In August 2000, Iraq switched to selling oil in euros instead of dollars. Within two years, Iraq
was responsible for 9/11had weapons of mass destruction.Two things of note came in the wake of the absolute clusterfuck of replacing Saddam Hussein. Iraq brought back the death penalty, and started selling oil in dollars again.
Linking the invasion of Iraq with their selling oil in Euros makes no sense at all.
Maintenance of the petrodollar has long been a core US geopolitical concern
To some extent but it’s really not that important. Oil gets traded for all kinds of things besides dollars, it’s never been so big a deal that the US would engineer a very dumb war over it. Maybe there were some for whom it was a motivating factor in their support for attacking Iraq, but by and large the animating force was not concern about what currency Iraqi oil exports are traded for. It makes no real difference to anything, it’s not significant.
I’m not sold on the Iraq invasion being about Iraq selling oil not in USD, but you’re drastically underplaying the significance of the petrodollar, especially 20 years ago.
What was the animating force for the invasion?
It’s complicated to explain but the easiest summary is “neoconservative ideology” and a certain kind of postmodern imperialism that came to dominate US elite culture following 9/11. Read up on PNAC if you want to dig into it more.
Iraq, which has called the dollar the currency of its “enemy state,” informed oil customers earlier this month to start making payments in euros, beginning November 1. Baghdad also has threatened to stop oil exports, the bulk of which flows through the UN humanitarian program, if its request for payment in the euro is denied.
https://gulfnews.com/business/energy/un-says-iraq-switch-to-euros-would-be-costly-1.433781
After the invasion it switched back to the us dollar. https://medium.com/%40gsaidheeraj/from-saddam-to-maduro-the-hidden-cost-of-pricing-oil-beyond-the-dollar-2b9e373cc944
It’s certainly a coincidence. I’m sure it’s not a justification for war, or even a threat of war.
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Trump would invade England… Because reasons.
A big fat tantrump.
I would say that they could use that to print money with less inflation but Europeans (read: Germans) will never print money.
So, I don’t know, probably use a strong € to buy Japanese companies since the yen is weak now.
There should really be a currency specifically for intergovernmental banking, so that no one government can manipulate it to their ends.
A lot of entities would have to agree on who to bully.
i think the euro has started to act as a reserve currency but not the reserve currency
iirc when the dollar became the world currency it had good and bad effects. one of the side effects was the massive increase in national debt to create the currency (securities) for people to invest in. it’s got so large that there is actual risk on the US defaulting on these debts as the US economy struggles to keep up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_currency
i think more likely will be the increased use of Chinese currency as a reserve
Yuan is unlikely due to unpredictability of gov influence on the currency
