It's almost like prophecy...
I saw this over at The Agitator:
I suppose the standard war booster response to this is, "September 11 changed everything." Well, it certainly changed a lot. But it didn't change the situation inside of Iraq, now did it? It didn't ease the ethnic tensions there. It didn't make a post-Saddam Iraq any easier to manage. It didn't make us suddenly capable of the "nation building" Bush and Cheney as candidates sensibly advised we steer clear of. September 11 didn't make us capable of avoiding any of the dire predictions offered up by Dick Cheney, 1994. What exactly did change between 1994 and 2003 that made Cheney change his mind about Iraq's inevitable quagmirish characteristics?
Comments
His 401K with Halliburton.
"There's gold in them there... wars.
Posted by: Daniel N. Adams | August 12, 2007 12:38 AM
What changed since 1994 and why we had to act.
In 2000, Saddam switched from the dollar as a currency in the oil markets to using Euro. By 2002, the dollar dropped its value by 18%. As soon as we went into Iraq in 2003, the oil trade switched back to the dollar. In the meantime, Iran had switched over to the euro.
Oil is exclusively sold in US-dollars (OPEC 1971 & 1973).
This creates a permanent demand for dollars on the exchange market (where roughly 85 percent of the oil trade takes place completely outside the US).
In 2003, Iran switched to the euro and away from the dollar. And, just this past December it was reported that Chavez (Venezuela) is mulling over the idea of switching to the euro in the oil trade.
When any country switches like this, it causes our country a great danger (more so than WMDs or nuclear weapons). Needless to say, this is the reason we need to find alternative energy sources but it doesn't get rid of our current problem.
In order for our country to sustain itself and survive, we must avoid the switch from happening.
Everything Cheney said was correct, the difference being that we, as a Super Power, had a choice back in '94. Now, we do not.
Posted by: joe.politico | August 15, 2007 11:10 PM
Joe,
Is it really any of our business if someone doesn't want to trade in dollars anymore? If a nation decides not to use our dollars, while it sucks for us, is also too bad for us. We can't force people to use dollars. Using this as a rationale for invading is desperate.
I'm not trying to argue with you, but it seems like everytime one of the "reasons" for invading are proven false (WMD) or misleading (Al-Queda in Iraq BEFORE the invasion) the fervently pro-war crowd keeps coming up with more and more excuses to justify the invasion.
Posted by: Jace Walden | August 16, 2007 09:18 AM