News, September 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
Feeding Frenzy Begins In Iraq
Chris Floyd
The Moscow Times 9-27-3
9/29/03
Now the mission is accomplished!
George W. Bush's premature projaculation of victory last May
notwithstanding, the real objective of the Potomac Empire's invasion of Iraq
was finally achieved last weekend, when the sock puppets of the occupying
powers put their rubber stamp to an American diktat opening up the entire
nation to plunder by foreign bagmen.
At the signed order of Bushist viceroy Paul Bremer (emphasis on vice),
almost every aspect of Iraqi life -- electricity, water, medicine,
education, agriculture, transportation, communications and, above all,
banking and finance -- was laid open to unfettered exploitation by the
plutocrats and lootocrats of the "civilized" world. The lone exception to
this unprecedented fire sale of an entire nation is, of course, Iraq's oil
wealth, which has already been put into the loving, no-bid, open-ended
"oversight" of Dick Cheney's Halliburton and associates.
The measure, announced by surprise last Sunday -- not even Bush's so-called
partner in conquest, the British government, knew about it in advance --
permits 100 percent foreign ownership in all non-energy sectors of the
conquered land's economy, which will be "privatized" to a fare-thee-well.
What's more, the edict allows the "full, immediate remittance to the
[investor's] host country of profits, dividends, interest and royalties."
To Our Readers
Has something you've read here startled you? Are you angry, excited, puzzled
or pleased? Do you have ideas to improve our coverage?
Then please write to us.
All we ask is that you include your full name, the name of the city from
which you are writing and a contact telephone number in case we need to get
in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Email the Opinion Page EditorIn other words, the looters won't have to plow
so much as a dime of their swag back into the local economy; every last cent
wrung from the bludgeoned Iraqi people will flow into corporate coffers and
private pockets in London, Paris, Tokyo, Riyadh, New York, Moscow,
Kennebunkport and Crawford. Taxes will be minimal, tariffs almost
nonexistent, and there will be none of the pesky rules and regulations that
occasionally hamper unfettered corporate gobbling in more unenlightened
states -- like, say, the United States and Britain.
In fact, there will "no government screening" at all of foreign investors,
the edict says. If you can pay, you can play. After all, that's free
enterprise, isn't it? If Bechtel, Carlyle, Vivendi, or the still-unslain
beast of Enron want to buy up Baghdad's water supply and raise rates through
the roof, why shouldn't they? If Bush -- who just this week issued new
regulations opening the federal pork barrel to his favorite "faith-based
organizations" -- wants to give Pat Robertson a billion dollars of taxpayer
money to take over the Iraqi school system, why shouldn't he? What's the
point of slaughtering thousands of innocent people and seizing their country
if you can't do whatever the hell you want with it? It's not like this was
some humanitarian exercise, you know. It's strictly business -- as Michael
Corleone used to say.
The lack of "government screening" is only to be expected, of course --
because there is no government in Iraq: no constitution, no body of law, no
popular representation, nothing even remotely resembling a genuine state
with the authority to take such a momentous step: i.e., the surrender of the
nation's wealth to rapacious conquerors. And there was rich comedy to be had
in watching the American media mandarins try to finesse this inconvenient
point. Indeed, The New York Times went so far as to declare that some
mysterious entity known only as "Iraq" actually issued these "new laws." The
"paper of record" did refer to the "Iraqi Governing Council" -- without
noting for the "record" that this body is entirely appointed by the
Anglo-American invaders and dares not even sneeze without imperial
permission.
However, Britain's Financial Times -- writing for a business audience that
needs to know who's really holding the keys to the Iraqi vaults -- was more
direct. It was the only major paper to note that the laws were actually
"signed by Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority" and
that the Governing [sic] Council had only been "consulted." ("Say, Ahmed,
you think we should send down to Dubai for pizza while Bremer finishes this
edict?" "Yes, pizza would be nice." "Great. Consider yourself consulted.")
There is, however, a hidden side to this brazen daylight robbery. The edict
is the clearest signal yet that America intends to control Iraq by force,
indefinitely. American power -- or more likely, American-controlled proxy
armies, local or foreign -- must hold ultimate authority in the country or
else the edict's proffered sweetmeats will hold no allure for global
Lootists. As Bush's treasury secretary, John Snow, put it in lauding the
edict this week: "Capital is a coward. It doesn't go places where it feels
threatened."
Thus, no Iraqi government will be allowed to impose limits on the flow of
cowardly capital in and out -- mostly out -- of the country, or to
nationalize or "Islamicize" the assets now being flogged off by Bremer and
the Bushists. The only way to guarantee the investments of the bagmen is to
prevent -- by force or threat of force -- a truly independent government
from arising in Iraq.
That's the plan, anyway. But as anyone with even a passing acquaintance of
the history of U.S. foreign policy since World War II could tell you, the
reality is likely to be something quite different. To wit: years of
wholesale gouging by politically connected foreign firms, accompanied by
growing internal strife, massive corruption, guerrilla warfare and terrorist
attacks, followed by a gigantic bust-up -- civil war, Islamic revolution,
military coup, etc. -- followed by a panicky pullout (as in Havana, Saigon,
Teheran, Beirut, etc.), followed by years of scab-picking recriminations on
editorial pages and political hustings: "Who lost Iraq?"
But for now the trough is wide open, and you can hear those eager trotters
thundering toward the feast.
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |