Since we’re on the topic of Venezuela's elections, why did the US invade Iraq? And why did France oppose it?

In November 2001, only two countries were attempting to escape the petrodollar system: Venezuela and Iraq.

Hugo Chavez's Venezuela had set up a system for exchanging oil for goods and services with other Central American countries.

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, then under trade regulation imposed by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee, had asked the Committee for permission (which was granted) to receive payment for its oil exports in euros.

3 years after that, the US invaded Iraq in March 2003, which immediately put an end to escaping the petrodollar.

Why did France oppose the invasion?

Jacques Chirac was against the war on Iraq because Saddam Hussein decided to sell oil in euros.

Saddam Hussein believed that choosing the currency of a powerful entity capable of confronting America would protect him, as it would be beneficial for the entity as well. This shows that Saddam Hussein knew America would not let this pass peacefully.

Saddam Hussein's failure in this regard was due to his trust in international law and his belief that a state with veto power could stop any aggression against Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq was not solely for that reason, but also because Iraq was a sovereign state with an established doctrine underpinning its sovereignty (put your emotions aside).

The Ba'ath Party is a secular Arab nationalist party whose goal was to unify Arabs under a single rule (although the goals might seem noble, it was merely a pretext for the non-Muslim minority in the Arab world to attain power, though Saddam Hussein truly believed in the Ba'athist message).

And evidence of this is that he said,

"If Hafez al-Assad's regime agrees to unify Syria and Iraq under one rule, I would accept that both the Iraqi and Syrian regimes step down, and that elections be held under the supervision of observers from both the Iraqi and Syrian Ba'ath parties, along with observers from other Arab countries."

- Video 0:55

(Saddam Hussein would have won any fair election in any Arab state in a landslide)

And that’s a threat to the American interests in the region. If Iraq and Syria were united, what would prevent other smaller Arab entities from joining, whether willingly or under threat?

The first two victims of this, if it were to happen, would undoubtedly be the petrodollar and Israel.

This is one of the main reasons for the West's unlimited support and encouragement of the war between Iraq and Iran to exhaust Iraq and prevent it from engaging in a war that, if occurred, would be detrimental to their interests.

Had this war not been with an equal opponent like Iran, it would have been with the Hafez al-Assad regime, which Iraq's Saddam could have easily obliterated in a matter of days.

As for what happened to Venezuela,

Venezuela is considered a rogue state to this day not because of human rights violations or democracy issues, but mainly because it refused to sell crude oil in USD.

Should Venezuela decide to sell its oil in USD, all its problems would disappear, and it would suddenly become a country with no human rights violations.

To understand the scale, Venezuela's crude oil reserves amount to 304 billion barrels (According to Statista, in 2021) worth $21.28 trillion at an average price of $70 per barrel. (I calculated this myself.)

[V]

⚡️Hebrew sources: "Resistance fighters planted a bomb this morning near the "Burka" intersection on the "Aliyah" to "Chomash" road.

We don't know what it is yet

In recent months, a number of explosive device attacks have been taking place every week in the northern and western parts of occupied Palestine against settler soldiers, the separation fence and settler vehicles on the main roads - with an emphasis on the "Humsh-Einab"? sectors, and the village of "Azon" near the illegal settlements of "Karni Shomron" and "Alfi Menashe".

[G&T]

[G&T]