Why War with Iraq? Follow the Money

The Dollar vs. the Euro? Here is an interesting angle: Iraq in recent months decided to contract for future delivery of its oil in euros, not dolllars. The fiat American dollar greenback serves as the world's reserve currency, essentially since Bretton Woods and more particularly since 1971, and its acceptance gives the U.S. a free ride in a variety of ways. The euro is the creature of Germany's conservative central bank and the european common market (sans the United Kingdom) and -- in theory at least -- contends to serve the same purpose as the dollar as a reserve currency. The last time the Arab world rejected the dollar as the standard for the pricing of oil was about 1974 when it noticed that the dollar had depreciated violently against gold. The result was not pretty and probably cost Gerald Ford the 1976 election.