[IP] Alternative View Of Why Iraq, Why Now? And comment by faulhaber

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Faulhaber, Gerald" <faulhabe@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 08:20:16 -0500
To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: RE: Alternative View Of Why Iraq, Why Now?

This is absolutely bizarre.  The US vs. EU?  The US is clearly the stronger
economy and will be so for the foreseeable future.  The EU is an important
and significant market, but this idea of a "battle" is pretty ridiculous.

The US "had a monopoly on oil trade"?  What is he talking about?  It appears
he means that oil trade is denominated in dollars, not euros or yen, and he
seems to think this is important.  It's not; nobody cares about how oil
trade is denominated, not in a world of complete and efficient FX (foreign
exchange) markets.

There's no doubt this is a very weird war, in which we (US citizens) are
still waiting for a coherent explanation of what's going on from our
government.  I suppose this kind of total nonsense is what rushes in to fill
the information gap the Bushies have left us with.

Professor Gerald Faulhaber <http://rider.wharton.upenn.edu/~faulhabe>
Business and Public Policy Department
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
 
> 
> 
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Bill Daul <bdaul@pacbell.net>
> Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 04:06:47 -0800
> To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
> Subject: Alternative View Of Why Iraq, Why Now?
> 
> Dave,
> 
> A friend of mine mention the following argument and I went off on the net to
> search for material.  What I found AMAZES me.  It makes PERFECT sense...have
> you heard this argument and what do you think? This is REALLY WORTH reading
> the whole thing.  I did BOLDBACE and enlarge where arguments start  getting
> readers to THINK!
> 
> --bill
> 
> p.s.  Sorry about the size...I don't know what your protocols are on large
> items.
> 
> 
> The original link is: http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?PID=1181
> 
> Not Oil, But Dollars vs. Euros
> Geoffrey Heard writes about the real reasons for the Iraq war.
> 
> by Geoffrey Heard
> 
> Why is George Bush so hell bent on war with Iraq? Why does his administration
> reject every positive Iraqi move? It all makes sense when you consider the
> economic implications for the USA of not going to war with Iraq. The war in
> Iraq is actually the US and Europe going head to head on economic leadership
> of the world.
> 
> America's Bush administration has been caught in outright lies, gross
> exaggerations and incredible inaccuracies as it trotted out its litany of
> paper thin excuses for making war on Iraq. Along with its two supporters,
> Britain and Australia, it has shifted its ground and reversed its position
> with a barefaced contempt for its audience. It has manipulated information,
> deceived by commission and omission and frantically "bought" UN votes with
> billion dollar bribes.
> 
> Faced with the failure of gaining UN Security Council support for invading
> Iraq, the USA has threatened to invade without authorisation. It would act in
> breach of the UN's very constitution to allegedly enforced UN resolutions.
> 
> It is plain bizarre. Where does this desperation for war come from?
> 
> There are many things driving President Bush and his administration to invade
> Iraq, unseat Saddam Hussein and take over the country. But the biggest one is
> hidden and very, very simple. It is about the currency used to trade oil and
> consequently, who will dominate the world economically, in the foreseeable
> future -- the USA or the European Union.
> 
> Iraq is a European Union beachhead in that confrontation. America had a
> monopoly on the oil trade, with the US dollar being the fiat currency, but
> Iraq broke ranks in 1999, started to trade oil in the EU's euros, and
> profited. If America invades Iraq and takes over, it will hurl the EU and its
> euro back into the sea and make America's position as the dominant economic
> power in the world all but impregnable.
> 
<snip>


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