I must have seen five different articles on the Iranian Oil Bourse...

I must have seen five different articles on the Iranian Oil Bourse over the past week or so. I have probably seen a hundred posts over the last year that the war in Iraq was because Hussein was going to price oil in Euros. These articles all make for sensational headlines but it is all nonsense. Perhaps we went to war in Iraq with intention of stealing their oil, but we sure did not go to war over pricing. Following are some of the silliest statements I have ever heard on the subject:Many have criticized Bush for staging the war in Iraq in order to seize Iraqi oil fields. However, those critics can’t explain why Bush would want to seize those fields—he could simply print dollars for nothing and use them to get all the oil in the world that he needs. He must have had some other reason to invade Iraq. Benefits from Iraqi oil fields are hardly worth the long-term, multi-year military cost. Instead, Bush must have went into Iraq to defend his Empire. Indeed, this is the case: two months after the United States invaded Iraq, the Oil for Food Program was terminated, the Iraqi Euro accounts were switched back to dollars, and oil was sold once again only for U. S. dollars. No longer could the world buy oil from Iraq with Euro. Global dollar supremacy was once again restored. Bush descended victoriously from a fighter jet and declared the mission accomplished—he had successfully defended the U. S. dollar, and thus the American Empire. This is what the author is saying1) The oil fields are not worth holding2) Bush could just print dollars and buy oil3) What oil is priced in is more important than the oil itself. Number 1 is laughable. The author cites the cost of the war as a detriment yet proposes Bush could just print dollars to buy oil but somehow can not print dollars to pay for a war. Of course the author ignores the consequences of printing dollars of number 2. The author also forgets that the US could just print dollars and buy Euros. Number 3 is of course patently absurd. These articles are so obviously absurd I wonder why people keep shoving them at me. Yet, here is another silly article that keeps making the rounds:The Iranian Threat: The Bomb or the Euro? Back in October I staked a claim on how silly these ideas were withOil Priced in Euros. Would it matter? Perhaps a better case for how silly this all is was made in Strange ideas about the Iranian oil bourse.