Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar Paperback – May 1, 2005

The 20th century was the American century. The United States lead the world economy with invention and innovation. The US strengthened their hegemonic power by circulating oil dollar in the post WWII era. The onset of global Peak Oil, although having great expectation on shale gas revolution, and the appearance of European Union are changing this situation. Due to shrinking economy and increasing military expenditure to keep the hegemony, the United States has been suffering deficit financing for long time. The Iraq War, under the guise of “war on terror,” was a desperate attempt by Bush administration to maintain superpower status, which resulted in letting America continue their downward path of militarism and economic ruin. In “Petrodollar Warfare,” William R. Clark refutes the true reason of the Iraq War as it was about dollars, euros, oil and geostrategic power in the 21st century. He gives a grave warning for American democracy and their foreign policy, while making several suggestions to solve hanging challenges.It is not clear if Saddam Hussein initiated the idea of transitioning to a petroeuro or if the EU approached him with the idea. Clark verifies the fact Iraq War was ignited by Hussein’s declaration of adopting the euro for its oil-export transactions from various aspects. He criticizes the Bush administration overplayed its hand and exposed the weakness of US hegemonic status in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion. He alleges the use of deception and manipulation in the US policy flows directly from the doctrine espoused by German political philosopher Leo Strauss. Strauss’ philosophy, deception is the normal process in politics, contradicts with American spirits of individualism, liberalism, and relativism, which founders of the United States viewed as most desirable things. The United States is standing at the crossroad of their future. Clark warns America’s belligerency will be thwarted by the international community in nonviolent economic warfare of abandoning the dollar. To maintain the unsustainable status quo means ultimate damage to the essential principles of liberty and freedom that founded the United States. Instead, he advocates, to rejoin the community of nations as an equal among allies and collectively work on future challenges.The United States is facing difficult challenges like global monetary reform, re-organizing US fiscal policies, developing a national energy strategy, repairing damaged foreign relationship, reigning in the unwarranted power of the millitary-industrial-petroleum-intelligence branch of government. As history tells us a fleeting empire recklessly pursued global domination only to generate catastrophic warfare. Imperial pursuits abroad, the way taken by America so far, invariably lead to sacrifices democratic principles, and the diminishment of liberty and freedom. If Americans let destroy their freedom and liberty, it’ll be the only time a terrorist attack succeed in destroying the US. International terrorism is a specific crime against humanity. It should be solved within the international rules of law. Hegemonic power, as Clark says, is most effective and long-lasting when it is kept in stock, always building up the perception that it is actively restricting itself even when showing its power. A long-lived enlightened Democratic republic heeds the wisdom of the founding fathers while resisting the temptation of empire. If Americans truly practiced the values in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, the US would regain the world’s respect and admiration, not the world’s fear and hate.He condemns American media for playing up to the government so far. Clark deplores free and open media in the US becomes a myth, not reality. For decades the links between the US government and the major military-industrial-petroleum conglomerates are said to have grown into a seamless unit. The US was ranked at 17th in the worldwide press freedom index. He illustrates the Internet is the last and only bridgehead of free speech and unfiltered news in the US. Until the US media conglomerates are reformed into more independent and free media organizations, the American people will continue to be at risk for extensive manipulation by political leaders. Various political subjects needs public attention and decided through widely held discussion. The concept of dissent has served to strengthen US democracy. His points sound quite natural to Japanese who have experienced severe opinion control by military in the past.To develop a multilateral compromising approach to Peak Oil is the foremost challenge for who live in the 21st century. Conserving energy and seeking alternative energy can save not only America but also all nations from devolving into despotism. The effective adoption of a domestic energy strategy could provide a vast opportunity to revive the industry within countries. Real wealth creation comes from manufacturing and production. Energy reconfiguration requires huge amount of money for new investment and creates new jobs domestically. Also an equitable global monetary system is in the long-term national security interest of the world. Clark asserts the most appropriate US strategy is compromise with the EU and OPEC toward a dual-currency system for international oil trades. To rebalance the global economy and promote energy conservation and alternative energy success will be a great help in restoring the US international stature while reducing current “anti-American” sentiments.

This carefully researched book is one of the most important books, to the future of the United States.It discloses censored history, and shows why the U.S. dollar is unstable. Ignore it at your peril.

Met expectations.

Petrodollar operates from an unsettling thesis, that America's hegemony is based on an unstable reliance on dollar-denominated oil transactions, and that America uses military power to enforce this system on oil producing countries. The author outlays this theory quite well in the first chapter, and proceeds in subsequent chapters to interpret American foreign policy from this point of view.The author does do a good job of proving his point. Saddam Hussein's switch to Euro based oil pricing certainly had as much influence on Bush's policies as the WMD propaganda campaign had on Americans. And one need look no further than the New American Century website to glimpse the dystopian future that neoconservatives advocate.Despite presenting a solid argument, this book falls flat because of its pragmatism. The author seems concerned with America's military ambitions not because they are deeply disturbing from a moral standpoint, but because they are unsustainable from an economic standpoint. Attacking a foreign country unprovoked doesn't seem to be intrinsically evil; it merely fails to keep Americans secure because it causes worldwide resentment and foments terrorism. Unilateral military operations aren't an affront to humanity, but they are likely to alienate our allies--potentially making them consider using the Euro as a reserve currency, which will prevent America from using other countries to fund it's unsustainable trade deficits.Ironically, the author clearly illustrates the ineffectiveness of military-industrial-government intervention in international markets, yet his solution is... Government intervention in international currency markets. Military efforts have been unsuccessful, so perhaps we can appeal to the kindness of Europeans to value their Euro at a 1 to 1 parity with the dollar. "Now there's an idea!" Let Bernanke print all the money he wants while the Germans scrimp and save. But don't let market forces do anything to preserve the value of hard work represented by the Euro. Government fiat, not honest hard work, will save us!"If Americans make the mistake of letting the invisible hand of the market decide this issue, we would be condemning millions of people in our nation and in the world community to a life of poverty, suffering, and death... The resulting market failure would create escalations in the price of virtually everything, and certain critical items, such as food, would soon become too expensive for a large segment of society." Right. George Bush wishes he thought of that."The most effective method to mitigate such destabilizing global events would be to systematically pursue, through the UN, multilateral reform of the global monetary system, and agreements regarding petroleum and natural gas consumption, access, and pricing mechanisms". Wow! Such confidence raw power required for such a massive undertaking as centralized control of the international economy might have made Stalin blush.

hands down one of the best books i have read. It gives a very interesting perpective on what is going on in iraq and the dollar. Its amazing how the media doesnt talk about issues like the ones in this book but would rather focus on what britney spears is wearing today. highly recomend this book to anyone who is concerned with thefuture of the dollar as we are seeing some of the effects of the war on dollar and seeing its prestige diminish.

More people need to understand the petrodollar, it would save a lot of time in debates and discussions! Great read!

great book about petrodollat

According to Clark, the US Dollar became the de facto World Reserve Currency after WW2, bringing much needed stability in international trade, a role performed by the Pound Sterling in earlier times. In the early 1970s, oil producers, especially within OPEC, were keen to move away from the US Dollar to a basket of currencies in order to protect themselves against prevailing economic turmoil. The US persuaded Saudi Arabia to continue selling its oil exclusively in US Dollars, which effectively forced other OPEC producers to follow. In effect, any country wanting to buy oil had to buy US Dollars first. The oil producers then invested their Dollars back in the US, which then lent the money to poor countries in order to buy oil. Clark refers to this as `Petrodollar Recycling'. It allows the Americans to print more money and continue living well beyond their means.Following the 1st Gulf War, in 1991, The UN imposed sanctions on Iraq in order to compel Saddam Hussein to dismantle his WMD programmes. In 2001, after years of sanctions, Saddam Hussein decided to sell Iraqi oil exclusively in Euros rather than US Dollars and to offer drilling rights to European and Chinese companies once UN sanctions were lifted. This sealed his fate. Although this was done for political reasons (why use the currency of Iraq's enemy) it proved to be an astute move economically. Iraq profited handsomely as the Euro rallied against the Dollar.The US & UK insisted that Saddam possessed WMD, in spite of ample evidence from their own intelligence services that this was unlikely to be the case, and invaded before Hans Blix and his team of weapons inspectors could prove otherwise. Contracts for drilling were annulled and Iraqi oil is now, once again, sold in US Dollars. Had UN sanctions been lifted then Saddam would have been free to honour his contracts with European and Chinese oil companies and continue to sell oil in Euros. Other oil producers would certainly have followed. In fact, the Iranians are now planning to sell their oil in Euros.The book is thoroughly researched and contains great insight into the minds of the neocons running the US government. Clark explains their background, motives and imperial ambitions. He explains how they have been able to hijack the government of the most powerful nation in history and bend it to their will. Truly frightening stuff. If you'd rather be blissfully ignorant then don't read this book!

Really tells the truth over the reasons for Middle Eastern war, disturbing but accurate, a must read for anyone with an interest in politics

With economic might comes military might, they go hand in hand. This view of the world, you ain't going to see on Fox News or The BBC.If your into this kind of reading material, you could do worse than read a copy of "Web of Deceit" by Mark Curtis. That book is basically a record of documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, and documentation kept from public view under the 30 year non disclosure rule.Basically it is a record of what your UK government at the time, told you they were doing.While historical records have since prove they where actually doing the opposite. It would appear nothing really changes in politics, past or present. If you have to remember one thing as you travel through life, may I suggest you consider this. All governments have an agenda the truth could not support.

great book

GREAT AND AS EXPECTED . MANY THANKS.