The Black Commentator: The Global Redlining of America: Bush Plunges U.S. into Rapid Decline

[Mike Friedman <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

The Global Redlining of America: Bush Plunges U.S. into Rapid Decline
The Black Commentator, October 16, 2003
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The previously unthinkable is now on the table. Russia, the world's 
second largest oil exporter, is giving serious consideration to 
trading its black gold in euros, a switch that would surely set 
dominos in motion among other oil producing nations and, ultimately, 
knock the dollar off its global throne. Americans can thank George 
Bush and his Pirates for accelerating a process that might have taken 
decades to evolve, but which now looms as a "catastrophe" on the 
horizon. "There are already a number of countries within OPEC that 
would prefer to trade in euros," said oil analyst and U.S. Council on 
Foreign Relations member Youssef Ibrahim, in an interview with the 
Moscow Times, October 10. "Putin's putting a big card on the table."  

A switch to the euro "is really possible," according to Russian 
economist and Putin advisor Yevgeny Gavrilenkov. "Why not? More than 
half of Russia's oil trade is with Europe. But there will be great 
opposition to this from the United States."

Gayrilenkov can be forgiven his understatement. Russian President 
Vladimir Putin dropped his bombshell as if casually stating the time 
of day. Is Russia considering a switch from dollar-pricing of 
petroleum? "We do not rule out that it is possible. That would be 
interesting for our European partners," Putin told reporters at a 
joint news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the 
Ural Mountains region of Russia.

Interesting, indeed. Even more important than the huge and immediate 
boost that a Russian oil-euro arrangement would provide to the 
European Union, the move would signal the definitive end of America's 
artificial dollar-domination of the planet, a privileged status the 
U.S. has abused as a weapon since the end of World War II.

As Dr. Sonja Ebron wrote in , February 20, "Given the highly 
leveraged and fragile state of our economy, an OPEC switch from the 
dollar to the euro would bring a quick and devastating dollar and 
Wall Street crash that would make 1929 look like a $50 casino bet." 
(See "Why African Americans Should Oppose the War.")

One month before the U.S. invasion, Dr. Ebron warned of the monstrous 
blowback that would result:


"War is not the answer. It's a shortsighted desperation play that is 
doomed to failure. Our military forces may take but cannot hold 
Iraq's oil, as they have failed to tame Afghanistan's land. Far from 
staving off disaster, our arrogance may instead compel OPEC to 'go 
euro' en masse, taking many oil-consuming nations with them by force 
of economics. And a trade war with Europe will lend the coup de grace 
to our economy."


The shrinking superpower

The Bush men launched their offensive largely to ensure that oil 
would continue to be priced in dollars. American military dominance 
of the Middle East and a series of "regime changes" would eliminate 
the euro-threat - or so the theory went. An opposite chain of events 
has occurred, with the impetus coming, not from OPEC, but from an 
increasingly confident and assertive Russia, for whom Shock and Awe 
is mere fireworks.

Putin displayed his card to the world - a bargaining chip with the EU 
and an implicit threat to the United States - because he could. The 
"sole superpower" cannot stop him, but must instead come up with 
terms that outweigh the benefits of euro-logic. The Bush Pirate's 
quest for a global market subordinate to American fiat has failed. 
This shift in the global relationship of forces should have been 
expected when Bush declared war against world order.  It is the 
logical result of, and answer to, the president's 2002 ultimatum, 
"either you are with us, or against us." The planet now prepares to 
turn on its own axis. Once set in motion, the effects will be 
irreversible, no matter which party wins the White House in 2004. 
Henry C. K. Liu got it right in his far-sighted April 5 Asia Times 
piece, "The War that may end the age of superpower."


"This war has succeeded in pushing Russia, France, Germany and China 
closer, in contrast if not in opposition to US interests worldwide, a 
significant development with long term implications that are 
difficult to assess at present?.

"This war will end from its own inevitable evolution, even without 
anti-war demonstrations. It will not be a happy end. There is yet no 
discernible exit strategy for the US. After this war, the world will 
have no superpower, albeit the US will remain strong both 
economically and militarily."

Saudi Arabia is the number one oil exporter. Having severed its 
military alliance with the U.S., the Saudi royal family may be ready 
to drop the other shoe. "The Saudi Crown Prince [Abdullah Bin Abdul 
Aziz Al-Saud]'s visit to Russia was of great significance and the 
regime is talking about closer cooperation with LUKoil and other 
Russian companies," says Council on Foreign Relations oil analyst 
Youssef Ibrahim.

No nation is eager to upset the global currency regime. ("We do not 
want to hurt prices on the market," President Putin was quick to add, 
at his Urals press conference.) The Saudi princes, who value their 
dollar-denominated wealth more highly than the teachings of Wahhabi 
Islam, are by inclination among the least likely candidates to lead 
an OPEC euro-shift. Yet relentless pressures from Ariel Sharon's 
Israel, its lobbyists and allies on Capitol Hill, and from the Likkud 
group within the Bush administration, have pushed the Saudis closer 
to the breakpoint. If Russia goes euro, they will likely follow - 
sooner, if there is one more military outrage against a sovereign 
Arab state. (In that sense, the fate of the dollar may be in Sharon's 
hands.)

Iran, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, would go euro in an 
instant, once it saw others headed for the door. Venezuela's 
President Hugo Chavez relishes the idea. His nation exports about as 
much oil as Iran.

Muslim Indonesia, the oil giant of the Pacific with huge contracts to 
supply the Chinese, actively debates the merits of the euro. In an 
April 17 report filed by Bloomberg's Tokyo bureau ("Indonesia May 
Dump Dollar; Rest of Asia, Too?"), Indonesian Vice President Hamzah 
Haz was quoted: "One thing is for sure, the adoption of the euro as 
an alternative means of payments could be an effective solution to 
speculative dollar-oriented dealings.''

Rule by idiots

Iraq - the invasion and resistance - has worked a sea change in 
global relations. History is galloping ahead of every scenario that 
could have been envisioned before the Bush Pirates set out on their 
hegemonic mission. However, the scheming fools at the Project for a 
New American Century must be given their due; only the most 
monumental stupidity, arrogance and willful ignorance could have set 
the reigning superpower on such a calamitous course toward political 
isolation, economic instability, and shrinking relevance to the 
designs of mankind.

[...clip...]

Think of an oil-producer switch to the euro as the redlining of America.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/60/60_cover_iraq.html







--
Michael Friedman
Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior
City University of New York

Molecular Laboratory
Department of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY  10024
(212) 313-8721


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