Pax Americana, the peace of American world dominance, began in 1945 at the end of World War II. America had spent the previous years building up its industrial base in order to supply the military with new everything and at the end of the war we were, in reality, the only world superpower.

Our military had dominated the European and Pacific theaters with naval and air superiority and now we began the business of rebuilding that which had been destroyed. No other nation on earth had the industrial or economic power to achieve the task at hand. Our economic might was backed by our gold reserves, the largest in the world, and American industry thrived as overseas contracts were doled out to every major corporation you can think of.

Things were going along nicely for America until the mid-1960's. Thanks to the 1958 Treaty of Rome and the Bilderberg meetings, Europe had recovered economically and the European nations were becoming strong exporters themselves. This, combined with America's deficit created by the Vietnam fiasco, created an opportunity for our "allies" like France's Charles de Gaulle to take advantage.

Because the dollar was such a good investment, you were after all buying U.S. gold, our dollar was heavily traded, much as it is today. The difference then was, under the Bretton Woods Gold Exchange system, anyone with a dollar could demand gold from the U.S. Federal Reserve - $1 equalled a couples specs of gold dust, $1,000 equalled a couple ounces and so on. Nations like France, under de Gaulle, Germany, Japan (sound like a familiar list?) and others, started doing just that - cashing in their dollars for gold.

In 1967 the drain of U.S. gold from American vaults had become critical. That was also the year the British Sterling was devalued which increased demand for U.S. gold world-wide, and by 1971 even England was demanding gold for their U.S. dollars. Our economic might was on the verge of collapse.

That's when President Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard creating a floating currency controlled by international banks. The dollar was still printed by Federal Reserve banks under the direction of the Treasury Department, but now there was nothing backing the dollar so why would anyone invest in it?

1971 was also the year Nixon sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Saudi Arabia to make sure the dollar would still be a viable world currency. Kissinger made a deal with the Saudis to only sell their oil for U.S. dollars. OPEC signed on to same deal in 1973. Think about this -- in the early 1970's was there any nation on earth that didn't need oil? Oil for machinery, oil for fuel, our world runs on "black gold" and it became the new standard for the dollar.

Doesn't matter if your home currency is the Yen or the Pound or the Marc or the Franc. If you want oil you have to pay for it in U.S. dollars. This means that every government must exchange their currency for dollars in order to buy oil. And this oil-for-dollars trading became known as "petro-dollars".

Fast-forward to 1990... Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait and at the request of the Kuwaiti Premier, the world amasses a multi-national army to evict Iraqi forces. The world succeeds and Saddam's punishment was a world-wide blockade of Iraqi oil. No one would be sending any money to Saddam so he could build up his military machine again! So there, except...

Fast-forward another decade... In 2000 France and Germany signed deals with Saddam Hussein to purchase Iraqi oil for euros, not dollars. They invested multi-millions of euros to purchase rights to future oil production from Iraq. This was done under the UN food for oil exchange, but the euros had to be put in special holding accounts since you could only "officially" use dollars to buy oil. I wonder how much food Iraq ever got out of that deal anyway? Oh, and guess who (Kofi Annon) gave the stamp of approval (Kofi Annon) for the "petro-euros" (Kofi Annon) to be kept in those special accounts? Give up? Well, I'm not telling (Kofi Annon)!

The goal of the socialist Europeans and the UN was (is) to break the economic back of the United States by devaluing the dollar - same thing that was attempted in the early 1970's, by the same players no less! And these foreign governments are our ALLIES?!!?

Well, call G.W. what you will but the reason behind the Iraqi invasion, or Gulf War II, was to remove Saddam Hussein from power - not because of WMD's or ties to terrorism - but because if he was successful in trading oil for euros what was there to stop OPEC from doing the same thing? And if the world doesn't need dollars any more then why invest in them, why trade them?

It was as much to preserve the dollar as a dominant world currency as it was a warning to OPEC nations not to try something similar or you might just wind up accused of aiding and abetting terrorists and we all know what the U.S. Military does to countries who help terrorists, don't we...

Previously America's economic might was equal to our military might around the world. But today, with such huge trade deficits, unprecedented military spending and an economy built on national debt our economic might has crumbled. The only thing keeping America in play around the world is the fact that no one dares go up against the United States military machine. Same thing that kept Rome around for as long as it did is what now upholds the USA.

So as we argue about exceptions to abortion and who should be allowed to marry who, as we do our "9-5", as we aid and abed the corruption in government by turning a blind eye to what's really happening, our nation is slipping away right through our own fingers.

Can it even be saved at this late stage? I guess I don't know. But I like to think that if we got serious about drilling on US soil and eliminate our dependency on foreign oil; If we strive to build alternative fuel sources like hydrogen, corn or solar power; and most importantly if we restore government spending to its Constitutional limits, well I like to think we might have a chance.

I started reading the Book of Jeremiah to my kids last week. Take a peek at chapters two and six; see if the warning God issues to Israel about the coming destruction doesn't sound familiar... I know, those prophecies have been fulfilled already and they don't apply to America, but it sure did ring some bells about national sin and how God judges one nation with the army of another.

I know we don't deserve it, but may the Almighty Ruler of the universe show mercy on us just a little longer.

[NOTE: Reference material for this commentary taken primarily from: http://fergusonreport.myonlinepublication.com/article.asp?pop_id=161&article_id=69
A very good, in depth article, but a v-e-r-y long read...]

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