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FinalCall.com News
National News
The art of deception: Is it war for oil or war to save the dollar?
By Sultan Muhammad
Updated Feb 2, 2006 - 4:01:00 PM
“The strong-hold of the American Government is falling to pieces. She has lost her prestige among the nations of the earth. One of the greatest powers of America was her dollar. The loss of such power will bring any nation to weakness, for this is the media of exchange between nations. The English pound and the American dollar have been the power and beckoning light of these two great powers... But when the world went off the gold and silver standard, the financial doom of England and America was sealed.”
—The Honorable Elijah Muhammad,
“The Fall of America”
—News Analysis—
(FinalCall.com) - These prophetic words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad during the early sixties could well be at the root of the fear which prompted the aggressive attack on Iraq as well as the future aggression on Iran in a desperate attempt by the neoconic (neoconservative) mindset to save the threatened U.S. petrodollar.
The petrodollar is simply the U.S. dollar being used as the sole medium of exchange by all countries to buy or trade oil. This contributes to the illusion that the dollar—with nothing to back it—has a value.
“But today,” as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s words continue to ring true, “the currency of America is not backed by any sound value, silver or gold. The note today is something that the government declares it will give you the value in return, but does not name what that value is. But they definitely are not backing their currency with silver or gold.”
Some analysts, therefore, believe that this false value of the terminal petrodollar led to the Iraq war and will lead to a military confrontation with Iran.
In a Nov. 10, 2005 article, entitled “The Liberation of the U.S. Dollar in Iraq,” written by Ed Haas of the Muckraker Report, this simple premise is used to explain the neo-conservative push and eventual invasion of Iraq. The true reason, Mr. Haas implied, was to maintain dominance of the petrodollar as the medium of exchange. Iraq served a devastating blow to the U.S. dollar when this prime oil state diverted to the use of the eurodollar as the medium of exchange for Iraqi oil.
Whatever the reason, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, in a letter dated Dec. 1, 2001, warned President George Bush that Allah (God) had shown him the plans of Pres. Bush and his administration to go to war with Iraq; these plans also included war with Iran. In his letter, Minister Farrakhan also warned that these actions would lead to the final war called Armageddon.
In a follow-up article on Jan. 4, 2006, entitled “The Approaching War with Iran,” the Muckraker Report referred to the Iraq scenario to point to an eminent war with Iran.
“In November 2000, Iraq stopped accepting U.S. dollars for their oil, according to the article, and “selling oil through the UN Oil for Food Program. Iraq converted all of its U.S. dollars in its UN account to the euro. Shortly thereafter, Iraq converted $10 billion in their U.N. reserve fund to the euro. By the end of 2000, Iraq had abandoned the U.S. dollar completely.”
The report then notes that two months after the invasion of Iraq, approximately May 2003, the Oil for Food Program ended; the petrodollar was restored as the means for countries to buy Iraqi oil; and the universal global dollar supremacy was restored.
There were, in fact, several accusations from various U.S. officials and U.S.-inspired UN officials during this period that the Oil for Food Program was corrupt.
“It is interesting to note,” suggests the Muckraker article, “that the latest recession that the United States endured began and ended within the same timeframe as when Iraq was trading oil for euros.”
The article further implies what may very well be the fuel for an eminent attack on Iran, not because of a nuclear threat, but a threat to the demise of the illusionary petrodollar.
The desperation of America’s fallen economy after the death of the gold and silver standard can be made clearer by remarks by former House Representative (Ohio), Frank Traficant, while addressing the House on March 17, 1993:
“Mr. Speaker, we are here now in Chapter 11. Members of Congress are official trustees presiding over the greatest reorganization of any bankrupt entity in world history, the U.S. Government. We are setting forth hopefully, a blueprint for our future. There are some who say it is a coroner’s report that will lead to our demise.”
As the reality of this economic forecast becomes more evident each day with trillions of dollars in debt (and rising), it becomes easier to understand how the madness of a “balanced budget” takes on the face of an aggressive foreign policy insane over the fear of a continuing devalued dollar.
The Iranian proposed oil market exchange could put the nail in the coffin of the petrodollar. Iran, according to the article, will go beyond simply using the euro dollar as the media of exchange for its oil, because on March 6, Iran is set to establish its third oil exchange, called the Iran Oil Bourse.
This Iranian exchange will be similar to the New York Mercantile Index (NYMEX) and the International Petroleum Exchange of London, which are owned by a U.S. consortium and operated by the Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which are described as stock exchanges for oil and other natural resources. These economic institutions only deal in U.S. petrodollars.
As long as the U.S. dollar rules supreme as the monetary media for all oil trade deals, that dollar is secure, or at least fluid. Nevertheless, if the euro dollar would intervene through the establishment of the Iranian exchange it could spell dire trouble, especially since OPEC is seeking an alternative to the U.S. dollar for oil trade.
This exchange would allow any country to purchase oil from any producer for euro dollars rather than the U.S. petrodollar. The Iran Oil Bourse would, without a doubt, accept euro dollars only. This means that countries holding the U.S. dollars as the exchange for oil could dump those dollars for euro dollars, which would grossly reduce the value of the dollar.
However, the spiraling downfall of the dollar neither is, nor would be, the fault of Iran, but the chicanery of the Federal Reserve banking system. The problem is not Iran; the problem is that America has fiat money as its medium of exchange, or simply paper money backed by governmental laws that legalize it as tender for debts or exchange.
The conclusion is that war is inevitable to save the U.S. dollar as long as the present neoconic mindset determines that only the dollar can reign supreme in the oil exchange market. Under this mindset, no other country will be allowed to establish its own currency as a medium of exchange or set up rival exchanges. The subsequent consequence is that the American people unwittingly and unknowingly become a permanent target as the inhibitor to economic independence in the world oil market.
At some point, it must ask, “How can this situation be remedied? Since the American people pay interest on the money printed by the Federal Reserve banking system under the order of the Federal Reserve and not the President or the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. citizenry is locked into a “Catch-22” with interest payments, which will soon reach into the trillions, without any mathematical method to balance the budget. Any sudden or planned imbalance in the world market can sink an already lisping ship inundated in red ink.
The shotgun strategy of backing the American dollar with bullets instead of gold has a very limited course to travel.
“Sooner or later,” advises the Muckraker Report, “the American people will be required to pay for their governments out of control spending. When that time comes, the people are going to pay hell trying to do what needs to be done: abolish the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and 16th Amendment of the Constitution, eliminate the IRS and at least twelve hundred of the fifteen hundred agencies of the federal government…”
Will Iran’s use of the euro dollar set the tide for an expanded war leading to the Armageddon, of which Minister Farrakhan and his Teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warned? As all the warnings of Minister Farrakhan’s Dec. 1, 2001 letter has been fulfilled except the fully bloomed War of Armageddon, the direction of U.S. policy is quickly headed toward that unfortunate reality.
