Prior to the Iraq war in 2003, Saddam Hussein announced that Iraqi oil would only be sold in Euro’s, not U.S. dollars. Prior to the Libya invasion in 2011, Kaddafi had openly planned to install a gold backed Af rican cur rency in order to compete with the U.S. dollar, even calling for other Af rican and Middle East nations to join him. Iran knows exactly how to hur t the U.S., attack the dollar, but they are taking a big gamble because the powers that be have proven twice in the past 10 years that they are willing to take physical action to those who threaten king dollar .