The US (Nixon) made an agreement with the Saudis that the world buy their oil in dollars in exchange for the US providing protection - thus extending the dollar’s period as global reserve currency beyond the time the US unpegged the dollar from gold. Known as the petrodollar agreement, this extended the period the US gained an unearned portion of global wealth beyond the 70’s.
America was, Americans were paid handsomely for its agreement with the Saudis. [Edit - this is a little bit reductive, but] Bretton Woods then this is why boomers were able to buy a house and live well on one wage.
I understand not every American benefited from this, and that from Reagan, and neo-liberalism onwards, all the wealth went to capital. In fact I think American capitalist ideology largely squandered this period of wealth enriching the likes Tump, Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg etc. I guess ‘a rising tide raises all boats’ and ‘trickle down economics’ turned out to be big lies after all, whouldathoughtit.
Who knows what other reasons various people in and around the government at that time had for invading Iraq, but what does seem to have been established is that it wasn’t WMD’s or anything to do with 9/11, which iirc, is what the Americans and us (well Tony Blair, who was paid handsomely for his service) said it was.
This is the kind of scum we choose as our allies. Disgraceful.
They also assassinated Kashoggi, who was living in Germany at that time. But give it 2 more years and you will hear similar news from the US
The US (Nixon) made an agreement with the Saudis that the world buy their oil in dollars in exchange for the US providing protection - thus extending the dollar’s period as global reserve currency beyond the time the US unpegged the dollar from gold. Known as the petrodollar agreement, this extended the period the US gained an unearned portion of global wealth beyond the 70’s.
America was, Americans were paid handsomely for its agreement with the Saudis. [Edit - this is a little bit reductive, but] Bretton Woods then this is why boomers were able to buy a house and live well on one wage.
I understand not every American benefited from this, and that from Reagan, and neo-liberalism onwards, all the wealth went to capital. In fact I think American capitalist ideology largely squandered this period of wealth enriching the likes Tump, Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg etc. I guess ‘a rising tide raises all boats’ and ‘trickle down economics’ turned out to be big lies after all, whouldathoughtit.
Wasn’t Saddam trying to move to selling his oil in another currency, which is one of the reasons he was invaded?
Yes.
Who knows what other reasons various people in and around the government at that time had for invading Iraq, but what does seem to have been established is that it wasn’t WMD’s or anything to do with 9/11, which iirc, is what the Americans and us (well Tony Blair, who was paid handsomely for his service) said it was.