Contrary to popular belief the conduct of nations on the international stage is almost never driven by moral considerations but rather by a shadowy cocktail off money and geo politics, as such when you see the mouth pieces of the ruling class begin to demonise a foreign country ,the first question in your mind should always be, what is actually going here and what is at stake.
For some time now Russia , China , Iran and Syria have been in the cross hairs of the U.S , once you understand why, the events that are unfolding through the world right now make much more sense. The U.S dollar is a unique currency , in fact its current design and its relationship to geo politics is unlike any other in history, though it has been the world reserve currency since 1944 , this is not what makes it unique. Many currencies have held the reserve status off and on over the centuries but what makes the dollar unique is the fact that from the early 1970's it has been with a few notable exceptions the only currency to buy and sell oil with on the global market.
Prior to 1971 the us dollar was bound to the gold standard , at least officially according the the IMF (international monetary fund ).
By 1966 foreign central banks held 14 billion U.S dollars how ever the U.S had only 3 billion dollars in gold allocated to foreign holdings , Which means the federal reserve was printing more money than it could actually back , the result was rampant inflation and a general flight from the dollar. In 1971 in what later came to be called the Nixon shock, president Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard completely , at this point the dollar instantly became a purely debt based currency . With debt based currency money is literally loned into existence , around 70 percent of all money in circulation today is created by ordinary banks which are allowed to loan out more than they actually have in there accounts the rest is created by the federal reserve which loans money that they don't have, mostly to the government , its kind of like writing hot checks except its legal for banks .
This practise which is referred to as fractional reserve banking is supposedly regulated by the federal reserve , an institution which just happens to be owned and controlled by a conglomerate of banks and no agency or branch of the government is allowed to regulate the federal reserve, and to make things even more interesting these fractional reserve loans have interest attached but the money to pay the interest doesn't exist in the system as a result there is always more total debt then there is money in circulation and in order to stay afloat the economy must grow perpetually , this is obviously not sustainable .
Now you might be wondering how the dollar has maintained such a dominant position on the world stage for over 40 years if its little more than a ponzi scheme. well this is where the dollar meets geopolitics. In 1973 the Nixon administration began secret negotiations with the government of Saudi Arabia to establish what came to be referred to as the petrodollar recycling system , under this arrangement the Saudis would only sell there oil in us dollars and would invest the majority of there excess oil profits into U.S banks and capitol markets , the IMF would then use this money to facilitate loans to oil importers who were having difficulties covering the increases in oil prices. The payment in interest in these loans would of course be denominated as U.S dollars.
This agreement was formalised by the U.S Saudi Arabian joint commission on economic co operation put together by Nixon's secretary of state Henry Kissinger in 1974 . Another document released by the congressional research service reveals that these negotiations had an edge to them as U.S officials were openly discussing the feasibility of seising oil fields in Saudi Arabia militarily. The system was expanded to include the rest of the OPEC ( Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries )by 1975, though presented as a buffer to the recessionary effects of rising oil prices.
This arrangement had a hidden side effect, it removed the traditional restrains on U.S monetary policy , the federal reserve was now free to increase the money supply at will. The ever increasing demand for oil would would prevent a flight from the dollar while distributing the inflationary consequences across the entire planet . The dollar went from being a gold backed currency to an oil backed currency, it also became america's primary export .
Do you ever wonder how the U.S economy has been able to stay afloat while running multi billion trade deficits for decades. Do you ever wonder how the U.S holds such a disproportionate amount of the worlds wealth when seventy percent of the U.S economy is consumer based. in the modern era fossil fuels make the world go round they have become integrated into every aspects of civilisation , agriculture , transportation, plastics ,heating , defence , medicine and demand just keeps growing and growing as long as the world needs oil and as long as its only sold in U.S dollars, there will be a demand for dollars and that demand is what gives the dollar its value.
For the united states this is a great deal .Dollars go out either as paper or digits in a computer system and real tangible products and services come in, how ever for the rest of the world its a very sneaky form of exploitation .Having global trade predominantly in dollars also provides Washington with a powerful financial weapon , through sanctions . This is due to the fact that most large scale dollar transactions are forced to pass through the U.S .
This petrodollar system stood unchallenged till sept of 2000 when Saddam Hussein announced his decision to switch Iraq's oil sales off of the dollar to euros , this was a direct attack on the dollar and easily the most important geopolitical event of the year but only one article in the western media even mentioned it. In the same month that Saddam announced that he was moving away from the dollar an organisation called the project for a new american century of which Dick Cheney just happened to be a member released a document entitled rebuilding Americas defences strategy, forces and resources for a new century , this document called for a massive increase in U.S military spending and a much more aggressive foreign policy in order to expand U.S dominance world wide .
However the document lamented that achieving these goals would take many years of catastrophic and catalysing events like , and a quote " a new pearl harbour ". One year later they got it and riding the emotional reaction to nine eleven the bush administration was able to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and passed the patriot act all without any significant resistance.
There was no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and this wasn't down to bad intelligence , this was a calculated lie and the decision to invade was made in full knowledge of the disaster which was to follow. They knew exactly what was going to happen but in 2003 they did it anyway, once Iraq's oil fields were under U.S control oil sales were immediately switched back to the dollar..... mission accomplished !
Soon after the invasion of Iraq the bush administration attempted to extend these wars to Iran, supposedly the Iranian government was working to build a nuclear weapon but after the Iraq fiasco Washington's credibility was severely damaged and as a result they were unable to muster international or domestic support for an intervention. There efforts were further sabotaged by elements in the CIA who came forward to state iran had not even made the decision to develop nuclear weapons , much less begin an attempt.
However the demonisation campaign against Iran continued even into the Obama administratoin , why ? ..... well might it have something to do with the fact that since 2004 Iran has been in the process of organising an independent oil bourse and they were building their own oil market and it wasn't going to be tied to the dollar.
The first shipments of oil were sold through this market in july of 2011 . Unable to get the war they wanted the U.S wanted the U.N to impose sanctions against Iran, the goal of the sanctions was to topple the iranian regime, while this did inflict damage on the iranian economy the measures failed to destabilise the country , this was due in large part to Russia's assistance in bypassing U.S banking restrictions.
In feb 2009 Qaddafi was named chairman of the African union , he immediately proposed a formation of a unified state with a single currency, it was the nature of that proposed currency that got him killed in march of 2009 . The African union released a document entitled towards a single African currency , pages 106 -107 of the document specifically discuss the benefits and technicalities of running the African central bank under a gold standard . On page 94 it states that the key to the success of the African monetary union would be the eventual linking of a single African currency to the most monetary of all commodities... gold.
In 2011 the CIA started backing militant groups in their campaign to topple Qaddafi and the U.S and NATO pushed through and stretched the U.N no fly zone to tip the balance with airstrikes. The presence of Al Qaeda extremists among these rebel fighters were swept under the rug .
Libya like Iran and Iraq had committed the unforgivable crime of challenging the U.S dollar the NATO intervention in Libya turned into a covert war on Syria, the armories of the Libyan government were looted and the weapons were shipped via turkey to to Syrian rebel groups working to topple Assad . It was already clear at this point that many of these fighters had ties to terrorist organisations, however the U.S security apparatus viewed this as a necessary evil , in fact the council on foreign relations published an article in 2012 stating that the influx of jihadis brings discipline , a religious figure , battle experience from Iraq , funding from Sunni sympathisers in the Gulf and most importantly deadly results , in short the USA needs Al Qaeda .
In 2013 the same Al Qaida linked Syrian rebels launched two sarin gas attacks , this was an attempt to frame Assad and muster international support for military intervention , fortunately they were exposed by U.N and Russian investigators and the push for air strike completely fell apart when Russia stepped in to broker a diplomatic solution . The campaign for regime change in Syria as in Libya has been presented in terms of human rights , obviously this isnt the real motive.
In 2009 Qatar put forth a proposal to run a natural gas pipeline through Syria and Turkey to Europe , Assad how ever rejected this and in 2011 he forged a pact with Iran and Iraq to run a pipeline eastward cutting Qatar and Saudi Arabia out of the loop completely. not surprisingly Qatar , Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been the most aggressive regional players in the push to topple the Syrian government but why would this pipeline dispute put Syria in Washington's cross hairs ?
Theres three reasons that spring to mind . One , this pipeline arrangement would significantly strengthen Iran"s position allowing the to export to European markets without having to pass through any of Washington"s allies, this obviously reduces the U.S governments leverage . Two , Syria is Iran's closest ally and its collapse would weaken Iran. Three , Syria and Iran have a mutual defence agreement , and the U.S intervention in Syria could open the door to open conflict with Iran.
In Feb 2014 this global chess game ended up in a new venue , the Ukraine , how ever the real target was Russia . You see Russia just happens to be the worlds second largest oil exporter and not only have they been a thorn in the Washington's side diplomatically but they also opened an energy board in 2008 , with sales denominated in rubles and gold. This project had been in the works since 2006. They have also been working with china to be pulled of the dollar and all their bilateral trade .
Russia has also been in the process of organising there Asian economic union which includes plans to adopt common currency unit and which is slated to have its own independent energy market. The Ukraine had been presented with a choice , either join the E.U under a association agreement or join the Iranian union , the E.U insisted that this was a one or the other proposition , Ukraine couldn't join both. Russia on the other hand asserted that joining both pose no issue , president Yanukovych decided to go with Russia , in response the U.S national security did what it does best , they toppled Yanukovych and installed a puppet government . Things seemed to be going well at first but the U.S quickly lost control of the situation , Crimea held a referendum and the people voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Ukraine and unify with Russia, the transition was peaceful and no one was killed yet the west immediately framed Russia, reporting the event as an act of Russian aggression and this became the go to mantra from that point on .
Crimea is important geo strategically because of its position in the black sea which allows for the projection of naval power into Mediterranean , it has has been Russian territory for most of recent history. The U.S has been pushing for Ukrainian inclusion into NATO for years now, such a move would place U.S forces right on Russia's border and could have potentially resulted in Russia loosing their naval base in Crimea , this is why Russia immediately accepted the results of the referendum and quickly consolidated the territory .
Meanwhile in eastern Ukraine two regions declared independence from Kiev and held referendums of there own , the results of which overwhelmingly favoured self rule. Kiev responded to this with what they referred to as terrorist operations , in practice this was a massive indiscriminate shelling campaign which killed thousands of civilians . Apparently killing civilians didnt qualify as aggression to the west , in fact the IMF explicitly warned the provisional government that there 17 billion dollar loan package could be in danger if they were not able to put down the uprising in eastern Ukraine .
While the war against eastern Ukraine was raging , election were held in Petro , Poroshenko was elected president . It turns out Poroshenko was exposed by a leak diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks in 2008 as having worked as a mole for the U.S state department since 2006 , they referred to him as our Ukrainian insider . A separate cable showed that the U.S new Poroshenko was corrupt even at that point . Having a puppet in place hasn't turned out to be enough to give Washington the upper hand in this crisis. So what does Washington do when they have no other leverage ? they impose sanctions , they demonise and pull false flags .
This isn't a very good strategy when dealing with Russia , in fact it has already back fired , the sanctions have merely pushed Russia and China into closer co operation and has accelerated Russias de-dollarisation agenda and in spite of the rhetoric this has not led to Russia being isolated . The U.S and NATO have put a wedge between them selves and Russia but not between Russia and the rest of the world as planned .This new anti dollar axis goes deeper than economics , these countries understand whats at stake here , this is why in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis China has proposed a new security pact which would include Russia and Iran . Consider the implications as the Obama administration begins bombing in Syria which also has a mutual defence agreement with Iran , that would be America and its allies squaring up against Russia and china and there allies, this is potentially leading us straight to world war 3 . This all has been obscured from the masses and many people may not realise just how we rest upon the brink of unprecedented trouble. It is just a matter of time till things reach boiling point.
