reply to post by abe froman
I don't think that we did go to war with Iraq solely for their currency switch, not even as the major factor. However, you have to understand how the
globably economy works. If the euro was used instead of the USD, it wouldn't really benefit the elites of those countries, as their investments and
global economy structure is based on the USD. The only reason that the elites profit from the USD being used, is because they structured everything
around the USD being the standard. Again, the euro being the currency standard would not automatically mean that European countries would benefit.
With that being said, what Iran is doing and what Iraq did are two completely different things. Iraq's actions didn't realy threaten the USD or it
being a standard commodity currency. Iraq simply sold it's oil in euros instead of dollars. Iran on the other hand, has established an entire
competing market that can be very attractive to certain world-powers, which could make it a sever threat the supremecy of the USD, even if it only
takes a small share.
As far as Iraq and the possible reasons for war, I believe it was due to a lot of things, all of which exclude the publicly stated reasons. I think
that oil played a part, though not in the way that we think it did. The oil, at the very least, played a major part in opposition to the war by
certain European and Asian countries.
You see, Germany and France were the recipients of Iraq oil prior to the 2003 invasion, which is why these countries so addimently opposed the war. It
wasn;t because they were opposing the war on legal, freedom or humanitarian reasons, though that was their public basis. Instead, they opposed the
invasion because they were already getting the oil and cheaply I might add. Following an American invasion, it was pretty clear that the spiggot of
cheap oil would soon come to a close, after American corporations would sieze control over the oil fields, setting up flimsy subsdiaries with names
like "Iraqi Oil", to give the illusion that American companies weren't in control of the oil and instead the puppet government is.
There are many other contributing factors that I believe lead to the 2003 invasion, to include Saddam's opposition to the American (western) empire.
Also, Iraq has great strategic value, given its location and mineral deposits. It also subtracts a key influence in the region. I won't go into the
complete details about what I believe lead to war, as that is for another thread or book even. This thread is about Iran and what they are doing in
protest of western supremecy and the US currency that dominates world commodities, which is completely different than what Iraq had done.
In short, the euro displacing or even competing with the USD, would ultimately pry power away from the American (western) empire because the system
was designed for the USD. If the USD is replaced by any currency, then all countries that benefit from the American empire would lose out, even the
countries of the currency being used to replace the USD.
--airspoon