The Passing Of Coca Crystal, the original "If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution"

This paragraph between here and video posted by Coca's Sister On Coca FB page.

Coca Crystal

March 2, 2016

I am so sorry to share the news that my sister died yesterday. As already noted by the numerous tributes which are trickling onto the internet, Jackie/Coca Crystal was a very special, kind and most generous friend, sister, cousin and especially a mom to her beloved Gus.

She was a pioneer in the world of public access television and enjoyed 18 years of hosting her show, "If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution." She had a remarkable sense of humor and knew how and when to use it best.

She will live on in spirit through the magic of YouTube and the Internet. She was an amazing sister and I will forever love and miss her. I would like to thank those of you who supported her during her illness, and especially to Rebecca Chancewho has sacrificed so much in her dedication to both Coca and Gus.

-- Jill Diamond

For those of you who were born after Vietnam war, this is a picture of the atrocities we knew then.
This article is how I came to know Coca Crystal​
AUTOMATED AIRWAR
THERE ARE NO BIRDS IN VIETNAM
By Coca Crystal
Here is a short facebook chat between us to elucidate:
Dael> is there any online version of your article "Automated Air War"?
09/15/2012
Coca> Hi Dael- I think the only place it was published was in the NY Ace.
09/15/2012
....
Coca> Dael- I did not write the postscript.... I think the original article was reprinted several times in many underground papers. though I have no idea which ones or when. Best to you and your project xxoo coca
Dael> thanks, I hope you don't mind, just trying to keep the tribal knowledge alive! :)
09/16/2012 2:38PM
Coca> It is my pleasure- tribal or otherwise...
:end of chat

I found it in "Blacklisted News, Secret histories from Chicago to 1984" page 8
AUTOMATED AIRWAR
THERE ARE NO BIRDS IN VIETNAM
By Coca Crystal
The new war in Indochina' While troops are being brought home, the air war increases. It is a new form of war where machines do most of the killing and destruction. The population of Indochina has been concentrated in the major cities and placed under American control. The vast regions outside of these controlled areas are subject to American bombing at any time. Well over two-thirds of Indochina has thus been turned into a free fire zone.
The new war is an automated war with machines playing the predominant role and ground troops in a secondary position. Asian foot soldiers are used to supporting American bombers by "showing the flag" after bombing raids, taking out supplies and refugees, providing static defense for the major cities and bases, and serving as "live bait" to draw guerilla fire so American pilots have some idea where to bomb. The aircraft carrier has become a mobile platform from which to launch air attacks against ground targets. The aircraft carrier is likely to be the first US force engaged and the last one withdrawn.
The mechanized war consists of air craft, huge air bases and aircraft carriers. The goal of the mechanized war is to replace US personnel with machines. It reduces cost and domestic dissent occasioned by American deaths; it increases efficiency by removing American foot soldiers. From the Armed Forces Journal-"By every conceivable indicator our Army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited were not near mutinous." And faced with an American public that wants peace, an Army that won't fight, and an enemy that won't lose, the US Government has found a way to give the appearance of peace while continuing the war. The solution, Westmoreland said, "is to replace, wherever possible, the man with the machine."
Areas have been seeded with airdropped devices that can detect vibrations or people; they detect sounds, they may be sensitive to metallic objects, or to heat radiation or to chemical emanations from human bodies. The information is transmitted by radio to receivers on mountain tops or in continuously airborne communications aircraft (manned and unmanned). The signals are then relayed to a central computer in Udorn, Thailand, where all responses of all sensors are cor¬related, and the decision to strike a certain area is finalized.
The code name for the electronic opera¬tion is "Igloo White." Barry Goldwater said, "I personally think it (electronic battlefield) has the possibility of being one of the greatest steps forward in warfare since gun powder." The "automated warfare" has many "advantages"-a machine will not defect or take drugs, the machines represent a cheap mercenary army.
Machines cannot discriminate between friend or foe, civilian or soldier, adult or child-all will die who lie in its path. Three things make the air war distinctive.
I. Electronic sensors, not men, are finding the targets.
2. The targets are struck by computer directed aircraft filled with electronic equipment.
3. The bombs they drop are designed primarily to maim people and drive them out of "enemy" areas.
"On several occasions after heavy sensor activity the night before, morning patrols sent out in search of enemy bodies found dead water buffaloes instead." Reported in the Congressional Record by Proxmire-3/23/71 .
50% of all bombs on Indochina are anti¬personnel bombs. Anti-personnel bombs are designed for use against unprotected human flesh. One thousand tons of anti-personnel bombs are dropped daily in Indochina! Anti¬personnel bombs violate international law. "It is specifically forbidden to employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering" -Hague Convention, 1907.
"Most of the victims of anti-personnel bombs are not killed, but maimed. The pellets are designed to cause irregular and hard-to-cure wounds. This serves 2 purposes. One, instead of one person being killed and thus removed from military production, 5 or 6 must care for them. Secondly, badly wounded viets have a greater demoralizing effect on the rest of the population." From National Action/Research of the Military Industrial Complex.
The sensors used to detect movement or presence of human beings are unparalleled in their imaginative uses. Take for example the air delivered seismic intrusion director ADSID. They are dropped from planes and land and burrow into the earth, leaving only the antenna showing. The antenna is designed to look like a tropical plant. Footsteps transmit
vibrations to the computer. But the vibra¬tions offer no clue as to whether the person or persons making the steps are man, woman or child-armed or unarmed. Another interesting sensor is one made to look like animal droppings. They are made by Honeywell corporations. Another, ACOUBOY microphones, are dropped from planes on lity parachutes made by the Playtex Company (living bra people). The parachute disintegrates when it hits the trees, leaving a fine netting to hold up the camouflaged microphones. Sensors "are also carried onboard aircraft. The "people sniffer" is designed to detect ammonia in human body odors. The army spent $1.5 million developing this to have it knocked out of commission by the simple use of ingenuity. The Vietnamese hang buckets of urine from the trees. Goodyear radar units are also carried onboard aircraft.
Helicopters are also equipped with special devices. Textron, which makes Talon Zippers and Schaeffer pens, makes a "prowling hunter" killer chopper that uses an infra-red screen to see in the dark. Puff the Magic Dragon, an old gunship, could boast 6,000 gun pellets per minute. But the new chopper is even more effective. Some 2,000 tons of bombs are dropped daily in Indochina. There are 5 types. The high explosives range anywhere from 250 to 15,000 pounds. There are 20 million bomb craters in Indochina. I 0 million are in South Vietnam. A standard 500 pound bomb would make a crater I 0 to 50 feet wide and 5 to 50 feet deep. Areas hit by high explosives are impossible to re-cultivate.
The anti-personnel bombs encompass half, or 1,000 tons daily. They are designed for use against unprotected human flesh. North Vietnamese school children wear straw vests to protect themselves. Each "pineapple" has 250 steel pellets which shoot out horizontally when the bombs hit the ground. But the people hid in trenches so the "guava" was_ developed. The guava explodes before it hits the ground so the pellets spray diagonally into the trenches in a 360 degree pattern. They cannot destroy a bridge, a truck or a train. Two or three inches of sand bags will stop them. The "Flechette" or nail bomb contains several hundred one-inch barbed nails in each three-inch bomblet. It enters the body shredding muscles and body organs.
The incendiary bombs are designed to burn their victims. They vary in temperature and adhesiveness. Napalm is characterized by the "sheets of flames" that envelop everything for hundreds of yards. White Phosphorous burns on contact with oxygen. It cannot be extinguished, which means it usually has to the bone before it goes out. And it burns slowly. On occasion it can burn for 15 days. The greenish light that can be seen at night is produced by the material that continues burning the flesh and bones. Air to ground missiles are being used more frequently in recent years. They are either guided or teleguided missiles. The "walleye" and the "bullpup" are teleguided and are used against caves or suspected underground complexes. They are accurate within 6 feet when dropped from a distance as far as 4 miles.
The last group of bombs are the area denial mines. These are designed to make areas of land uninhabitable for human life. Dragon Tooth and Gravel mines are camouflaged to blend in with the land. They will blow off your foot if you step on them do much the same to your hand if you touch them. The Spider mine or the wide anti-personnel mine has 8 fine wires that extend from it. When a wire is moved, bal bearing like pellets are thrown a distance of meters (180 feet). They are not dropped specific targets but entire areas are f1ood¬with them.
The Plain of Jars used to be a thriving society of 50,000 people. It used to be in Northern Laos. I say "used to be" because it isn't e anymore. In 1969 bombers made daily and destroyed all stationary structures. Nothing was left standing. An old man from the area said, "The planes came like the birds and the bombs fell like the rain. " The villagers in trenches, holes or caves. In
September 1969, CIA-supported Meo troops (an indigenous Laotian tribe) went in and took out 25,000 refugees. It is a deserted wasteland today. The Pathet Lao, the armed fighting guerillas of Laos, have been the unceasing target of the CIA. CIA representatives meet weekly at Udorn Air Force Base in Thailand to draw up target listings.
Not only is the air war ugly, inhumane and technically illegal, it is also rather ineffective. The war is proving to be technology versus the human spirit. And fortunately the humans are holding up. In Cambodia guerillas now control 70-90% of the territory despite a bombing campaign of some 150,000 tons since May 1970.
In Laos, the guerilla forces now hold more territory than before the bombing began. By 1969, "90% [of the young men] wanted to join the Pathet Lao. Nobody really understood what the Pathet Lao meant by 'American Imperialism' before the planes came. But by 1969, the attitude was 'better to die fighting than hiding in the holes.'''-A Pathet Lao volunteer.
The NLF in South Vietnam has also been experiencing a renewed recruitment increase. "Twenty-seven months of bombing have had remarkably little effect," said the Pentagon Papers. Half of the bombs miss their targets and provide the guerillas with 27,000 tons of bombs to make booby traps and mines.
The air war violates international law on many levels. The first is the extensive bomb¬ings of unprotected villages and hospitals, augmented by our illegal failure to aid civilian bomb casualties. The Plain of Jars held the first society in history to be completely destroyed by total automatic war.
Herbicides are used. About 100 million pounds have been sprayed on Vietnam. Over 5 million acres have been hit. Herbicides can cause genetic damage and already birth abnormalities are being reported at an alarming rate. Half of the mangrove forests in Vietnam have been destroyed. There are no birds in Vietnam!
These are the cold and chilling facts. I have tried not to cloud the facts with political rhetoric, but I must express some feelings here. I feel there must be some limitations to what the Government is allowed to do. And the air war in itself is a war crime. We, as a country, have sunk to a new and low depth of inhumanity and brutality. It is time to learn the facts, well enough to convince somebody else. And then ACT. Get off your asses, if for the first time in your life, and do something. No, the war ain't winding down, it's just starting, and 1 for one would be proud to give aid to the heroic and resolutely just people of Indochina. But how, you say?
There is nothing too awful that can be done to the makers of the automated battlefield. Honeywell, ITT, Westinghouse, Textron, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, Playtex, Dupont, Boeing, General Electric, Motorola, Singer. Hamilton, Lin-Tempo Voight, Olin, General Motors and Grumman all make millions in Government contracts. Get together with a group of friends. People you know well and trust. And then plot the scheme. "Visit" offices, sabotage, vandalize and terrorize the executives. Hold "die-ins" in their posh suites. Put blood on their carpets. Do anything to dramatize the war. Send them garbage in the mail. Tie up their switchboards (call from paybooths). Infiltrate and wreak havoc.
The people who work for these corporations must be made aware of their company's involvement in the war. They must understand their complicity in the senseless killing and destruction of life and land. I can't ask you to care about some Lao-tian or Cambodian peasant who does not even know what an American is, but I can implore you to boycott ALL products made by Continental Bakeries, Wonder Bread, Hostess Cupcakes. etc. They are subsidiaries of ITT who are more than accomplices in the air war. Destroy their products in the supermarkets, beg people not to buy their pro¬ducts. Explain to them why. If they complain that Wonder is cheaper, give them money to make up the difference. People have already begun to campaign against the air war. Hundreds of small well-organized attacks would do a lot.
So don't just sit there reading. PLOT, SCHEME AND ACT. Take a chance, take a risk, the Indochinese do it every day. Gamble on something that will surely make you feel good inside. Decide how far you are able to go. Maybe it's leafleting or maybe you are prepared to sabotage. But get it done, right. No more sloppy jobs. We have enough people underground and many more prepared to descend. An action by ten people at a major corporation will be as effective, if not more effective, than 20,000 people marching at a peace rally.

Postcript to 'Automated Airwar' Author Unknown

On August 30, 1970, 15 minutes before I arrived in Madison, Wisc. to get some printing done on behalf of 3 Milwaukee Black Panthers falsely accused of taking a pot-shot at a cop, an enormous explosion destroyed the Army Mathematics Research Center on the UW-Madison campus. When we got to the site of the explosion, we found that someone had left a van-load of fertilizer treated with heating oil and rigged with a dynamite detonator in the parking bay at the base of the building containing the AMRC Computer, leveling it.
Army Math was not, as University 'public relations flacs still insist, a center for purely theoretical research into Mathematics. The best evidence indicates this was the master computer which designed the smaller computers which controlled the "automated battlefield" described in Coca's article. Most important, Army Math was responsible for continuously updating programming of the on-board "counter-measures" computers that enabled the U.S. B-52 fleet to evade the latest in Soviet anti-aircraft technologies supplied to the Vietnamese.
Destruction of Army Math resulted in a loss of an approximately 18 month lead-time that state-of-the-art U.S. countermeasure techniques had enjoyed vis-a-vis the Vietnamese. The Wharf Building (which housed AMRC) had to be rebuilt from scratch, and meanwhile the Vietnamese caught up. Thanks to the SAM-7, in the 2 weeks of the Christmas Bombing of Hanoi, etc. at the end of 1972, Nixon lost 20% of the entire U.S. fleet of B-52's. He was forced to sign the treaty a month later.
The group single-handedly responsible for ending the War, Madison's own New Year's Gang, was subsequently apprehended in Canada. Karlton Armstrong, his brother Dwight and David Fine were tried for various charges, including the accidental death of a researcher (ironically personally antiwar) who was caught in the blast because Madison cops chose to disregard several warning calls. Leo Burt, the 4th gang member, has never been apprehended.
An immediate side-effect of the explosion was that KALEIDOSCOPE editor Mark Knops, later the founder of TAKEOVER, did 4% months for refusing to testify before a grand jury-and not a single member of the press stepped forward to protest.
Karl and the other members of the New Year's Gang were released at the end of the '70's. Karlton is prohibited from travelling or talking much about politics by the terms of his parole. He and his brother never got any medals, but they're local heroes in Madison.
Kissinger, author of the Christmas bombing and the whole Star Wars genocide of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. As the peanut farmer once said, Life is unfair.

Coca Crystal | Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/cocacrystal

 New York Yippie Coca Crystal hosted the popular cable TV program If I Can't Dance You Can Keep Your Revolution.^[65]   (  http://www.brinkdvd.com/shop/product/80/ )

Harvey Wasserman: People died---and are still dying---at Three Mile Island

A Columbus Freepress Article

Harvey Wasserman

People died at Three Mile Island
March 24, 2009

People died---and are still dying---at Three Mile Island.

As the thirtieth anniversary of America's most infamous industrial accident approaches, we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history.

As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases.

That quickly proved to be false.

The public was then told the releases were controlled and done purposely to alleviate pressure on the core.

Both those assertions were false.

The public was told the releases were "insignificant."

But stack monitors were saturated and unusable, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later told Congress it did not know---and STILL does not know---how much radiation was released at Three Mile Island, or where it went.

Using unsubstantiated estimates of how much radiation was released, the government issued average doses allegedly received by people in the region, which it assured the public were safe. But the estimates were utterly meaningless, among other things ignoring the likelihood that high doses of concentrated fallout could come down heavily on specific areas.

Official estimates said a uniform dose to all persons in the region was equivalent to a single chest x-ray. But pregnant women are no longer x-rayed because it has long been known a single dose can do catastrophic damage to an embryo or fetus in utero.

The public was told there was no melting of fuel inside the core.

But robotic cameras later showed a very substantial portion of the fuel did melt.

The public was told there was no danger of an explosion.

But there was, as there had been at Michigan's Fermi reactor in 1966. In 1986, Chernobyl Unit Four did explode.

The public was told there was no need to evacuate anyone from the area.

But Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh then evacuated pregnant women and small children. Unfortunately, many were sent to nearby Hershey, which was showered with fallout.

In fact, the entire region should have been immediately evacuated. It is standard wisdom in the health physics community that---due in part to the extreme vulnerability of human embryos, fetuses and small children, as well as the weaknesses of old age---there is no safe dose of radiation, and none will ever be found.

The public was assured the government would follow up with meticulous studies of the health impacts of the accident.

In fact, the state of Pennsylvania hid the health impacts, including deletion of cancers from the public record, abolition of the state's tumor registry, misrepresentation of the impacts it could not hide (including an apparent tripling of the infant death rate in nearby Harrisburg) and much more.

The federal government did nothing to track the health histories of the region's residents.

In fact, the most reliable studies were conducted by local residents like Jane Lee and Mary Osborne, who went door-to-door in neighborhoods where the fallout was thought to be worst. Their surveys showed very substantial plagues of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, respiratory problems, hair loss, rashes, lesions and much more.

A study by Columbia University claimed there were no significant health impacts, but its data by some interpretations points in the opposite direction. Investigations by epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Wing of the University of North Carolina, and others, led Wing to warn that the official studies on the health impacts of the accident suffered from “logical and methodological problems.” Studies by Wing and by Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry official, being announced this week at Harrisburg, significantly challenge official pronouncements on both radiation releases and health impacts.

Gundersen, a leading technical expert on nuclear engineering, says: “When I correctly interpreted the containment pressure spike and the doses measured in the environment after the TMI accident, I proved that TMI's releases were about one hundred times higher than the industry and the NRC claim, in part because the containment leaked. This new data supports the epidemiology of Dr. Steve Wing and proves that there really were injuries from the accident. New reactor designs are also effected, as the NRC is using its low assumed release rates to justify decreases in emergency planning and containment design."

Data unearthed by radiologist Dr. Ernest Sternglass of the University of Pittsburgh, and statisticians Jay Gould (now deceased) and Joe Mangano of New York have led to strong assertions of major public health impacts. On-going work by Sternglass and Mangano clearly indicates that "normal" reactor radiation releases of far less magnitude that those at TMI continue to have catastrophic impacts on local populations.

Anecdotal evidence among the local human population has been devastating. Large numbers of central Pennsylvanians suffered skin sores and lesions that erupted while they were out of doors as the fallout rained down on them. Many quickly developed large, visible tumors, breathing problems, and a metallic taste in their mouths that matched that experienced by some of the men who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and who were exposed to nuclear tests in the south Pacific and Nevada.

A series of interviews conducted by Robbie Leppzer and compiled in a “a two-hour public radio documentary VOICES FROM THREE MILE ISLAND ( www.turningtide.com ) give some indication of the horrors experienced by the people of central Pennsylvania.

They are further underscored by harrowing broadcasts from then-CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-c1PrCLaRw) warning that “the world has never known a day quite like today. It faced the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the atomic age. And the horror tonight is that it could get much worse.”

In March of 1980, I went into the region and compiled a range of interviews clearly indicating widespread health damage done by radiation from the accident. The survey led to the book KILLING OUR OWN, co-authored with Norman Solomon, Robert Alvarez and Eleanor Walters ( www.ratical.org/radiation/KillingOurOwn/KOO.pdf ) which correlated the damage done at TMI with that suffered during nuclear bomb tests, atomic weapons production, mis-use of medical x-rays, the painting of radium watch dials, uranium mining and milling, radioactive fuel production, failed attempts at waste disposal, and more.

My research at TMI also uncovered a plague of death and disease among the area's wild animals and farm livestock. Entire bee hives expired immediately after the accident, along with a disappearance of birds, many of whom were found scattered dead on the ground. A rash of malformed pets were born and stillborn, including kittens that could not walk and a dog with no eyes. Reproductive rates among the region's cows and horses plummeted.

Much of this was documented by a three-person investigative team from the Baltimore News-American, which made it clear that the problems could only have been caused by radiation. Statistics from Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture confirmed the plague, but the state denied its existence, and said that if it did exist, it could not have been caused by TMI.

In the mid-1980s the citizens of the three counties surrounding Three Mile Island voted by a margin of 3:1 to permanently retired TMI Unit One, which had been shut when Unit Two melted. The Reagan Administration trashed the vote and re-opened the reactor, which still operates. Its owners now seek a license renewal.

Some 2400 area residents have long-since filed a class action lawsuit demanding compensation for the plague of death and disease visited upon their families. In the past quarter-century they have been denied access to the federal court system, which claims there was not enough radiation released to do such harm. TMI’s owners did quietly pay out millions in damages to area residents whose children were born with genetic damage, among other things. The payments came in exchange for silence among those receiving them.

But for all the global attention focused on the accident and its health effects, there has never been a binding public trial to test the assertion by thousands of conservative central Pennsylvanians that radiation from TMI destroyed their lives.

So while the nuclear power industry continues to assert that "no one died at Three Mile Island," it refuses to allow an open judicial hearing on the hundreds of cases still pending.

As the pushers of the "nuclear renaissance" demand massive tax- and rate-payer subsidies to build yet another generation of reactors, they cynically stonewall the obvious death toll that continues to mount at the site of an accident that happened thirty years ago. The "see no evil" mantra continues to define all official approaches to the victims of this horrific disaster.

Ironically, like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island Unit Two was a state-of-the-art reactor. Its official opening came on December 28, 1978, and it melted exactly three months later. Had it operated longer, the accumulated radiation spewing from its core almost certainly would have been far greater.

Every reactor now operating in the US is much older---nearly all fully three decades older---than TMI-2 when it melted. Their potential fallout that could dwarf what came down in 1979.

But the Big Lie remains officially in tact. Expect to hear all week that TMI was "a success story" because "no one was killed."

But in mere moments that brand new reactor morphed from a $900 million asset to a multi-billion-dollar liability. It could happen to any atomic power plant, now, tomorrow and into the future.

Meanwhile, the death toll from America's worst industrial catastrophe continues to rise. More than ever, it is shrouded in official lies and desecrated by a reactor-pushing “renaissance” hell-bent on repeating the nightmare on an even larger scale.

--
Harvey Wasserman has been writing about atomic energy and the green alternatives since 1973. His 1982 assertion to Bryant Gumbel on NBC's TODAY Show that people were killed at TMI sparked a national mailing from the reactor industry demanding a retraction. NBC was later bought by Westinghouse, still a major force pushing atomic power. This article originally appeared at http://freepress.org.

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/12125


I encountered this article in March of 2007 and sent to to everyone I knew. It clarifies the relationship between American capital, financial policy, and oil interests as well as I have ever seen it explained.
~ Deborah

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
by Krassimir Petrov
I. Economics of Empires

A nation-state taxes its own citizens, while an empire taxes other nation-states. The history of empires, from Greek and Roman, to Ottoman and British, teaches that the economic foundation of every single empire is the taxation of other nations. The imperial ability to tax has always rested on a better and stronger economy, and as a consequence, a better and stronger military. One part of the subject taxes went to improve the living standards of the empire; the other part went to strengthen the military dominance necessary to enforce the collection of those taxes.

Historically, taxing the subject state has been in various forms—usually gold and silver, where those were considered money, but also slaves, soldiers, crops, cattle, or other agricultural and natural resources, whatever economic goods the empire demanded and the subject-state could deliver. Historically, imperial taxation has always been direct: the subject state handed over the economic goods directly to the empire.

For the first time in history, in the twentieth century, America was able to tax the world indirectly, through inflation. It did not enforce the direct payment of taxes like all of its predecessor empires did, but distributed instead its own fiat currency, the U.S. Dollar, to other nations in exchange for goods with the intended consequence of inflating and devaluing those dollars and paying back later each dollar with less economic goods—the difference capturing the U.S. imperial tax. Here is how this happened.

Early in the 20th century, the U.S. economy began to dominate the world economy. The U.S. dollar was tied to gold, so that the value of the dollar neither increased, nor decreased, but remained the same amount of gold. The Great Depression, with its preceding inflation from 1921 to 1929 and its subsequent ballooning government deficits, had substantially increased the amount of currency in circulation, and thus rendered the backing of U.S. dollars by gold impossible. This led Roosevelt to decouple the dollar from gold in 1932. Up to this point, the U.S. may have well dominated the world economy, but from an economic point of view, it was not an empire. The fixed value of the dollar did not allow the Americans to extract economic benefits from other countries by supplying them with dollars convertible to gold.

Economically, the American Empire was born with Bretton Woods in 1945. The U.S. dollar was not fully convertible to gold, but was made convertible to gold only to foreign governments. This established the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. It was possible, because during WWII, the United States had supplied its allies with provisions, demanding gold as payment, thus accumulating significant portion of the world’s gold. An Empire would not have been possible if, following the Bretton Woods arrangement, the dollar supply was kept limited and within the availability of gold, so as to fully exchange back dollars for gold. However, the guns-and-butter policy of the 1960’s was an imperial one: the dollar supply was relentlessly increased to finance Vietnam and LBJ’s Great Society. Most of those dollars were handed over to foreigners in exchange for economic goods, without the prospect of buying them back at the same value. The increase in dollar holdings of foreigners via persistent U.S. trade deficits was tantamount to a tax—the classical inflation tax that a country imposes on its own citizens, this time around an inflation tax that U.S. imposed on rest of the world.

When in 1970-1971 foreigners demanded payment for their dollars in gold, The U.S. Government defaulted on its payment on August 15, 1971. While the popular spin told the story of “severing the link between the dollar and gold”, in reality the denial to pay back in gold was an act of bankruptcy by the U.S. Government. Essentially, the U.S. declared itself an Empire. It had extracted an enormous amount of economic goods from the rest of the world, with no intention or ability to return those goods, and the world was powerless to respond— the world was taxed and it could not do anything about it.

From that point on, to sustain the American Empire and to continue to tax the rest of the world, the United States had to force the world to continue to accept ever-depreciating dollars in exchange for economic goods and to have the world hold more and more of those depreciating dollars. It had to give the world an economic reason to hold them, and that reason was oil.

In 1971, as it became clearer and clearer that the U.S Government would not be able to buy back its dollars in gold, it made in 1972-73 an iron-clad arrangement with Saudi Arabia to support the power of the House of Saud in exchange for accepting only U.S. dollars for its oil. The rest of OPEC was to follow suit and also accept only dollars. Because the world had to buy oil from the Arab oil countries, it had the reason to hold dollars as payment for oil. Because the world needed ever increasing quantities of oil at ever increasing oil prices, the world’s demand for dollars could only increase. Even though dollars could no longer be exchanged for gold, they were now exchangeable for oil.

The economic essence of this arrangement was that the dollar was now backed by oil. As long as that was the case, the world had to accumulate increasing amounts of dollars, because they needed those dollars to buy oil. As long as the dollar was the only acceptable payment for oil, its dominance in the world was assured, and the American Empire could continue to tax the rest of the world. If, for any reason, the dollar lost its oil backing, the American Empire would cease to exist. Thus, Imperial survival dictated that oil be sold only for dollars. It also dictated that oil reserves were spread around various sovereign states that weren’t strong enough, politically or militarily, to demand payment for oil in something else. If someone demanded a different payment, he had to be convinced, either by political pressure or military means, to change his mind.

The man that actually did demand Euro for his oil was Saddam Hussein in 2000. At first, his demand was met with ridicule, later with neglect, but as it became clearer that he meant business, political pressure was exerted to change his mind. When other countries, like Iran, wanted payment in other currencies, most notably Euro and Yen, the danger to the dollar was clear and present, and a punitive action was in order. Bush’s Shock-and-Awe in Iraq was not about Saddam’s nuclear capabilities, about defending human rights, about spreading democracy, or even about seizing oil fields; it was about defending the dollar, ergo the American Empire. It was about setting an example that anyone who demanded payment in currencies other than U.S. Dollars would be likewise punished.

Many have criticized Bush for staging the war in Iraq in order to seize Iraqi oil fields. However, those critics can’t explain why Bush would want to seize those fields—he could simply print dollars for nothing and use them to get all the oil in the world that he needs. He must have had some other reason to invade Iraq.

History teaches that an empire should go to war for one of two reasons: (1) to defend itself or (2) benefit from war; if not, as Paul Kennedy illustrates in his magisterial The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a military overstretch will drain its economic resources and precipitate its collapse. Economically speaking, in order for an empire to initiate and conduct a war, its benefits must outweigh its military and social costs. Benefits from Iraqi oil fields are hardly worth the long-term, multi-year military cost. Instead, Bush must have went into Iraq to defend his Empire. Indeed, this is the case: two months after the United States invaded Iraq, the Oil for Food Program was terminated, the Iraqi Euro accounts were switched back to dollars, and oil was sold once again only for U.S. dollars. No longer could the world buy oil from Iraq with Euro. Global dollar supremacy was once again restored. Bush descended victoriously from a fighter jet and declared the mission accomplished—he had successfully defended the U.S. dollar, and thus the American Empire.

II. Iranian Oil Bourse

The Iranian government has finally developed the ultimate “nuclear” weapon that can swiftly destroy the financial system underpinning the American Empire. That weapon is the Iranian Oil Bourse slated to open in March 2006. It will be based on a euro-oil-trading mechanism that naturally implies payment for oil in Euro. In economic terms, this represents a much greater threat to the hegemony of the dollar than Saddam’s, because it will allow anyone willing either to buy or to sell oil for Euro to transact on the exchange, thus circumventing the U.S. dollar altogether. If so, then it is likely that almost everyone will eagerly adopt this euro oil system:

· The Europeans will not have to buy and hold dollars in order to secure their payment for oil, but would instead pay with their own currencies. The adoption of the euro for oil transactions will provide the European currency with a reserve status that will benefit the European at the expense of the Americans.

· The Chinese and the Japanese will be especially eager to adopt the new exchange, because it will allow them to drastically lower their enormous dollar reserves and diversify with Euros, thus protecting themselves against the depreciation of the dollar. One portion of their dollars they will still want to hold onto; a second portion of their dollar holdings they may decide to dump outright; a third portion of their dollars they will decide to use up for future payments without replenishing those dollar holdings, but building up instead their euro reserves.

· The Russians have inherent economic interest in adopting the Euro – the bulk of their trade is with European countries, with oil-exporting countries, with China, and with Japan. Adoption of the Euro will immediately take care of the first two blocs, and will over time facilitate trade with China and Japan. Also, the Russians seemingly detest holding depreciating dollars, for they have recently found a new religion with gold. Russians have also revived their nationalism, and if embracing the Euro will stab the Americans, they will gladly do it and smugly watch the Americans bleed.

· The Arab oil-exporting countries will eagerly adopt the Euro as a means of diversifying against rising mountains of depreciating dollars. Just like the Russians, their trade is mostly with European countries, and therefore will prefer the European currency both for its stability and for avoiding currency risk, not to mention their jihad against the Infidel Enemy.

Only the British will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They have had a strategic partnership with the U.S. forever, but have also had their natural pull from Europe. So far, they have had many reasons to stick with the winner. However, when they see their century-old partner falling, will they firmly stand behind him or will they deliver the coup de grace? Still, we should not forget that currently the two leading oil exchanges are the New York’s NYMEX and the London’s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), even though both of them are effectively owned by the Americans. It seems more likely that the British will have to go down with the sinking ship, for otherwise they will be shooting themselves in the foot by hurting their own London IPE interests. It is here noteworthy that for all the rhetoric about the reasons for the surviving British Pound, the British most likely did not adopt the Euro namely because the Americans must have pressured them not to: otherwise the London IPE would have had to switch to Euros, thus mortally wounding the dollar and their strategic partner.

At any rate, no matter what the British decide, should the Iranian Oil Bourse accelerate, the interests that matter—those of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Arabs—will eagerly adopt the Euro, thus sealing the fate of the dollar. Americans cannot allow this to happen, and if necessary, will use a vast array of strategies to halt or hobble the operation’s exchange:

· Sabotaging the Exchange—this could be a computer virus, network, communications, or server attack, various server security breaches, or a 9-11-type attack on main and backup facilities.

· Coup d’état—this is by far the best long-term strategy available to the Americans.

· Negotiating Acceptable Terms & Limitations—this is another excellent solution to the Americans. Of course, a government coup is clearly the preferred strategy, for it will ensure that the exchange does not operate at all and does not threaten American interests. However, if an attempted sabotage or coup d’etat fails, then negotiation is clearly the second-best available option.

· Joint U.N. War Resolution—this will be, no doubt, hard to secure given the interests of all other member-states of the Security Council. Feverish rhetoric about Iranians developing nuclear weapons undoubtedly serves to prepare this course of action.

· Unilateral Nuclear Strike—this is a terrible strategic choice for all the reasons associated with the next strategy, the Unilateral Total War. The Americans will likely use Israel to do their dirty nuclear job.

· Unilateral Total War—this is obviously the worst strategic choice. First, the U.S. military resources have been already depleted with two wars. Secondly, the Americans will further alienate other powerful nations. Third, major dollar-holding countries may decide to quietly retaliate by dumping their own mountains of dollars, thus preventing the U.S. from further financing its militant ambitions. Finally, Iran has strategic alliances with other powerful nations that may trigger their involvement in war; Iran reputedly has such alliance with China, India, and Russia, known as the Shanghai Cooperative Group, a.k.a. Shanghai Coop and a separate pact with Syria.

Whatever the strategic choice, from a purely economic point of view, should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain momentum, it will be eagerly embraced by major economic powers and will precipitate the demise of the dollar. The collapsing dollar will dramatically accelerate U.S. inflation and will pressure upward U.S. long-term interest rates. At this point, the Fed will find itself between Scylla and Charybdis—between deflation and hyperinflation—it will be forced fast either to take its “classical medicine” by deflating, whereby it raises interest rates, thus inducing a major economic depression, a collapse in real estate, and an implosion in bond, stock, and derivative markets, with a total financial collapse, or alternatively, to take the Weimar way out by inflating, whereby it pegs the long-bond yield, raises the Helicopters and drowns the financial system in liquidity, bailing out numerous LTCMs and hyperinflating the economy.

The Austrian theory of money, credit, and business cycles teaches us that there is no in-between Scylla and Charybdis. Sooner or later, the monetary system must swing one way or the other, forcing the Fed to make its choice. No doubt, Commander-in-Chief Ben Bernanke, a renowned scholar of the Great Depression and an adept Black Hawk pilot, will choose inflation. Helicopter Ben, oblivious to Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, has nonetheless mastered the lessons of the Great Depression and the annihilating power of deflations. The Maestro has taught him the panacea of every single financial problem—to inflate, come hell or high water. He has even taught the Japanese his own ingenious unconventional ways to battle the deflationary liquidity trap. Like his mentor, he has dreamed of battling a Kondratieff Winter. To avoid deflation, he will resort to the printing presses; he will recall all helicopters from the 800 overseas U.S. military bases; and, if necessary, he will monetize everything in sight. His ultimate accomplishment will be the hyperinflationary destruction of the American currency and from its ashes will rise the next reserve currency of the world—that barbarous relic called gold.

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Recommended Reading
William Clark “The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War in Iraq”
William Clark “The Real Reasons Why Iran is the Next Target”

About the Author
Krassimir Petrov (Krassimir_Petrov@hotmail.com) has received his Ph. D. in economics from the Ohio State University and currently teaches Macroeconomics, International Finance, and Econometrics at the American University in Bulgaria. He is looking for a career in Dubai or the U. A. E.

Also by this author
“China’s Great Depression”
“Masters of Austrian Investment Analysis”
“Austrian Analysis of U.S. Inflation”
“Oil Performance in a Worldwide Depression”
See: www.financialsense.com/editorials/petrov/main.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An excellent and thought provoking article by Krassimir Petrov!

However, I think perhaps it's not entirely correct to state that "critics can’t explain why Bush would want to seize those fields." The Bush regime are probably aiming to set themselves up as policeman of the Middle East oil fields, 'protecting' oil supply to Asia and Europe in return for various advantages at any future negotiation tables. Meanwhile billions of dollars of unaccountable no-bid contracts have been handed to corporations with ties to Bush administration, and the Iraqi oil industry is set to be privatised. So the reasons for the war are rich and varied. However Petrov has given us one of the clearest explanations yet of one of the most important, and certainly least understood, motivations for the war.

-AF

Republican Convention Has Fewest Black Delegates in 40 Years

http://www.npr.org/blogs/newsandviews/2008/09/rnc_has_fewest_black_delegates.html

It appears that the number of Black Republicans (a phenomenon I never understood, because Republicans are against equal rights for everyone except white men) has decreased somewhat.

I always thought that Black Republicans were some of the saddest people on earth, until I learned about the Log Cabin Republicans, gays and lesbians who supported a party whose platform specifically denies them equal rights.

Sigh...

So, I am cheered by this news, and the fact that Sarah Palin will soon shoot herself in her redneck foot, and retire from the limelight.

Cahooting in Denver!

Thursday night at the dnc, by the MSNBC media booth.



Me staring at fascist redneck babe nominated for VP by the Republicans.

Eh

I am to sit for the California Bar 5 days from now.

I won the battle against the resident fleas a few months ago!

But, I had to spend 14 hours ridding my residence of new foreign fleas. That will help *a lot* in reaching my goal of never having to sit for it again. Meps.

I went to my mother's house. It is now overcome with fleas since her illness began. My sister does not believe me, because she thinks I am crazy. Rather, I am a HOST for fleas. They will stay with me for months, even with treatment.

I am tired of having to live in a toxic environment because other people are not as sensitive to fleas as me. I have to eventually break down and use a pesticide so that I can have some *peace.* Flea bites are quite painful, and they bite me constantly.

Every time a flea bites its host, it is able to lay flea eggs. How would YOU feel if you were a flea host? Disgusted? In pain? Unable to sleep? Red blotches on skin? Itching all over? After spending all day long in pesticide-laden clothing?

I am not feeling so hot...

The Mod (erate) Squad (pic) (lol)