Under the late King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia played a role most treacherous in world affairs: its oil fueled U.S. militarism and its money funded Islamic extremists.
Saudi Arabia is perhaps the greatest inherent contradiction of U.S. foreign policy.
Prior to the 20th century, the value of money was tied to gold. When banks lent money they were constrained by the size of their gold reserves. But in 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the country off the gold standard. Nixon and Saudi Arabia came to an agreement whereby the only currency that Saudi Arabia could sell its oil in was the US dollar and the Saudi Kingdom would in turn ensure that its oil profits flow back into U.S. government treasuries and American banks.
In exchange, America pledged to provide the Saudi Royal family’s regime with military protection and military hardware.
It was the start of something great for America. Access to oil defined 20th-century empires and the petrodollar agreement was the key to the ascendance of the United States as the world’s sole superpower.
The petrodollar system spread beyond oil and the U.S. dollar slowly but surely became the reserve currency for global trades in most commodities and goods. This system allows America to maintain its position of dominance as the world’s only superpower, despite being $18 trillion in debt.
Threats by any nation to undermine the petrodollar system are viewed by Washington as tantamount to a declaration of war against the United States of America.
Within the last decade Iraq, Iran and Libya have all threatened to sell their oil in other currencies. Consequently, they have all been subject to crippling U.S. sanctions.
At the height of World War Two, President Truman issued an order for American bombers to drop “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 140,000 people instantly. The gruesome images that emerged from the rubble were broadcasted through television sets across the world and caused unprecedented outrage, forcing U.S. policy makers to devise a more subtle weapon of mass destruction: sanctions.
Sanctions are often viewed as a less destructive alternative to military force. Nothing could be further from the truth. American sanctions have killed more innocent people than all of the nuclear, biological and chemical weapons ever used in the history of mankind.
The Financial Times newspaper quoted sanctions expert Geoff Simons who proved that “two-thirds of the world’s population is subject to some sort of U.S. sanctions.”
Sanctions are clearly the 21st century’s most potent weapon of mass destruction.
They told us that Iraq was a nuclear threat; Iraq was a terrorist state; Iraq was tied to Al Qaeda. It all amounted to nothing. What the U.S. administration did not tell us was that the main reason for toppling Saddam, and putting sanctions on the people of Iraq, was the fact that Iraq had ditched the dollar-for-oil sales.
The United Nations estimates that 1.7 million Iraqis died due to Bill Clinton’s sanctions; 500,000 of whom were children. In 1996, a journalist asked former U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, about these UN reports, specifically about the children. America’s top foreign policy official replied: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price – we think the price is worth it.” Clearly, U.S. sanctions policy is nothing short of deliberate genocide and impoverishment.
In 1967 Colonel Gaddafi inherited one of the poorest nations in Africa; however, by the time he was assassinated, Gaddafi had turned Libya into Africa’s wealthiest nation. Perhaps, Gaddafi’s greatest crime, in the eyes of NATO, was his desire to put the interests of local labour above foreign capital and his quest for a strong and truly United States of Africa. Central to Gaddafi’s vision for a united Africa was a common African currency made from gold and Gaddafi planned to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars. In fact, in August 2011, President Obama confiscated $30 billion from Libya’s Central Bank, which Gaddafi had earmarked for the establishment of an African Central Bank and the African gold backed dinar currency.
Had Gaddafi sparked a gold-driven monetary revolution, the Colonel would certainly have done extremely well for his people, and for the world at large. But Africa has the fastest growing oil industry in the world and oil sales in a common African currency would have been especially devastating for the American dollar, the U.S. economy, and particularly the elite in charge of the system.
It is for this reason that President Clinton signed the now infamous Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. The Libyan people were unusually vulnerable to the effects of sanctions, because Libya imports 75 percent of its food, and oil exports make up 95 percent of its revenue. The United Nations Children’s Fund reported that these sanctions caused widespread suffering among civilians by “severely limiting supplies of fuel, access to cash, and the means of replenishing stocks of food and essential medications.” Clearly, U.S. sanctions are grievous crimes against humanity.
Not so long ago, Iraq and Libya were the two most modern and secular states in the Middle East and North Africa, with the highest regional standards of living. Nowadays, intervention and sanctions have turned Libya and Iraq into two of the world’s most troubled nations.
Iran is yet another nation increasingly troubled by American sanctions. An intelligence report published in 2012, endorsed by all sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, confirms that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Truth is, any Iranian nuclear ambition, real or imagined, is as a result of American hostility towards Iran, and not the other way around. The last time Iran invaded another nation was in 1738. Since independence in 1776, the United States has engaged in over 50 military invasions and interventions.
Much like Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”, the United States has used the imaginary nuclear threat to enforce sanctions upon the people of Iran.
In early 2007, during an OPEC meeting, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for a “credible and good currency to take over the American dollar’s role and to serve oil trades”. By December 2007, Iran had stopped selling its oil in U.S. dollars. Three months later, the nation set up the Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB) on Kish Island, which allowed exchanges of oil, petrochemicals, and gas between countries in a basket of currencies other than U.S. dollar.
Iran’s petrodollar defiance resulted in America imposing a crippling set of sanctions on seventy-five million Iranian citizens. Sanctions of mass destruction have cost Iran $120 billion in lost revenue since 2010; and, they even include a ban on the importation of certain medicines and foodstuffs. Despite Iranian government subsidies intended to help the poor, prices for staples, such as milk, bread, rice, yogurt and vegetables, have at least doubled since the beginning of the sanctions regime, in some cases showing three and four fold increases. Senior U.S. politician, Brad Sherman, remarked, “critics of sanctions argue that these measures will hurt the Iranian people. Quite frankly, we need to do just that.”
Sanctions are as morally indefensible as they are counter-productive. The more America imposes sanctions on countries for non-dollar trading, the more those countries will respond to American sanctions with increased non-dollar trading. Therefore, imposing sanctions on nations for trading crude oil in other currencies is akin to crudely attempting to put out a fire by dousing it with petrol.
Ever since 1980, the United States has steadily devolved from the status of the world’s top creditor country to the world’s most indebted country. But thanks to the petrodollar system’s huge global artificial demand for U.S. dollars, America can continue exponential military expansion, record breaking deficits and unrestrained spending. Today, a global U.S. dollar reserve currency allows Americans to enjoy some of the best standards of living.
America’s largest export used to be manufactured goods made proudly in America. Today, America’s largest export is the U.S. dollar. Any nation that threatens that export is met with America’s second largest export: weapons, chief amongst which are sanctions of mass destruction.
Garikai Chengu is a scholar at Harvard University. Contact him on garikai.chengu@gmail.com
Makati1 on Tue, 3rd Feb 2015 10:02 pm
Good article. THE Us couldn’t live without wars…
“The Golden Age of Black Ops – In Fiscal 2015 U.S. Special Forces Have Already Deployed to 105 Nations”
“Twerking Robots In A Hall Of Mirrors: The Madness Of Washington’s Meddling In The Ukraine”
“In Face Of ISIS Onslaught, US Rushes To Support Sunni Anbar Militias”
“US Considers Providing Antitank Missiles To Ukrainian Military To Help Deter Rebels”
“Clinton’s War: The Carnage In Libya Is On You, Hillary”
“New Cold War: US, Russia fight over Europe’s energy future”
“‘Group-Thinking’ the World into a New War”
“1,000 paratroopers from Panther Brigade headed to Iraq this week”
“Ushered by US Intervention, Chaos in Yemen Threatens Wider War”
“The American Dream Dissipates at Record Pace”
“Washington’s Russophobes Get Desperate—-Uncover Bronx “Spy Ring” Looking For Secrets On Google”
And on and on…
theedrich on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 5:53 am
Let’s face it: America’s drive to dominate the world arises from the demand of its citizenry to want everything the advertizing industry subliminally tweaks the collective subconscious to demand. Despite the idiotic sociology profession which feeds on blaming Whitey for everything, the demands have absolutely nothing to do with race, religion or culture. TV ads determine what the masses want: witness the tsunamis of money poured into major election campaigns. Because such tweaking works. Moreover, the masses cannot — CANNOT — live without their average 5 hours of hypnosis per day. A tiny example of the effects: a recent poll found that the average prole believes that the percentage of homosexuals in the population is 25% (while the real number is ~2½%). This imaginary number on the American “street” was due simply to the constant media drumbeat about the need to “equalize” homosexuality with the heterosexuality of the other 97.5% of hominids in the public mind. Forget about facts or reason. Manipulation of the mass unconscious is the only thing that matters, and the “public” includes many millions of invading ThirdWorlders who are “just looking for a better life.” This “better life” requires the American conquest of the rest of the world at any cost. There is no other way to continue our daily consumption of oil or to maintain the dollar as the global reserve currency, etc.
In other words, the entire system is an unconscious Ponzi scheme of titanic proportions. It is justified in quasi-religious terms mixed in with pop psychology (“I’m OK, you’re OK”) and the White guilt of the affluent. We are also too far gone to correct the system now, because economic collapse would (actually, will) follow. In addition, the impoverishment or death of millions on the other side of the planet is unimportant if it is necessary for our own well-being and BAU.
Despite the usual attribution of this American drive to cause megadeath under the pretense of righteousness to Republicans, U.S. aggression is pushed by both parties with equal ferocity. The Left likes to use sanctimony-based indignation to attack White “racists,” but has no qualms about obliterating millions elsewhere in the world if Yankee hegemony is challenged.
But as the gnarled politics of Allahland, eastern Ukraine and the collapsing EU, inter alia, become more and more complex, we are soon going to become caught in a web of our own making.
Davy on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 6:47 am
Thee you just described global man. It gets old when you mistake the global for the “American”. The American is the peak entropy of the issues. We are the worst and it is a worn out fact talked about over and over. There is no other asshole country that is much better in fact many have worse idiosyncrasies. What could be worse than what they do in India, China, and Afghanistan, as a small example of multiple others, with female children? Female infants are killed as redundant, sold into the sex trade, or the friggen Muslims do sexual mutilation. Come on Thee get some balance please.
Makati1 on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 7:13 am
theedrich, you are spot on, but you know that. Some try to spread the blame as they always do when you point out America’s failures. The fact is, that since WW2, the US has been the major terrorist organization in the world. The major pillager of other’s resources. The major starter of wars.
Why? you hit the bulls-eye. They have been indoctrinated from birth to actually believe the BS they are programed with almost every waking minute from the time they can watch TV. They actually believe that they live in a democracy and that their vote counts and makes a difference. That they are entitled to anything they want because they are the ‘exceptional’ country. They have been like a plague of locusts over the whole earth. And I am ashamed to admit that I too was brainwashed for most of my life and participated in the delusion.
I think you have to live outside the MSM Ministry of Propaganda’s Iron Curtain for a while, before you can see the real world and the Us for what it is, stop waving the ‘patriotic flag’ and making excuses for your own part in the pillaging and war the Us could not live without.
R1verat on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 8:02 am
I resent being stereotyped by anti-US commenters.
I haven’t watched TV for over 40 years so I have no interest in or awareness of the junk promoted on TV. I am against US policy of endless wars. I agree the US is an aggressor, but I do not support this. Money & possessions are not priorities to me.
These continual comments about what the US is all about ignores that there are many individuals that do not fit these ‘armchair quarterbacks’ perceptions. But the US bashers are, of course, living in Nirvana…..
GregT on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 8:18 am
R1v,
You, like me, are an exception to the rule, and much of what is said about the US, can also be said for Canada now, as well. Of course there are still good down to Earth people living in North American, but they are becoming further and farther between. I find myself alienated much of the time for the simple fact that I don’t watch TV. Television programming is a regular topic of conversation. I honestly have no clue about much of what people discuss anymore, and I honestly could care less. The next time that you watch an important video clip, or documentary, pay attention to the amount of ‘views’ that they have received. Usually in the hundreds, or thousands. Now watch something ridiculous like Gangem Style or what have you, and the views are in the hundreds of millions. Sorry, but the vast majority of people have become completely detached from reality.
Davy on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 8:27 am
So, Greg, you are saying the Russian society or Chinese are superior to North Americans? If so why are both countries such shit holes? Look at Mak’s dumbass Philipines what is so wonderful about that.
Agendas and stereotyping are wrong. Now, you and I agree on allot and you are fair and balanced. Mak is a bumb that will be eating his pet monkey when shit hits the fan. He is the worst of the worst when it comes to human decency.
GregT on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 9:35 am
Davy,
No I am not saying anything of the sort. I am being honest about my own society.
Boat on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 10:02 am
Less than 100 years ago the US and the world didn’t even clean up. As humans we still hadn’t figured out how to make plumbing efficient yet. The world and the US and a lot of the world has come along way since then if an easier, healthier life style is within the reach of most of the population. Living standards are way up and length of life is dramatically longer. I am not sure how these facts are ignored so easily. I am not sure how solving evolving problems can’t be taken on with more confidence. Bring on the next 20 years. It will be fine.
Speculawyer on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 11:47 am
These fights are a reality show of “Who wants to be the next oil tyrant?”
GregT on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 2:30 pm
“Less than 100 years ago the US and the world didn’t even clean up. ”
Less than 100 years ago our species was still sustainable on the planet Earth. Dirt is natural, detergents are not. As much as many like to believe that human beings are above nature, we aren’t. Our way of life is no longer sustainable, and neither are our numbers. Our perspective as a whole, is dead wrong.
Makati1 on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 6:59 pm
R1verat, there are exceptions, but I bet you are more indoctrinated than you want to believe. Look at your life. Look at the possessions around you. Even without TV, do you still vote? Do you believe that the US military should be in 150 countries killing innocent men, women and children? That you should pay your taxes to support that pillaging and murder?
I have not watched TV since my marriage 38 years ago. I don’t support any brands that put their name or logo on my clothes, suitcase, etc. I do not, and never did, own stocks or bonds. I stopped voting when they laughed at President Carter’s downsize advice, as no 3rd party candidate ever had a chance, or ever will. I basically stopped being brainwashed when I moved out of the States into the real world.
It is my choice to live here, no matter what some narrow minded farmer in Missouri says about Asia. It is a better, safer place to watch the world crumble, than in the zombified Us.
Davy on Wed, 4th Feb 2015 7:26 pm
Mak, gonna eat his pet monkey soon. Poor guy. I mean the monkey not butt hole.