The Signs of the Times – part 33
Originally posted Dec. 3, 2013,
Quotes of the Times:
“This is an historic agreement” – President Barack Obama.
“This is an historic mistake” – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“A war has been prevented” – Gideon Levy, prominent Israeli journalist
In November 2011, the Obama Administration announced, what has come to be called, ‘the pivot to the Pacific’ [a refocusing of American Foreign and Military policy – giving priority to the Pacific and especially the East Asian portion of the Pacific]. This ‘refocusing’ caused some surprise and concern to many a friend and foe alike – the geopolitical landscape was moving – the prevailing wind was shifting – “what was America up to?” It was surprising because there was still much ongoing and unfinished business in the Middle East. The Syrian civil war was just getting into gear, and Iran was still pushing ahead with its nuclear weapons program. Was America going to abandon the region and go play with the Chinese instead?
We now know the answers to many of the puzzling questions that were asked at that time. Clarity has been established because of an ‘historic agreement’ that was signed in Geneva in the early hours of Nov, 24, 2013 (or the ‘historic mistake’ depending on who you talk to). The Israelis have been especially puzzled about American plans and policy for more than a year now. Prior to that Israel and America were ‘on the same page’ – now the Israelis think that America is reading a different book to them. The Israelis have been growing increasingly anxious over American reluctance to engage Iran head on and also to finish the ‘business’ in Syria. [Such as when, America was given a golden opportunity to bomb Syria after the recent poison gas attack incident – but America declined the offer]. In fact, the normal cosy relationship between Israel and America is in tatters. Obama and Netanyahu can barely speak to each other, the Israeli lobby in Washington DC are not having their calls returned, and the US Congress is being warned by the Obama Administration to tone down anti-Iranian rhetoric and action. Israel is no longer flavour of the month and the Israelis are angry – they are feeling vulnerable and isolated – they are acting like the spurned suitor – as America ‘pivots to the Pacific.’
Due to the ‘historic agreement’ we now know that America has been secretly negotiating with Iran, behind Israel’s back, for a long time. These negotiations have been going on almost certainly from the time that America pivoted to the Pacific. In order to understand the significance of this agreement it is necessary to understand some recent history. America’s overall chief concern is to maintain the dominance of the American dollar as the world’s reserve currency – the economic prosperity of America depends upon this ‘financial hegemony.’ All of America’s foreign and military policy is bent towards defending the tremendous advantage that ‘dollar dominance’ gives to America. For example, because the American dollar is necessary to facilitate world trade, all nations must earn and hold reserves of American dollars. This means that America can simply print dollars and receive the goods and services of the world, virtually at no cost to itself (it is estimated that ‘dollar dominance’ in international trade contributes to at least 25% to the American lifestyle). This is what Dick Cheney was referring to when he said: “The American lifestyle is not negotiable.”
So, when Saddam Hussein was the first to break ranks and sell his oil for Euros instead of Dollars, then he had to go. Do you remember the non-existent weapons of mass destruction? No, it was the threat of ‘dollar destruction’ that caused the demise of Saddam. Do you remember ‘responsibility to protect’ in Libya. No, it was “we must protect the dollar” that caused the demise of Gaddafi. He was about to do the same as Saddam – he was holding meetings with all of Africa to introduce a gold dinar to trade with – so he had to go too.
The Iranians had been threatening to do the same for many years and in recent times they have been trading oil for gold with India. Iran is a different beast to Iraq or Libya. The military solution is no longer working – the military solution is struggling to even take out Iran’s ally, Syria. Therefore, it is necessary to get by persuasion what one cannot get by force. And in this ‘historic agreement’ America has gotten what it wants. The agreement contains a clause that stipulates that Iran will not sell its oil for anything else, other than American dollars. America is happy – and Iran is happy too – they got what they wanted. The agreement allows Iran to continue enriching uranium (an essential step in creating nuclear weapons).
So, now than America has shored up the dollar in the Middle East, it is now free to pivot to the Pacific. And why does it want to pivot to the Pacific? It is because the Chinese are an even greater threat to the dominance of the dollar than the Iranians. The Chinese could destroy the dollar overnight if they wanted to. They hold more than three trillion US dollars in their reserves (far more than they need). However, the Chinese have a dilemma. They could destroy the dollar by dumping their dollar reserves on the international market (selling the lot all at once), but that would mean they would lose the value of the US dollars that they are holding. So what are the Chinese doing? – they are frantically buying up as much gold as they can (using their US dollars). Not only are they buying gold they are trying to buy every goldmine around the world that they can get their hands on. When it has accumulated a huge pile of gold (China is actually the world’s largest producer of gold), it will challenge the American dollars reserve currency status (with a gold backed currency). This is a much more serious challenge than a few dictators selling their oil for euros or gold – and this is the real reason for America’s pivot to the Pacific – the Chinese have announced in many subtle, and not so subtle ways, that they are ready to take on the American Empire. One unsubtle announcement occurred just a few days ago, on Nov 20th – the Chinese Central Bank said that it was no longer going to accumulate US dollars calling it “risky business.” In addition the Chinese have announced that part of their strategy to avoid the ‘risky business’ is that they have already established trading agreements, or they are seeking such agreements, with all their oil suppliers (China is now the biggest importer of oil in the world), that will allow them to trade with each other in their own national currencies (cutting out the American dollar). Having fired off these ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’ the Chinese then made a further declaration on Nov, 23rd – they declared the establishment of an ‘Air Defence Identification Zone’ which includes islands that are currently in the media spotlight, because Japan thought it owned these islands, and Taiwan is claiming them too (both of whom are American allies). So this is a very aggressive stance on the part of China – and this time it is a military challenge.
America has been quick to take up the challenge. They flew two unarmed military planes through the disputed air corridor. The Chinese scrambled fighter jets but did not try to intercept the American planes. What will happen next is of course impossible to predict but these ‘signs of the times’ do not bode well for the future. China has recently publicly unveiled its secretive submarine fleet (with nuclear strike capacity) and publicly warned that it can strike all parts of America with nuclear weapons – prominent Chinese officials have been reported in the Chinese media saying that, “China must prepare for war with America.”
God Bless, Bruce Telfer.
Extra notes: The ‘historic agreement’ is for six months only, after which it must be renegotiated. What happens at the end of the six months? We cannot know for sure, but maybe the Iranians will say something like this: “Thanks for the six months we now have enough enriched uranium for a bomb – we don’t need any more agreements.” Which will mean that Obama’s ‘historic agreement’ will be his ‘Munich Moment’ (see pre-WWII history when British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain made an ‘historic agreement’ with Herr Hitler).
There are many divisions and sects in the Muslim religion. The two dominant divisions are Shia (or Shite) and Sunni. Iran is the dominant Shia power in the Middle East and all the Sunni powers fear Iran (especially since the 1979 ‘Iranian revolution’ – when radicle Shite Muslims took over the country, with an active agenda to ‘export’ the revolution). Of course this fear of Iran is shared with Israel – which means that, as America ‘abandons’ the region and pivots to the Pacific, this results in some creative ‘pivoting’ in the Middle East as well. There is an Arabic proverb which says: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Therefore, because Israel and the Sunni Arab states share a common enemy, in Iran, Israel is now seeking a rapprochement with these Sunni states, in an anti-Iranian, anti-Syrian alliance. We can expect this alliance to try and sabotage the ‘historic agreement’ that America has achieved with Iran – and/or to prevent a renewal of the agreement in six months time.
There is a great irony attached to current affairs. In order to preserve the illusion that the economic systems of the world are healthy and in recovery mode, it is necessary to make sure the price of gold remains low (relative to economic conditions). In order to keep the price low there has to be an adequate supply of gold on the market. Therefore, the central banks of the world are selling their gold in order to preserve their fiat currency system (a fiat currency system is a paper currency with nothing backing it). Because they are selling gold the price is kept low, which suits the Chinese (and all other Asian nations) fine. They get gold at a much cheaper price than it should be, and they know that eventually it will be worth much more. [The Western banking powers are also manipulating the market process in other ways to keep the price of gold low – all to the advantage of the Chinese]. Some months ago Germany requested an inventory of its gold holdings in America (sent to America during the cold war with Russia for ‘safe keeping’) – the German request was refused – they were not allowed to inspect their own gold]. Germany is officially asking for its gold back. The Americans responded with the words: “it will take some time.”
