The only backing the US dollar has is the military - they MUST ensure that rivals like China can not receive their goods from places like Africa without paying tribute. Here is what he had to say:

"I think we're looking at kind of a 30-year war," he says, one that will have to extend beyond Islamic State to include emerging threats in Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere.

USA Today Leon Panetta

Notice the 4 countries he mentioned are in AFRICA? I thought ISIS was primarily based in Syria and Iraq?! As I indicated in a previous posting below, the US is going to engage militarily on the African continent more and more frequently, and not just in Liberia. The reason it MUST do this is because should China go off the dollar reserve system, there has to be consequences.