War

What are reasons for war? There is nothing that truly justifies war. Yet, humankind over and over again goes into war. Politicians sell us war. How? In the past when the church was ruling it was for religion. Nowadays with worldly politicians ruling they justify it in the name of freedom, in the name of peace, in the name of democracy, etc. It is all lies. The Iraq wars were certainly not about freedom, nor democracy, nor world peace.

Many suspect that it was about oil. Al Bartlett in an interview from the Blind Spot documentary eloquently said that the in the Iraq wars the US used middle eastern oil to punish middle eastern people. Have a look at this interview snippet. The US doesn't have enough oil to fight the war in Iraq without having to cut back somewhere else, so it uses Iraq oil to fight the Iraqis. What sad irony.

Last week I found another argument why the US entered into war with Iraq. The reason is to keep the US dollar strong. Iraq wanted to stop selling oil in dollars and start selling its oil exclusively in Euros. That would strengthen the Euro and weaken the dollar. The US could not print paper money (out of nothing) to buy oil, but would now have to buy Euros in order to buy part of its oil. Also, that Iraqi policy would send the "wrong" message to the world and other middle eastern country might follow. Hence, the US had to intervene. Here are the details at "Dollars, Oil, and the Big Wipe Out".

It is all so intertwined: politics, finance, economics, peak oil, ...

Also have a look at this related article outlining how oil producers are collaborating to price and sell oil in Euros and a basket of currencies.