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Edited on Thu Nov-11-04 08:19 PM by Petrodollar Warfare
Well, this thread is interesting and relevant to my research, so here's a sneak preview of my upcoming book, which includes a couple of paragraghs from the Forward, Introduction, and Epilogue. (my contribution is in found in the Intro)
(Exert from Forward)
The Lost American Century?
The 20th Century has often been called “The American Century.” To be sure, America has much to be proud of from the last century. Our efforts to stabilize and advance the world in two world wars have no equal. Our development of the majority of modern technology and infrastructure driving the world to increasing wealth realization has no equal. And, up until recently, our system of distributing the wealth provided by that infrastructure has been the most advanced model ever provided. We are about to throw it all away and render it incapable of providing solutions to problems that the world is about to encounter.
America and the world changed forever on September 11, 2001. It could have changed for America in ways that would have assured she remained in the ranks of the truly enlightened, liberated nations of western civilization. Instead, it seems, that promise will have largely been squandered with a vengeance.
The world changed again on March 19, 2003, the day America invaded Iraq. It is almost assured, unless quick action is taken, that the next century will become one of fear, oppression and economic decline for our nation. Our leaders, of both the Republican and Democratic parties, have continued a pattern of self-destructive behavior practiced with increasing disregard of our original purpose and promise as a nation.
Personally, I have spent much of the last two decades attempting to alert fellow citizens to the dangers entailed in events that I observed in my previous life that landed me in central and greater Asia during the late 19XXs. Those disconcerting events that I witnessed as a young man working for the NSA have begun to come full circle, and over the past three years have directly affected all of us here at home. Only now do current events, and for reasons largely explained by the book you now hold in your hands, start to make sense within context of those past events."
(much later in the Forward...)
"...All in all, the American people have let themselves be led down the golden path too far, too often by successive administrations. Some intended, some unintended. This combined with increasing levels of subtle misdirection and indoctrination allows many in our society to remain “fat, dumb and happy.” It also contributes to the ‘sheep’ syndrome we are experiencing, that is in fact exploited by our increasingly clever politicians.
Most Americans seem to live in a complacent paradise, thoughtlessly plugged into an uncritical mass media, ignorant of geography, of geopolitics and of the dangers brewing all around them. Many are easily kept that way by our eroding public education and the primacy of the constant struggle to raise a family and pay for the profligacy of government through the taxes levied at every level. This will prove to be highly injurious to the run of our civilization. We are allowing our leadership to make decisions affecting our grandchildren without true and open debate, without following our fundamental law and without informing us as to what is really known. Under these conditions it cannot reasonably be expected that America will remain a free and prosperous nation for much longer.
America needs your support in whatever form it can be brought to bear for we have likely entered the most dangerous decade of our history. The challenges analyzed in Petrodollar Warfare are not conservative/liberal or Republican/Democrat issues, but rather American issues. This text offers what different people think are better solutions to the problems we face, and what is in our long-term national security interest. It is anticipated that some American readers will disagree with the contents and recommendations discussed in this book.
Nonetheless, we hope it will not be said that anything contained in this text is anti-American. XXXXXXXX and the contributors to this book do not believe the current, past, or any U.S. administration that contributed to these problems was anti-American. They may be misguided and un-American in certain behaviors and policies, but they are certainly not anti-American. The great task in front of us is to face the challenges outlined in this book, and work together with the global community to create a more sustainable and peaceful world while ensuring the true defense of the United States. Otherwise, the 21st century will become America’s lost century.
Forward by XXXXX XXXXX.
General Partner, XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
Former Naval Security Group (NSG) Cryptologist and Technical Liaison to Naval Systems Engineering Activity and the National Security Agency (NSA), 19XX-19XX
(Exert from Introduction)
Introduction:
Hegemony \He*gem`o*ny\, noun \Greek hegemonia, fr. - preponderant influence or authority especially of one nation over others.
-Webster’s dictionary
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be…. The People cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe."
Thomas Jefferson’s words embody the unfortunate state of affairs overshadowing the United States today. As a proud American whose family ancestry traces back to the American Revolutionary period, this was not an easy book to write. The author has little doubt Petrodollar Warfare will prove to be controversial..."
(much later...)
"...The author advocates reform of the global monetary system including a dollar/euro currency ‘trading band’ with reserve status parity, a dual-OPEC oil transaction standard, and a United Nations (U.N.) sponsored multilateral project regarding broad–based energy reforms. These reforms could potentially restore the damaged international stature of the United States. Additionally such reforms could serve as the much needed mechanism to reduce current global deflationary pressures by creating a monetary system that facilitates the creation of three engines for global growth, in an effort to increase in global aggregate demand. Most importantly, given the imminent peaking of global oil production, monetary and energy reforms are required if we are to avoid the devastating outcome of global warfare over oil currency and oil depletion.
An analysis of current U.S. geostrategic, monetary and energy polices suggests the 21st century will be much different from that of the 20th century - with one possible exception. The first half of the 20th century was filled with unprecedented levels of violence and warfare on a global scale (15 million killed in World War I, and 50 million killed in World War II). It is this author’s opinion the first two decades of the 21st century present challenges that could also result in the unleashing of another period of catastrophic human suffering and destruction.
In the post-nuclear age, this must not be allowed to transpire. In order to avoid such a terrible fate, more than any other nation, my fellow United States citizens will need to accept and undertake certain sacrifices to the betterment of humanity. In summary, to avoid profound tragedy in this new century, we must once again begin living within our means relative to both fiscal and energy policies.
The United States founding fathers declared the most fundamental and patriotic duty was to be an informed citizenry. As such, this book was written from the author’s sense of patriotic duty in an effort to inform readers in both the U.S. and abroad. The purpose is to stimulate much needed debate in our society, and hopefully in the international policy making arena as well. Only informed and motivated citizens compel changes within the decision-making apparatus of their governments. The author hopes that both U.S. citizens and the world community in general will begin an open dialogue regarding the complex issues discussed in this book.
This text concludes with numerous suggestions regarding multilateral policies for monetary and energy reform. These reforms are predicated on domestic reform of the U.S. campaign finance system and associated corporate sponsorship. While these proposals are controversial, they are presented in the hope the beginning of the 21st century may be crafted by the international community into a more economically stable, energy sustainable and less violent period than the opening decades of the previous century. Humanity and morality demand nothing less.
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."
- Thomas Jefferson, author of The Declaration of Impendence, 1776
....and for the final words, a brief exert from Epilogue...
Epilogue
By Lieutenant Colonel XXXXX XXXXX (retired)
In a lifetime of taking chances, Saddam’s Hussein’s biggest gamble occurred in late September 2000, when he walked from a government meeting and announced he would henceforth sell his oil in euros, not dollars. His move was seen as political in nature; the euro had been down, struggling against the dollar and other currencies. Saddam would pay a financial price for this decision."
(much later...)
"...The United States is facing crisis – an energy crisis, a national fiscal crisis, a petrodollar crisis. A phase in our modern American history is ending, and something new will either be forced upon us, or chosen by us, or some combination of both.
Neoconservatives, accepting a zero-sum game and having a startling lack of real imagination, believe that we need only reject our classical liberal and republican traditions, and forcibly change others, to the extent of taking over foreign oil-rich countries while intimidating fellow oil-importing countries. America is a great nation, but the world is far bigger and far more resourceful than George W. Bush and the neoconservatives are able to appreciate.
The solid performance of the euro both before and since the invasion of Iraq, and the emergence of a competing petroeuro continues to evolve, seemingly unaffected by our adventure in Iraq and ironically, even encouraged by it. The economic marketplace seeks comparative value in currency, in businesses, in policies, and in countries. Thus the millions and millions of economic and financial transactions taken every day and night around the world persist and eventually prevail, while Washington neoconservatives nervously finger their beads and seek to implement a global command economy.
Thomas Jefferson clearly envisioned the disaster that would befall America if media were restrained, citizens uninformed and too trusting of government proclamations, and if the excessive political influence of big business and special interests metastasized in the corridors of political power and at the door of the U.S. treasury.
While Jefferson had some familiarity with the Jacobins in revolutionary France, it is doubtful he envisioned the neo-conservative persuasion and its inane and warlike approaches to solving critical problems of excessive debt, decades of a military “subsidy” artificially depressing domestic oil prices, and currency collapse. He might have addressed our current and coming crisis as a oil dependent nation in terms he knew and loved best – classical liberal values of free speech, free trade, and free action, constitutional restraint of centralized government power, strict limitations on executive power, trust in the creativity and productive power of Americans themselves, and possibly, the occasional usefulness of refreshing “the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants” - tyrants he fully expected to be hiding out in a city called Washington.
*****
I hope you found this sneak preview stimulating....;-)
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