In an effort to understand the world outside the cable news bubble, I've been looking at how seemingly unrelated global events, seem, well, related. The global economy and oil and war are so intertwined, it's hard not to notice. In 2000, Saddam Hussein announced his intention to trade oil for euros, and not accept the dollar. Long story short, he's dead, we invaded Iraq under the false pretense of WMDs, and the sale of Iraq's oil is now denominated in dollars.
During the last four years of the Bush administration, especially during the last two, there was a lot of rhetoric about Iran's alleged nuclear weapon's program, and the threat it posed to U.S. security. The Bush administration would renew sanctions on Iran year after year, and the likelihood of attacking Iran was being discussed. Until a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate was leaked that revealed Iran had no such active nuclear weapons program and and any weapon's program it may have pursued was halted back in 2003.
Ouch. As you remember, the Bush Administration and all those neocons prepared to go to war with Iran were not thrilled with that report. Didn't hear much about it after that.
Then in January 2008, just 7 or 8 months later, it was reported that Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz threatened to blow up U.S. Navy Destroyers. This was a big story that ran in the New York Times. The source was the Pentagon. There was immense doubt about the validity of the story, so the Pentagon did something it's never done before; it released an actual video of Iranian speed boats approaching a U.S. Naval Destroyer, and in the audio part of the tape, the Pentagon claimed that the people on the boats were threatening to blow up the Naval Destroyer.
Long story short, that wasn't the case. The audio was not authenticated. In fact, the Pentagon admitted that the audio and video were taken from two different sources then combined.
What is interesting is that about one month later, Iran opened its first oil bourse--it planned to trade oil for Euros and other currencies, but not the dollar.
That's all a long introduction to the set of events going on now. Follow the links and draw your own conclusions. Maybe a lot of this is just coincidence but it does make you think:
Here's a link, March 11, about Russia in talks with Iran to market Iran's oil on St. Petersburg exchange.
Here's a link, March 13, about Obama's recent extension of sanctions on Iran.
Here's a link, March 15, about Iran's recent gas deal with China.
Here's a link, today, March 16, in which the Pentagon says it downed an Iranian drone in Iraq.
