Australia should pay close attention to the plight of Gulf Arab regimes, since their foreign policy of strategic dependence on America resembles our own.
In the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur war and the Arab oil embargo that caused fuel shortages and huge price hikes in the West, the royal families that rule the Arab petro-states signed a security agreement with America that saw OPEC oil sales denominated in US dollars, to be spent on US bases, weapons and treasury bonds.
This arrangement, which became known as the petrodollar system, positioned America as the guarantor of security in the Persian Gulf. The Arab regimes believed they could trust the US and rely on its military bases and weapons systems to protect them from any threat to their authority, especially from their own people whom they rule without regard for human rights or democratic values.
The petrodollar system has been the engine of US primacy on the world stage, creating the demand for US dollars that has enabled the massive growth in US debt, which now threatens the global economy as US financial disaster looms ahead. This mega protection racket, which has sustained itself for decades on the promise of peace, security and prosperity for all, without ever actually delivering, is now unravelling as a result of its illegal unprovoked aggression against Iran.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
