Isn't this thread blatantly political? I thought of several replies to things posted here, but all of them were blatantly political so I didn't bother typing them. Oh what the heck; why does no one ever point a finger at one of our biggest "allies" in the region; Saudi Arabia? They have encouraged radical Islam for decades. The country itself is ruled with an iron fist using an extreme version of Islam. I think all the mistakes the U.S and the west have made over the years in this region are vastly overwhelmed by a country that has propped up radicals at every turn.
World events, especially those that are intimately related to our own interests, are important to learn about and the US media presents an exteremly superficial and often very slanted view. Just view things
logically and be
fact-based and
unbiased without getting into DOMESTIC politics. Your BS filter has to be KNOWLEDGE and FACT based because there is so much slanted garbage to be found on-line.
Why haven't we gone after the Saudis? A couple of reasons, the first one related to the far more important second one:
Record $60bn Saudi arms sale - Biggest arms deal in US history will shore up a Gulf ally against Iran threat, but angers Tehran and worries Israel
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/13/us-saudi-arabia-arms-deal
But, totally related to the above and
by far the most important one is:
Petrodollars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar
In an effort to prop up the value of the dollar (after completely removing it from the gold standard), Richard Nixon negotiated a deal with Saudi Arabia that in exchange for arms and protection they would denominate all future oil sales in U.S. dollars. Subsequently, the other OPEC countries agreed to similar deals thus ensuring a global demand for U.S. dollars and allowing the U.S. to export some of its inflation.[citation needed] Since these dollars did not circulate within the country and thus were not part of the normal money supply, economists felt another term was necessary to describe the dollars received by petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) in exchange for oil, so the term petrodollar was coined by Georgetown University economics professor, Ibrahim Oweiss.
Why is that
really important? Because when you want your fiat currency to remain the world's reserve currency you need to make sure it's the sole or, at least, the primary currency required to buy something that absolutely everyone needs, in this case oil. Everybody needs dollars because everybody needs dollars to buy oil. It can also then be used as a weapon for political control. BTW, on that [citation needed] in the above quote, from no less than the Wall Street Journal:
The Latest American Export: Inflation (Jan. 18, 2011) (and it's not just "the latest"; it's the "as always" for the same fundamental reason it's "the latest" and it's another of the major fringe benefits of owning the world's reserve currency)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704405704576064252782421930
Back to that petrodollar thing:
Iran, The Dollar And Financial Warfare (Feb. 7, 2012)
https://seekingalpha.com/article/348261-iran-the-dollar-and-financial-warfare
Iraq: Baghdad Moves To Euro (Nov 1, 2000)
https://www.rferl.org/content/article/1095057.html
Iran presses ahead with dollar attack (12 Feb 2012)
Last week, the Tehran Times noted that the Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20. This long-planned move is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads vision of economic war with the west.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/commodities/9077600/Iran-presses-ahead-with-dollar-attack.html
Russia Abandons PetroDollar By Opening Reserve Fund (15 January 2015)
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Russia-Abandons-PetroDollar-By-Opening-Reserve-Fund.html