Muslim Secularist, Ask me Anything.

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The political interests of non muslim nations in Syria and the middle east in general..

Well, just to keep it short, I'll outline what the petrodollar is:

Gulf states denominate their petrol in US dollars. Anyone who wants to buy petrol (which is everyone) needs to use US dollars for that. The US protects the interests of the Gulf States (Saudis/Qatar/UAE/Kuwait/Bahrain, etc) while these very states maintained the status of the US dollar as a world reserve currency following the moving away from the gold and silver standards from a few decades ago. Likewise, they recycle some of their huge government surpluses into US bonds so as to keep up the US's decades long budget deficit and trade deficits.

The Gulf states also want more money, as everyone seems to do, and would like to sell natural gas directly to Europe through a pipeline that would have to go through Syria. Russia is the main supplier to Europe as of now, of natural gas. Syria, being an ally of Russia's, has refused to authorize such a pipeline.

The US wants to keep Russia docile as it is one of the main players in diminishing the influence of the US dollar (nations trading in between each other in their own national currencies, rather than changing the rouble into dollars and into chinese yuans, for example). Russia, China and Iran trade in their own currencies now.

The US economy would collapse if the dollar is no longer the world reserve currency as the US gov can simply print off money to meet any budgetary shortfalls, as the inflation would be spread throughout the globe, diminishing its negative effects in the US.

Yeah, and I could expand on that even more, but I hope it gives you some sort of an idea of the situation at hand. Misc info: the US needed 15 months to start bombing ISIS petrol convoys (the only reason ISIS survives today) and only started doing so following Russia's complaints and proof given to the UN.

Reply 41

Caius Filimon

Original post by FluffyCherry

Lol who are you? I know what's going on and that fact that you even support Assad is just a joke!

The fact that people have such strong opinions on an issue they don't know much about is depressing to me, not a joke.

Perhaps you might want to study any of the following, and then reconsider your stance on the issue at hand: Economics/geopolitics/history.

Reply 42

Thomb

Original post by Caius Filimon

Yeah interesting.

Reply 43

DamaroDum

LOL This is supposed to me my AMA thread and you guys are discussing politcs

Reply 44

Caius Filimon

And as a quick parentheses, Gaddafi's Libya offered free electricity, free housing, free healthcare (even if surgeries had to be done abroad), free full education. Might not have been the perfect country; there wasn't much freedom of expression and salaries were still low, but eh.

And then, once Gaddafi refused to stopped pushing for an African monetary union backed by gold, rebells backed by France and Qatar and the US suddenly popped up. Now Libya is a wasteland compared to what it was before.

Heck, even Iraq has made a full U-turn and broke its alliance with the US and moved towards Russia as the US offered too much assistance to ISIS. There are videos of US airdrops to ISIS filmed by Iraqi troops.

Reply 45

HAnwar

Why are you a secularist?

Reply 46

Caius Filimon

Original post by DamaroDum

LOL This is supposed to me my AMA thread and you guys are discussing politcs

Heh, soz.

But quick tip: don't seem as though you're a blind follower of a president =p It never looks good. You might respect a head of state, but there's no need to seem fanatic about it.

Reply 47

Think People

Original post by HAnwar

Why are you a secularist?

Because.......... boredom :ahee:

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Reply 48

MevMev

What do u study?
Where are u from ( sorry i didn't recognise the flag)?
do u pray 5 times a day?

Reply 49

DamaroDum

Original post by HAnwar

Why are you a secularist?

Because I believe in live and let live. Also any state that places religious law over secular law ( common sense law) has failed and will fail.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt (under Muslim brotherhood), Yemen, Saudi Arabia...

Now look at Turkmenistan, Turkey, Bosnia, Albania, Jordan...Far more peace and social cohesion. Economically progressive and minorities are far more safer

Reply 50

DamaroDum

Original post by MevMev

What do u study?
Where are u from ( sorry i didn't recognise the flag)?
do u pray 5 times a day?

Doing my A-Levels

I am from England but ethnically from Syria

Yep ( well i try but most days I do :colondollar:

)

Reply 51

chemting

Original post by Caius Filimon

Damn it almost makes me wonder whether Gaddafi's decision to sell oil on the gold (and not on the dollar) had anything to do with his swift US-backed removal after 40 years of being a bad guy...

Anyway, do you believe the articles that say the collapse of the petrodollar is imminent (albeit from frimge sources) or do you think that's tinfoil conspiracy hogwash?

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(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 52

Think People

Original post by DamaroDum

Doing my A-Levels

I am from England but ethnically from Syria

Yep ( well i try but most days I do :colondollar:

)

That explains alot.
Convo ended.

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Reply 53

MevMev

Original post by DamaroDum

Doing my A-Levels

I am from England but ethnically from Syria

Yep ( well i try but most days I do :colondollar:

)

What subjects a2?
Do Syrians eat a lot of falafel/hummus etc?
Yeah i try too but y'know :rolleyes:

Are you an Alawite?

Original post by Think People

Because.......... boredom :ahee:

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Lol
I'm bored too

Original post by DamaroDum

Or maybe because Islamic law isn't implemented there properly...?
Do you reject sharia law then?

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Reply 56

Observatory

How do you reconcile secularism with Islam?

Reply 57

Caius Filimon

Original post by chemting

Damn it almost makes me wonder whether Gaddafi's decision to sell oil on the gold (and not on the dollar) had anything to do with his swift US-backed removal after 40 years of being a bad guy...

Anyway, do you believe the articles that says the collapse of the petrodollar is imminent (albeit from frimge sources) or do you think that's tinfoil conspiracy hogwash?

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Yup I did actually just comment about Libya.

And I think that it is very likely. The US is losing ground daily economically and geopolitically. This imbecility of theirs to try and force Assad out gave Russia a huge influence boost because they've managed to protect their ally's independence from the US and the extremely rich gulf states, while also maintaining pressure in Ukraine. Russia is now definitely seen as a superpower again.

The new Asian Infrastructure Bank showed how the US did not want to join it, but all its allies did join it. In the end, the US joined up out of fear of being left out.

The BRICS nations also seem to be strengthening ties with one another so as to combat the undisputed power of the US. I think nations have had enough of decades of US intervention and complete focus only on the welfare of US corporations. A central american democratic government was toppled after a banana company lobbied the government to do so as the populist government went against the interests of foreign food companies...