Iran

Excerpted from "Get It. Got It. Good" by Grant Williams, author of "Things That Make You Go Hmm..."

The story begins in the 1970s when Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon struck a deal with the House of Saud — a deal which gave birth to the petrodollar system.

The terms were simple The Saudis agreed to ONLY accept U.S. Dollars in return for their oil and that they would reinvest their surplus dollars into U.S. treasuries.

One year ago, the airplane market was spooked by reports of "market tests" for Boeing 777 plane prices, when according to the CEO of Delta the company had acquired a used 777s for a paltry $8 million, a 97% discount from new Boeing 777-ER prices!

Prior to this report, in October, Delta CEO Dennis Muilenburg  raised more eyebrows when he said there was a “huge bubble” in used widebody aircraft, and that as a result the market was “ripe” for Delta to  buy used 777s, as he subsequently did for an unprecedented 97% price reduction.

Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org,

Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org,

Understanding the objectives and logic that accompany the expansion of nations or empires is always of paramount importance in helping one draw lessons for the future

Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

In this world, it is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, said Henry Kissinger in 1968, but to be a friend is fatal.

The South Vietnamese would come to appreciate the insight.

So it is today with Aleppo, where savage reprisals against U.S.-backed rebels are taking place in that hellhole of human rights.

Yet, again, the wrong lessons are being drawn from the disaster.