Hey if we are going to go to war let's go all the way. Let's take them all out at once. North Korea,Iran,and whoever else we have to. If they don't want to run stable democracys let's crush them. These middle eastern countrys have been nothing but a problem for so long it's time just to take out whole swaths of people. Enough is enough. I personally just want peace but it isn't going to happen because they keep blowing themselves up in front of buildings with suicide bombers.

Yeah, let's play into their fears that we reall are there for another Crusade. Great Plan.

We could take them all out in one go.

We shouldn't though, we are in bad debt. The cards are against us.

__________________
I'll tell you this no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too
You may bury my body, down by the highway side,
so my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride.

Yes and I admitted right from the beginning that the Venezuela angle was speculation (no, not a conspiracy theory) but even that was not entirely groundless because I think many of you here read some of the stories last week where Chavez again pointed a panic stricken shaking finger at the USA.

AFAIK he presented no proof to back up his "US troops massing along Venezuela's Southern border" accusation. So I certainly do take his accusations with a giant grain of salt.

Nevertheless he is a most amusing person to watch. His antics on the world stage never fail to delight. I honestly don't think he hates America itself (quite the opposite) I just think he hates Bush (as do the majority of Americans.)

Anyhow I just want to admit that the Venezuela angle in my original post was not something I want to stake too much on. Still there is the fact that Chavez and Ahmadinejad did sign an official agreement to cooperate and aid the other if either were attacked and Chavez has promised to cut all oil export to the US if we attack Iran.

I can't imagine that the State Department would take a vocal and credible threat to halt at least 30% of America's oil imports overnight lightly.

The meat of my post had to do with Iran and how their Bourse has been delayed and how Dollar Hegemony is under genuine threat.

And of course how having those cables cut seems to be more than a little suspicious.

As to whether or not the US has any legitimate right to demand that all the world's major oil contracts be valuated in US dollars is another story entirely.

The fact is that the ICE and NYMEX are on their knees (or soon will be) and if the blame falls with Iran (or any of the other nations I mentioned) it will not matter.

The fact is that more than likely the Euro will soon be the world's premier
currency (if it isn't already?) and we will find out what it means to have our currency stand or fall on the merits of it's own strengths and weaknesses.

No longer will the ever inflating world price of oil (and associated ever expanding demand for US dollars) keep the US afloat. Instead we will again have to learn to actually make a product instead of just running a printing press.

__________________
It must be troubling to those for whom authority is the only truth when confronted by those for whom truth is the only authority.

This is definitely very strange.

I've been poking around " a little" on this one, haven't had a whole lot of time for it, but here's where I'm at so far:

The cable cuts, actually do seem to have occurred.

"Who did it", is unknown. "How" they did it, is unknown too.

BUT, there's only "just a few" ways you can do that kinda thing.

The CIA, has special-purpose submarines, for that purpose. An "ordinary" sub, couldn't do it.

Other nations in the world, they don't have that capability, "much".

The Russians, don't really. Their subs, are mostly of the large nuclear variety.

The CHINESE though, do. They have the largest fleet of small subs of any country in the world, and LOTS of 'em are equipped with special-purpose equipement, LIKE, cable-cutting gear.

It is POSSIBLE that other people now have this technology, but according to what I've been able to find out so far (via Janes' and Defense Weekly and so on), is,

a) there haven't been too many "intelligence reports" on this kind of thing
b) no one's been buying "lots of" this type of equipment, except the Chinese, and
c) in addition to the technology itself, there is still the issue of TRAINING on how to use it

SO, here's where my head's at, right now:

Chinese - US - US - Chinese - Gulf of Tonkin - Iran - Bush -

Yep. Not Chinese. US. Gulf of Tonkin. Iran. Bush.

See what i'm sayin'?

I just don't see why the USA or Israel would cut the cables? To make invasion more successful? or to cover up their involvement ie deny bloggers the ability to post pictures of occupying forces?

I do understand what Iran would cut the cables - but yet they would lose most economically by the disruption. So I don't think they did it, nor do I believe there is a conspiracy with Venezuela to hurt US dollar hegemony as one writer so eloquently put it...

No, I believe this is the work of an evil villain operating for his own interests from his secret base headquartered in the Maldives where he exports weapons to third world nations - as such he is on the radar at MI5 and there are agents right now combing seaside resorts looking for a novel way to gain entrance to his secret compound.

Hey you never know?! What I just wrote could be as 'truthful' as the racist neo-ideological dribble that preceded this post.

__________________
I’ll take mum to see The Stone Angel on Sunday May 11th, for obvious reasons.

It would make sense if America was trying to isolate the Iranians from the international banking system. The Dollar would plummet if it was ousted by another currency, then the Chinese would probably use this to strike America at it's weakest, a general rejection of Dollars everywhere.

Currency Collapse. That is what the US is trying and will prevent.

Dollar Hegemony is being undermined. It is only natural that competition will arise to counter and rise above it.

Conspiracy, well no, not really. Looking back on history, any other nation with the power of the US would do everything it could to further it's power.

The real question here is 'If America is different from empires, then why is it acting like one?'

__________________
I'll tell you this no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too
You may bury my body, down by the highway side,
so my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride.

Oh please! You've got zero evidence that US had anything to do with this and you're spewing this kind of crap.

The US is in no way going to invade Iran during this admin. I'm going with the sawfish theory. Needed to sharpen his blade.

But for now, I'll just post this little tidbit.

I talked to a friend of mine about this, he's a geologist by trade and education, but he knows a lot about a lot. He's also a pilot, his dad was also a pilot, flew for the CIA just before Mao took over in China, that kind of thing. Used to work at the Skunk Works, that kind of thing. They guy's pretty smart.

So, he says, that the key to this whole thing, is the exact location of the cables. He says, "most likely", something like that is caused by underwater seismic or volcanic activity, and he notes that that particular area of the seabed is among the "most volatile". He says, that sometimes, entire "cliffs" can come down underwater, one piece at a time, or one "shelf" af a time. And, this could explain something like that.

He says, that you can't assume "cut" unless you have an actual photograph of the cut. "Cut" implies that someone took a knife to the thing, and we don't know that.

So, I think, unless the CIA is gonna send a sub down their on our behalf, and share the pictures with us, we're left with pure speculation. What do you think?

I'm not sure about your guy non, but my uncle works in the CIA as a helicopter instructor. He was in the Nam when Saigon fell. Ever hear of Air America? It's both a comedic movie and an actual CIA front company.

Anyway, he thinks that ANYONE can cut undersea cables. All you need is a relatively large boat, not even one half the size of an Aegis Cruiser in our navy. A typical patrol boat will do just fine. Dredge the bottom with a hook and steel cable until you hook the cable and winch it up. Next all you need is acetaline torches, and/or powered cutters like paramedics use to cut people out of cars in accidents.

The U.S. not only has submarines that can cut cables, but more importantly, they can tap the cables without anyone knowing. They can control the flow of information within the cables, and use computers on the sub to surveil incoming and outgoing traffic. The LAST thing they'd want to do is alert the country that they had the capability to find and cut the cable... it's a source of intelligence for us. They'd want to leave it in place. Likewise would Israel, if they had the capability as well.

__________________
"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

But these cables are economic, don't you see? The cables that were damaged (alledgedly) essentially connected Iran to the Global Banking System. Without these, Iran would lose contact with the world economy. Isolation. A logical move for someone on the hitlist.

__________________
I'll tell you this no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too
You may bury my body, down by the highway side,
so my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride.