Of course, the game then, as now, revolved around the fact that Iran sits atop a vast reserve of petroleum. Today, more than ever, the USSA covets Iranian petroleum reserves. The fundamental reason is quite simple: the global power and influence of the USSA empire is rooted in its issuance of and global use of the petro-dollar, so-called because it is based on petroleum and the global trade in petroleum, and also secondarily in other commodities, goods and services, much of which are also directly or indirectly petroleum based or reliant: automobiles, plastics, airplanes/aviation, public transport, agricultural goods, fertilizers, etc.
The problem for the USSA is that more and more nations are abandoning the petro-dollar in international trade, increasingly relegating the petro-dollar to irrelevance, or at least much less relevance, such that its status as the global reserve currency is being called sharply into question.
For instance, three weeks ago, China and Russia signed an agreement to develop bilateral trade in their respective national currencies, the ruble and the yuan, effectively bypassing the dollar. Given that there are already existing agreements for several hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian petroleum exports to China, this is not an insignificant step.
And two weeks ago, Russian and European Union (E.U.) officials announced that they want to "quickly extend" use of the euro and ruble in payments between Russia and the E.U., effectively phasing out the petro-dollar from their bilateral commerce.
The writing is on the wall. The petro-dollar is destined for a rapid, quick decline. China, Russia, the E.U.: these are major global powers.
The power of the USSA Empire is based on global use of the petro-dollar. If the globe abandons the petro-dollar, then the entire phony-baloney edifice of global, imperial control based on the petro-dollar will come crashing down. That day is hard upon the USSA and its ruling elite knows it.
This absolutely is a huge factor in the ongoing political, diplomatic, economic and military pressure against Venezuela and Iran, which sit atop two of the largest known petroleum reserves on the planet.
A petro-dollar based system that has no petroleum to sell and/or trade, that has no petroleum that it controls, is meaningless, a contradiction in terms. It's simply a historical footnote in global political-economy, nothing more. Whence the aggressive maneuvers against both Venezuela and Iran, the transparent objective being to acquire outright ownership of, or at least indirect control over, their respective huge pools of petroleum, to ensure that they are sold and traded on the global market in petro-dollars.
The half-century of global, petro-dollar dominance is rapidly drawing to a close. The USSA is very quickly being forced into a situation where it will have to use its vast military machine to enforce global, petro-dollar supremacy, or risk seeing the petro-dollar crash and burn, as the world increasingly abandons the petro-dollar in international trade. As the props are kicked out from under the petro-dollar, the huge, multi-trillion dollar, financial house of cards erected on the value and (presumed) global dominance of the petro-dollar will come crashing down, and fast.
We are to that point right now. The supremacy of the USSA is all about to end. It can end peacefully, with a dignified surrender of the USSA to the new, global realities; or it can end hyper-violently, if the USSA decides to lash out militarily, to impose its will by crushing martial force on other nations.
It appears that the USSA has chosen the second option, the route of military force. In recent weeks we have seen a small spate of attacks against oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman region. The Israelis are the most likely culprits in these false flag attacks, which have been wrongly blamed on Iran.
False flag attacks have been used for centuries to provoke war, sometimes very large and extremely ruinous wars.
See for example, the following list of scores of false flag attacks that have been employed or planned over the centuries:
Read THIS Before Cheering the Next War
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-21/read-cheering-next-war
Nothing would surprise me less at this juncture than to see a flagrant, notorious false flag attack, designed to outrage public sentiment and fan the flames of war against Iran. That appears to be the way that current events are trending, and both Israel and the USSA have a lamentable history of employing false flag attacks to further their policy objectives.
As it happens, Donald Trump has methodically surrounded himself with war criminals and warmongers; they are his personal appointees. The way the geo-political-economic-diplomatic-military wind is blowing it certainly looks like the USSA has opted for war.
At this point, the Empire shows no signs of dying quietly or peacefully. It has a global war machine and it looks like it intends to use it. Barring benevolent, divine intervention, the USSA shows every indication of prosecuting a war against Iran, by hook or by crook (and also potentially against Venezuela, Russia -- which also has huge petroleum reserves, China, North Korea and more).
This is madness. Hell on Earth lies down the path that the USSA appears determined to pursue.
If the USSA persists in its folly, the geo-political-economic-diplomatic-military trajectory that it is currently on cannot possibly, and absolutely will not, end well.
Donald Trump announced a couple of days ago that he called off an imminent military attack against Iran, because one of his generals told him that 150 Iranians would likely be killed.
Translation: one of his generals, perhaps General Joseph Francis Dunford, Jr., the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told him that if it were attacked, Iran would fight back fiercely, and that USSA casualties could amount to some 150,000 troops in the Middle Eastern-Central Asian-Indian Ocean theatre, as well as the loss of maybe $100 billion or more in military matériel such as ships, airplanes, helicopters, munitions, warehouses, trucks, tanks, artillery, missiles, military bases and military ports. In other words, an attack against Iran would entail tremendous, retaliatory battle losses that would far exceed anything in USSA military history. It would make Chancellorsville and Antietam look like Sunday school picnics.
After watching how the USSA and NATO have savaged and ravaged Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the former Yugoslavia, Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, and Korea in the 1950s, the Iranians will assuredly go all out in defense of their people, culture and national territory.
The Iranian military and political leadership have repeatedly, clearly and publicly announced their determination to annihilate all USSA forces and bases in the region, if they are attacked. They have also made abundantly clear that they will level Tel Aviv and Haifa in Israel.
Please understand that Iran can do all of that with ballistic missiles and conventional munitions; nukes are not even necessary. The general public does not appreciate the power of modern thermobaric weapons, the effects of which are ghastly beyond belief, and which can extend over relatively large areas. Ten large thermobaric warheads delivered on Diego Garcia, for one instance, would cause holy hell and could effectively put the base out of commission. Can the Iranians do that? I wouldn't bet against it.
They certainly have missiles that can take out any aircraft carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman region, or any USSA military base within 1,000 miles of Iranian territory.
I know all of this and I'm not even a military man. In sum, if the USSA does go to war against Iran, expect mass mortality of USSA military personnel, and many billions of dollars worth of losses in USSA military matériel, on just the first day of the conflict.
Yes, you say, but what if the Israelis or the USSA use nukes against Iranian cities? In that case, you can expect Israeli and USSA cities to be targeted for destruction.
Sure, you rejoin, but what if the Israelis or the USSA destroy Iranian nuclear facilities? Similarly, expect nuclear hell to come to Israel and the USSA.
The saner policy, by far, would be to not attack Iran and to remove the economic sanctions that the Trump regime has imposed on Iran.
However, Donald Trump has announced that tomorrow, on 24 June 2019, the USSA will impose even more restrictive economic sanctions on Iran.
As I have said above, if the Trump regime's current policy trajectory remains unchanged, then the situation cannot possibly, and will not, end well. Not for Iran, not for Israel and certainly not for the USSA.
I would counsel peace, were I in an influential policy-making position; but I am not, and the warmongers who occupy those positions of power are hell bent on war. Therefore, if nothing changes, war is likely to be the outcome.
*************************************
If you find personal value or meaning in this blog, won't you please support my continued work? Contact me at: dr.samizdat1618@gmail.com for how to donate.
I accept Bitcoin at: 1Dht92qEzCmvuLRKQD2MSJ1JdQ7rFRMVdA
I receive Amazon.com e-gift cards in any amount at dr.samizdat1618@gmail.com using the link: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Amazon-...
I also accept donations of gold and silver, of any size or amount.
I do not have a bank account and cannot get one, so please DO NOT send me PayPal donations.