 They say those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, much of the public seems to have a rather selective memory where recent American history is concerned. When examining the depraved actions confirmed to have been perpetrated by the United States government in recent decades and contrasting such an unflattering image of the American government with the portrait painted by apologists for the American political elite, one might conclude that much of the public has fallen victim to a disinformation campaign conducted by the mainstream media and their ruling class allies who would rather the population forget about their misdeeds. Over the years, such misdeeds have included mind control experiments, lying the nation into war, mass surveillance, poisoning illegal substances to dissuade citizens from consuming them, and much more. And yet, despite the many examples of how morally bankrupt the elite are in the United States government, there are still large swaths of the population who trust that the political establishment is acting in good faith or that such atrocities committed by the Unites States government could only have been perpetrated in the past. What those who come to the defense of the political elite do not realize is that one of the most overt examples of the United States government’s lack of morality is occurring in plain sight in the way the American government enforces the petrodollar system. But one might ask, “What is the petrodollar system?” To understand the petrodollar system, historical context is vital. Towards the end of the Second World War at the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, an assortment of Allied leaders met to establish a new economic world order. From the ashes of the world economy stood the United States as the leading economic power and it was at the Bretton Woods Conference that a new monetary system that relied on the American currency was established. According to such a system, the U.S. dollar could be converted into gold at a fixed rate while foreign currencies themselves were pegged to the American currency. When a nation lost confidence in the U.S. dollar, they would have the option of exchanging their holdings in dollars for gold. This system generated a demand for American currency and such a demand gave the United States government reason to print more money. The Federal Reserve, a private banking entity, benefitted from a global demand for the U.S. dollar since it was the Federal Reserve that loaned the money to the United States government to be paid back with interest and it was the Federal Reserve that set the interest. When the Bretton Woods system was set up, it seemed that the answer to the problems faced by the global economy had arrived. Yet, the Bretton Woods system suffered from a severe Achilles’ heel. This Achilles’ heel was that this system was dependent on a stable American economy. In the 1960s, the American economy faced adversity due to the costs of the Johnson administration’s domestic programs whose stated aims were to alleviate poverty and the Vietnam War. Because of the economic woes facing the United States at the time, many a nation began to request gold in exchange for U.S. dollars. The days of the Bretton Woods system were numbered. 1971 marked the death of the Bretton Woods system. It was in this year that President Nixon ended the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold. This had the effect of turning the U.S. dollar into a fiat currency, a currency whose value is not decided by another commodity. Following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, it wouldn’t take long for a new economic arrangement to take shape. The Nixon administration was aware that the fall of the Bretton Woods system would cause an overall decline in demand for the U.S. dollar. However, an opportunity to generate demand for the U.S. dollar would present itself with the Yom Kippur War and later oil crisis. In 1973, a coalition of Arab nations attacked Israeli forces to take back territory seized by Israel during the Six-Day War. In retaliation for support given to Israel by the United States and other western nations, the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries enacted an oil embargo. As a result, the price of oil dramatically shot up. For his part, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger worked to negotiate an end to the embargo. Specifically, he worked out an agreement with the Saudi government in which Saudi Arabia would sell their oil in the U.S. dollar in exchange for weapons and the protection of Saudi oil fields by the United States Armed Forces. Not long thereafter, all the other OPEC nations agreed to sell their oil in American currency and the petrodollar system was born. With that historical context surrounding what the petrodollar system is in mind, one might ask, “What makes the petrodollar system so diabolical?” The answer to that question can be found by examining how this system is enforced. Simply put, nations that jeopardize the petrodollar system often find themselves in the crosshairs of the globalists. The most infamous example of this kind of imperialism is the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the Iraqi economy was devastated by the sanctions imposed upon it. Among the sanctions was one that banned Iraq from exporting oil. This changed in the mid-90s with the creation of the Oil-for-Food Program, a program that allowed Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian needs. In 2000, the Iraqi government, believing the European market to be best, requested they be allowed to sell oil in the euro. Following the approval of the Iraqi request by the United Nations, the Unites States government, unwilling to allow the petrodollar system to be jeopardized, began a propaganda campaign to build a case for an invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of its dictator, Saddam Hussein. Much of this campaign was composed of lies. Arguably one of the most infamous of these lies was the claim that Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Another of these lies came in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks when the Bush administration tried to link Saddam Hussein to the terrorist group implicated in the attack, Al-Qaeda. Yet, no link between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime was ever found. Furthermore, no weapons of mass destruction were ever discovered following the invasion. This means that the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq were sacrificed over the imperialistic agenda of the globalists who framed the war as a mercy mission to rid the world of a terrorist-supporting tyrant who was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Yet, those who masterminded this illegal war have still not faced justice. However, the Iraq War is not the only example of this kind of imperialism. Other countries that have gone on to threaten the petrodollar system in one way or another have included Libya, Syria, and Iran. In the case of Libya, the globalists succeeded in regime change. As for Syria, the globalists are still trying to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad. With regards to Iran, the United States and its allies spent two decades occupying Iran’s neighbors while perpetuating propaganda depicting Iran as a terrorist-supporting nation hell-bent on building nuclear weapons to attack Israel. In short, this kind of imperialism persists to this day. So, the next time someone you know makes the mistake of running defense for the corrupt ruling class, kindly remind them of this ongoing example of the lack of morals and ethics of the American political elite. AuthorGrant Klusmann is an author on Substack and a member of the Wisconsin chapter of the American Communist Party. His writing primarily focuses on foreign policy and anti-imperialism. This article was produced by Grant Klusmann. Archives December 2024
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