Do you remember back some 11 years ago on May 1, 2003 when George Bush told us all that it was “mission accomplished” in Iraq?  Or how about 4 years ago, when Joe Biden told us that Iraq was one of the Obama administrations “great achievements?”  For the most part, the U.S. having already pulled out of Iraq has left a “vacuum” of leadership that is now being filled.  We were told by the press that we left them “with democracy” and “helped them.”  This is not the case, “ISIS” (Islamic state of Iraq and Syria) has stormed several cities north of Iraq and are now close to sacking Baghdad.  They are leaving the beheaded bodies of police and Iraqi soldiers on the sides of the road as a message of no mercy with little resistance.  This is almost like theatre but it is not.  This is of great importance because Iraq is now the Gulf region’s 2nd largest producer, passing Iran in 2012.  Iraq is now officially mission “un” accomplished and far more “out of control” than when Saddam Hussein ruled with an iron fist.

I want to give you some background so that you will have a better understanding of what is happening and why.  First, this is about religion from the standpoint of those in the Middle East.  I know, for the West this is about oil, finances and ultimately “dollars.”  From the standpoint of America, the Middle East is about cheap oil to power our economy, making money from it and making sure that all oil is priced in dollars to support our otherwise unbacked currency.

Islam basically has two separate factions, the Shiites and the Sunnis.  This split goes back 1,400 years and is as bitter of a difference as the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.  I probably do not need to point out to you that wars over religion are historically the most fierce and bloody of all.  When it comes to “motive,” more lands or someone else’s riches (gold) pale in comparison to religion where war is concerned.  This split originally occurred upon the death of Prophet Muhammed in the year 632.  The Sunnis believed that he should be succeeded by his friend Abu Akbar and the Shiites believed that he should be followed by his cousin/son in law Ali bin Abu Talib.  The Sunnis believe that Muslim leaders can be elected or chosen while the Shiites believe that Muslim leaders must be of the bloodline of Prophet Muhammed.  Saudi Arabia has a population that is a vast majority Sunni and their arch rival Iran is a vast majority Shia.  One of the big problems is that “we,” the British and Americans made (imposed) “boundaries” or borders for them over the last 100 years without ever taking their religion into account. In essence we split peoples without taking into account their beliefs or religious preferences which have caused many unintended consequences over the years.  ISIS is now trying to form a “state” that is comprised of parts of northern Iraq and eastern Syria.  To them there are no “borders” on a map, only tribes or their own peoples from history if you will.

What has happened this past week can only be described as making much more complicated a situation that could have only been called strange, very strange bedfellows prior.  This is very confusing and there is really no playbook to go by but the U.S. has given reconstruction contracts to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and allegedly funded and supplied them in Syria against President Assad.  Now, some of those arms are being used in Iraq against Iraqi (U.S.) “interests.”  Iran is sending troops and support for Iraq which in a strange way is support for the U.S.  This opens all sorts of cans of worms because Saudi Arabia and Iran are arch enemies.  Another twist is that Iran has publicly said that they would like to blow Israel off the face of the Earth …yet they are supporting an enemy Iraqi regime against an offshoot of Al Qaeda which we (the U.S) have armed and funded but now those arms are being turned back on Iraq.  We have shut Iran out of the SWIFT system and are precluding them from using dollars …yet they are on our side here.  Who is on what side?

I know that the above is very very confusing because there is no true chain of logic.  This is what happens when “empires” begin to collapse, chaos.  There is heavy fighting in the Ukraine; shots have been fired between North and South Korea.  China is beating its chest against both Japan and Vietnam, close to 1 million people have been turned into refugees this past week alone in Iraq and the cherry on top is the Russian bomber that was chased away 50 miles off of the coast of California.

There is potential chaos in nearly every direction that you look.  Immediately, Russia is shutting their gas supply off to Ukraine on Monday.  Ukraine in turn is raising their “tariff” on Russian gas that passes through their pipeline on the way to Europe.  Russia is already “off” of dollars and so is our brand new “ally” Iran.  Russia and China have had talks with our “old” ally Saudi Arabia who ONLY accepts dollars for oil.  Will this change?  Has it already?  Again, who is on which side?

I know that this topic is too big to do justice to it in one piece but it is important that you see the frayed edges.  Financially, fiscally, morally, religiously, militarily and economically everything is going awry.  How in the world can the U.S. respond to all of this?  Any of this?  Do we go back into Iraq?  As it stands now, what exactly did we even accomplish there?  Who are our allies?  Who are our enemies?  China is our largest trading partner and our largest creditor, do we call ANY shots with them or do we now jump when they say jump?  Will Europe remain a U.S. ally if their energy supply gets cut off or will they become cozy with their supplier?  “Politics” has become so convoluted because there is no telling who will shoot at who when the time comes.  We used to live in a world where everyone pretty much knew where everyone else stood.  They knew if shots were fired, who they could rely on and who they’d shoot back at.  It used to be that the U.S. made and enforced the rules, this has changed completely.  We (the U.S.) have done such a horrific job of foreign, economic and military affairs that the “world order” is changing and without our control.  Sad to say, it’s as if we are driving in a demolition derby car with no steering wheel.  We have no idea whether we will be hit from the right, left, front or back and we might as well flip a coin as to whether we will turn right or left.  The only thing that seems pretty assured is that there is going to a very big, loud and painful “thud” when it does hit.

It is imperative that you understand one thing, “the dollar.”  “The dollar” is the Achilles heel of the United States.  It is the common share or “stock” of the U.S.  The dollar is the easiest and most logical target for an attack.  The Islamists know this; unfortunately they know and understand this better than our own population does.  12 years ago while on his way to prison, the killer of Daniel Pearl yelled only one thing to the press, “SELL YOUR DOLLARS!”  The easiest and most efficient way to attack the U.S. is to attack our Achilles heel, the dollar.  The Russians know this, the Arabs know this and our creditors the Chinese know this…the only ones who could never imagine this in a million years are …you guessed it…Americans themselves.