"The case for going to war against Iraq was a fraud made up in Texas to give Republicans a political boost"--US Senator Edward Kennedy, Associated Press, September 18, 2003

Our world is not as simple as president Bush tries to portray it. President Bush is wrong when he says that his tax cuts put more money in everybody's pockets and therefore these tax cuts ensure economic growth; or when he says that his war against Saddam Hussein has liberated the Iraqi people and therefore this war has enhanced peace and freedom at home and abroad.

Our world is very complex and rather than listening to President Bush and his mispeak we must understand by ourselves this upside down world. We have been saying for a long time that life is more important than money, and yet money makes the world go around, more wealth for the rich and more wars against the poor.

The American economy is in bad shape as productivity increases while employment decreases, as tax cuts reduce governmental revenues while making the rich richer, as the federal deficit is some 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while billions and billions of dollars are exported to democratize Iraq, as the trade deficit is some 5% of GDP while defending agricultural subsidies at home and copyrights abroad. The truth is that America is badly in debt, and it is being robbed by president Bush and his friends.

We have heard US secretary of commerce Donald Evans blaming China for both the loss of manufacturing jobs in America and for the trade deficit. It is my contention that Evans' focused attention in blaming China for its manipulation of the yuan against the dollar is misplaced and in fact, I really believe that all America's problems originate from its obsession of putting the value of the dollar before the value of people.

We must understand our own world before blaming others for our own failures; therefore, we must understand how the value and the abuse of the dollar may play a relevant role in designing the American economic and military policies. President Bush is a farce, rather than cheering his tax cuts and having more dollar in America's citizens' pockets, it is much better to understand the meaning of the dollar in this complex world. Australian writer Geoffrey Heard comes to our help as he perceptively writes :

HOW DOES THE US GET ITS DOLLAR ADVANTAGE?

Imagine this: you are deep in debt but every day you write cheques for millions of dollars you don't have -- another luxury car, a holiday home at the beach, the world trip of a lifetime. Your cheques should be worthless but they keep buying stuff because those cheques you write never reach the bank! You have an agreement with the owners of one thing everyone wants, call it petrol/gas, that they will accept only your cheques as payment. This means everyone must hoard your cheques so they can buy petrol/gas. Since they have to keep a stock of your cheques, they use them to buy other stuff too. You write a cheque to buy a TV, the TV shop owner swaps your cheque for petrol/gas, that seller buys some vegetables at the fruit shop, the fruiterer passes it on to buy bread, the baker buys some flour with it, and on it goes, round and round -- but never back to the bank. You have a debt on your books, but so long as your cheque never reaches the bank, you don't have to pay. In effect, you have received your TV free.

This is the position the USA has enjoyed for 30 years -- it has been getting a free world trade ride for all that time. It has been receiving a huge subsidy from everyone else in the world. As its debt has been growing, it has printed more money (written more cheques) to keep trading. No wonder it is an economic powerhouse! Then one day, one petrol seller says he is going to accept another person's cheques, a couple of others think that might be a good idea. If this spreads, people are going to stop hoarding your cheques and they will come flying home to the bank. Since you don't have enough in the bank to cover all the cheques, very nasty stuff is going to hit the fan! But you are big, tough and very aggressive. You don't scare the other guy who can write cheques, he's pretty big too, but given a 'legitimate' excuse, you can beat the tripes out of the lone gas seller and scare him and his mates into submission.

And that, in a nutshell, is what the USA is doing right now with Iraq.

We understand now the meaning of Bush's bloody dollar.

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Borosage, Robert The Misleader September 17, 2003 Tompaine http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8892

Hightower, Jim Kleptocrat Nation September 3, 2003 The Nation http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030915&s=hightower

The Straits Times New US bogeyman Editorial, September 17, 2003 http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/commentary/story/0,4386,210416,00.html

Bartlett, Bruce Trade Deficits With China September 02, 2003 NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS, http://www.ncpa.org/edo/bb/2003/bb090203.html

Heard, Geoffrey IT'S NOT ABOUT OIL OR IRAQ: IT'S ABOUT THE U.S. AND EUROPE GOING HEAD-TO-HEAD ON WORLD ECONOMIC DOMINANCE March 2003, People for Peace, Justice, and Healing, http://www.tacomapjh.org/petrodollartheories.htm

deSantis, Mario The Bloody US Dollar of President Bush's New World Order February 4, 2003 Ensign