.org/petrodollartheories.htm beneath this link is a synopsis at the beginning of the site.

From the site: A small but significant number of observers consider the issues around which the newspaper discussions of the Iraq war revolve to be nothing but a screen that hides other causes fueling the present conflict -- causes that require some knowledge of economics to grasp. According to this view, a leading motive of the U.S. in the Iraq war -- perhaps the fundamental underlying motive, even more than the control of the oil itself -- is an attempt to preserve the U.S. dollar as the leading oil trading currency, on the view that the institution of petrodollars, as these have developed since the early 1970s (US agreement with OPEC to trade only in US Dollars), is fundamental to well-being of the U.S. economy. A corollary of this view is that the real underlying antagonism in the conflict is not a military or geopolitical or national-security issue between the U.S. and Iraq, but rather an economic struggle between the U.S. and Europe.

Where have I been? This is something the whole financial/government/oil world seems to know about and we lowly peasants who fight and shed blood know little or nothing of the bigger picture. Implications that the world's competitions in exclusive economic circles are the real cause of various states of unrest around the world is something many have suspected and felt. But I never couldn't put my finger on something that seemed real. Most conspiracy theories tend to sound outlandish but the plot in this global version seems plausible.

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