A fistful of dollars for OPEC

The daily Star, Yamin Zakaria, UK, London

The recent move by the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to replace the dollar by the Euro has generated anger as it did with Iraq, when Saddam chose to exchange the oil for Euro in November 2002, sealing his fate. Further resentment was caused by Venezuela's decision to barter its oil with the 13 other Latin American countries, denting the on-going "dollarisation" of South America. Unlike Iraq, Venezuela could not have been invaded, as the political pretexts would require time to build up. Instead CIA has been engaged in various covert operations including the recent failed military-led coup in April 2002.

As the dollar has been already devaluating against the Euro, other significant countries like Russia, China, North Korea, Malaysia has started to hold Euro as part of their foreign exchange reserve, under such climate a move by OPEC to switch to Euro would cause a massive devaluation and consequentially initiating a domino effect. Other wealthy rich Arab businesses would follow, and push other investors to do the same, leading to the unthinkable, a run on the dollar. Further devaluation the US cannot afford due to the massive budget deficit. More significantly it would incapacitate her ability to wage further illegal wars (state terrorism) around the world.

Therefore, we can expect a prolonged US occupation of Iraq under various pretexts until Iraq's oil revenues are switched back to the dollar -- preferably take her out of the OPEC, so no surprise for the "absence" of Iraq's "interest" in the recent OPEC meeting. Iran is also contemplating switching to the Euro, and naturally she is receiving threats under other pretexts. We may witness other "liberation" wars and destabilisation, leading to the dismantling of the OPEC cartel, not in the name of democracy or freedom, but to maintain the dollar as a global transactional currency.