Fear and Loathing: The Bush Years

As some of you may know I run an online forum here in Buenos Aires. Recently someone asked the question "what are 'we' going to do regarding all this bullsh*t with Iraq and airplanes full of nuclear warheads accidently being transported from one end of the US to the other". Well I don't know about you but the first thing I am going to do is move somewhere far away where the fallout cannot reach me, someplace down south, like maybe Argentina.

I don't know you guys; the entire thing is based on one deception after another. I think the story really started in Protected content Richard Nixon announced that the US dollar would no longer be redeemable for gold. In Protected content Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) quadrupled the price of oil but continued to accept only dollars in payment. In effect the US dollar converted from the "Gold Standard" to the "Black Gold Standard".

To make a long story short this led to what is known as "dollar hegemony". The only viable threat to this concept would be the development of diversity in investment. So fast forward to Protected content 11 members of the European Union (EU) adopted the Euro as a common currency. Greece joined the Euro a year later and on January 1, Protected content twelve countries withdrew their old currencies from circulation, thus completing the most significant currency reform in history.

Now what happens is that along the way OPEC begins to take an interest in this concept of a new currency. Iran was the first country to show serious disloyalty to the dollar beginning in Protected content the creation of the euro. This got them the honor of being named one of the first and most hated members of George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil". This set off a wave of anti-American demonstrations in Iran the likes of which hadn't been seen since the days of the Khomeini era. This in turn set back the social, political and religious liberalization in that country meaning that in effect, our fine new King, BOY GEORGE, actually created much of the destabilization of Iran.

Now just for kicks why don't we toss Iraq into the mix? In October of Protected content convinced the United Nations to allow Iraqi oil to be sold for euros instead of dollars. That led to Iraq converting its entire $10 billion dollar "oil for food" reserve fund from dollars into euros.

It is no small wonder that George II, the boy who would be king, then found an excuse to kick off "Operation Iraqi Freedom" or whatever the hell this latest fiasco is or was called. And don't forget that with Iraq firmly under an economic stranglehold, Kuwait already pacified, and Iran being threatened more every day, that the US is now turning its head towards Syria. Did you know that Syria is planning to sell all its oil for euros since most of its imports are already purchased that way?

So, does it surprise me that we are now shuffling around enough nuclear bombs to make a marshmallow and hot dog fiesta out of the Middle East? NAHHHHHH

What do WE do you ask? Run, hide or stay and fight. Who knows? I see little help from the political process if Hillary and Obama (ebony and ivory) are the best alternative we can come up with to George of the Jungle. I think that maybe I will stay right where I am where military dictatorships and collapse of the economy are the only things I have to worry about.