In what appears as swift retaliation by Iran against U.S.-led economic sanctions imposed on the Persian Gulf state, suddenly Iran says it will no longer accept the U.S. dollar as payment for its oil shipments to India, Japan and China.

In addition, bilateral trade between Iran and Russia will break from the dollar for settlement in favor of Iranian rial and Russian rubles, according to Iran’s state-run Fars news agency.

But unlike a similarly bold move taken on Oct. 30, 2000, (effective Nov. 6) by Saddam Hussein to rid Iraq of the U.S. dollar as payment for Iraqi oil, Iran asserts the new arrangement to drop the dollar was Russia’s idea.

“The proposal to switch to the ruble and the rial was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Astana, Kazakhstan, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” according to Bloomberg.

So, is the U.S. about to embark on another Iraq, or is the situation with Iran more akin to an October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis with Cuba’s big brother, Russia?

Amazingly, or not (media ignored the euro-for-Iraqi-oil story, too), since the bombshell Iranian announcement, only a handful of news outlets of the West covered the dollar-dumping announcement of this vital story. Of course, though, zerohedge.com (and PrisonPlanet.com’s posting of the zerohedge post) was one of these handful, providing adequate sourcing and commentary of the breaking news about Iran/Russia from China-based ChinaDaily.com.cn.

Most of the usual suspects of traditional media, however, have drawn attention to the threat of a closing of the Strait of Hormuz, instead—an important issue, no doubt, but its no longer news at this point in the crisis and certainly doesn’t compete with the latest development regarding the trashing of the Greenback from a member of OPEC on the same day Russia lays anchor in Syria to the north of Israel.

According to China Daily, “Russian warships patrolling the eastern Mediterranean Sea have docked at Russia’s naval supply facility in the Syrian port of Tartus, the private Addounia TV reported Saturday.

“Governor of Tartus Imad Naddaf received the ships’ leaders and expressed appreciation to Russia’s support for Syria, the report said.

“Russia’s state-owned Itar-Tass news agency quoted a source from the Russian Navy as saying that ‘It is planned that the port of Tartus will be visited by a big anti-submarine ship of the Northern Fleet Admiral Chabanenko and an escort ship Yaroslav Mudry.

So, it appears that the Iranians are a lot more prepared to deal with the U.S. than its neighbor to the West was, Iraq.

And for those familiar with the most likely reason for the attack on Iraq may also be familiar with William R. Clark, author of Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar. Of course, ‘weapons of mass destruction’ was merely a sophomoric ruse in the call to war with Iraq. So what was the reason?

In his book, Clark makes a case for a world that will most probably include a future riddled with war in the Middle East, as the U.S. takes preemptive measures to secure—not only oil—but more importantly, to assure a continuation of dollar hegemony in global trade as a means of preventing a Greenback collapse as a medium of exchange and value.

As a preface to his book, Clark posited an essay in January 2003, titled, Revisited — The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq: A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth. In the essay, Clark cites an anonymous source who told him the NY Fed (through the Treasury ESF) ultimately dictates foreign policy via the U.S. dollar, and that any threat to the artificial support of the dollar must illicit an immediate response at the NSA level.

After reading Clark’s essay, anonymous, or not, the source appears to be a very, very good one.

According to anonymous:

The Federal Reserve‘s greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its international transactions from a dollar standard to a euro standard. Iraq actually made this switch in Nov. 2000 (when the euro was worth around 82 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering the dollar’s steady depreciation against the euro. (Note: the dollar declined 17% against the euro in 2002.)

The real reason the Bush administration wants a puppet government in Iraq — or more importantly, the reason why the corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a puppet government in Iraq — is so that it will revert back to a dollar standard and stay that way. (While also hoping to veto any wider OPEC momentum towards the euro, especially from Iran — the 2nd largest OPEC producer who is actively discussing a switch to euros for its oil exports).

Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the euro in late 2000 (and later converted his $10 billion reserve fund at the U.N. to euros) — at that point, another manufactured Gulf War become inevitable under Bush II. Only the most extreme circumstances could possibly stop that now and I strongly doubt anything can — short of Saddam getting replaced with a pliant regime.

Big Picture Perspective: Everything else aside from the reserve currency and the Saudi/Iran oil issues (i.e. domestic political issues and international criticism) is peripheral and of marginal consequence to this administration. Further, the dollar-euro threat is powerful enough that they will rather risk much of the economic backlash in the short-term to stave off the long-term dollar crash of an OPEC transaction standard change from dollars to euros. All of this fits into the broader Great Game that encompasses Russia, India, China. [Emphasis added]

As we know, following Iraq’s decision to dump the dollar in favor of the Euro, 14 months later U.S. President George W. Bush delivered his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech on the first State of the Union address of his presidency on Jan. 23, 2002. Iraq, Iran and N. Korean are the nations of that axis, according to Bush.

With Iraq as the first casualty of the Great Game, that leaves Iran and N. Korea left as targets and responses from Russia and China.

Calls for $3,000 gold are everywhere. With central banks printing money at astonishing rates without formally announcing anything about it; tensions in the Persian Gulf rivaling the Cuban Missile Crisis; and an election year that sports the most threatening presidential candidate (Congressman Ron Paul of Texas) to the ‘establishment’ since John Kennedy (or maybe as far back as Theodore Roosevelt 1900-08), it appears early on that surviving 2012 without a major event is a very long shot, indeed.