Still A Hundred Dollars a Barrel
Before the current administration decided to invade Iraq, one of the reasons given to justify such a drastic undertaking was the volatility of Saddam Hussein. I dont want to even discuss the weapons of mass destruction debacle. It was a smokescreen, and its an argument for history at this point. No one seems to know exactly how vast the Iraqi oil fields might be. The estimates are staggering. It now turns out that part of Saddams volatility was a documented threat to take the price of a barrel of Iraqi oil off the US dollar and index it to the Euro.
The administration considered this a very real threat. The possibility was intolerable to the Bush/Cheney brain trust. They predicted, logically enough, that other sellers of oil would follow suit and it would cause the value of the dollar to plummet throughout the world, and would adversely affect our economy for many years. It is unknown if this conclusion was an integral part of the United States energy policy because that policy remains a secret. It has never been spelled out by anyone involved in its formulation. We know only that Dick Cheney met before 9-11 with unnamed leaders of the oil industry and formulated the strategy that dictates our policies to this day.
Dont look now, but the price of a barrel of oil is about the same as it was nine months ago if you convert the price to Euros. In fact, its a little cheaper. We are paying for gasoline in Euros. Were not calling it that, of course. That would be intolerable. But do the math. The people who sell the oil are still getting about $100 a barrel. Its just that theyre getting it in Euros. If the price of oil stabilizes at about a hundred Euros a barrel, which I predict it will, what does that tell you about the ability of this administration to protect US interests abroad? It would be so refreshing to hear Barack Obama or John McCain address this. It would be nice to think that either might have a strategy. Or perhaps they both feel there is nothing to be done.
By Myron Gushlak