Joshua Holland at Alternet.org wrote an article regarding why Iraq is in such a miserable state and will continue to be.
Bush's Iraq: A Bloodbath Economy
Many of the points Holland makes about what has been done in Iraq applies directly to what is being done in the US albeit the US government hasn't told the military to use "shock and awe" to devastate the US civilian population and win their hearts and minds...at least not yet. But large corporations, oh yes you are free to roam the earth serving your bottom-line, exploiting the vast natural resources and populations without regulation, without fear of trade barriers...
My opinion for whatever it is worth has been and continues to be that Paul Bremers' de-Baathification of Iraq was the single most damaging action in Iraq in securing the peace. "With the stroke of a pen" instantly making over 600,000 Iraqis unemployed with few prospects of employment. Good job bremmy, how many of our troops paid for that decision with their lives? Even with as little as 20% of that group of displaced Iraqis angry enough, Bremer created 120,000 bitter enemies that our troops have fight against for as long as they are there. Shock and awe at work...kind of like waking up and finding your job outsourced to China or India? Jobs at 7-11 and Walmart is the economic pacifier they use with Americans exchanging $14-$18/hr jobs for $6-9/hr jobs.
Bremer was a risk management consultant. In 2002, he wrote in a report to his corporate clients: "The painful consequences of globalization are felt long before its benefits are clear... Restructuring inefficient state enterprises requires laying off workers. And opening markets to foreign trade puts enormous pressure on traditional retailers and trade monopolies." Bremer noted that corporate globalization is "good for the economy and society in the long run, [but has] immediate negative consequences for many people," and concluded that those consequences cause "political and social tensions."
"painful consequences...felt long before its benefits are clear" Brilliant like Tom Friedmans 'expert knowledge' of what the benefits are or who actually benefits David Sirota's kos blog During the time of invasion and annihilation of basic infrastructure is a fine time to perform unproven economic experiments on entire populations while winning the hearts and minds of those populations. Lets see..what does the Hague say about it?
Article 43 of the Hague Convention says that an occupying power must "take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country." The only law that the American forces left standing was Saddam Hussein's ban on public-sector unions.
Why would the ban on public-sector unions be the only Hussein law left untouched? Gee, I wonder if US government workers might have something to worry about in the future, perhaps little things like job security, should this economic neoliberal social neofascist cabal spirit remain alive in US government for another 5 years?
Order #39, which made it a violation of Iraqi law for the government to favor local Iraqi businesses or Iraqi workers for reconstruction work, meaning that all those pissed off, heavily-armed and newly unemployed men could not be put to work rebuilding their country.
What a great plan! And Americans love to pay top dollar out of their taxes to private American contracting firms to rebuild the entire infrastructure of a foreign country that our tax dollars paid to destroy. Yes winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi's was definitely job one for our troops but they were assigned an impossible mission since the commander-in-chief of our military chose to pull the economic rug out from the entire country. So who really are we fighting there...is it religious sectarian hatred, is it heavily armed and devastatingly unemployed civil servants and ex-military, is it bitter civilians whose loved ones were killed as collateral damage or were in the Iraqi army, is it Al-Qaeda,....Hmmm sounds like all of the above but deliberate economic devastation is as strong a motivator for fermenting the brew of bitter hatred as any other factor, perhaps the primary factor IMHO.
Former Reagan and Bush 41 official Bruce Bartlett said with no small amount of envy that an occupation government doesn't have to "worry about all the political and transition problems that have made adoption of fundamental tax reform here so difficult," and Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, called the move "extremely good news." Meanwhile, one Middle East expert briefed on the plan told the Post "A piece of social engineering is being done on Iraq, but it has almost no support from other members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council."
Tax reform?! Tax reform for a foreign country! David Grossman They do it in the US in the wee hours and they do it in a foreign country with vast oil reserves and large unexplored oil fields. Its not about the commoners paying taxes, its about corporate and personal wealth (investment wealth) taxation. That is 'the base' his base that it seems our troops are fighting for. Those are the very few words from that man's mouth that I believe to be the whole truth, masked behind humor. I have brothers and sisters who are very adept at masking cruel words and pure apathy behind humor, have done so their whole lives, and the attitude behind the words is real even though the humor masks it. Their actions or inaction prove the reality of their attitude. The parallels are remarkable and obvious to me.
The Daily Kos accepts the status quo for 911 status quo which is understandable to avoid credibility accusations. Its not what happened that day that is suspect in itself, it is everything that has happened since that day that has led many people back to square one and question it. What a sin to question.
How is this NOT fighting them over here? clammyc
As clammcy pointed out:
The Oxford English Dictionary defines terrorism as "a policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorising or condition of being terrorised."
Is physical violence the only means to inflict terror? If not, Iraq has been dealt a double whammy and it is no small wonder why our troops have been placed in an untenable situation.
There is no history of globalization from which Bremer can make his statements with any authority as to what 'good' comes of it. Leo Stauss, the father of was a freakin philosopher and heavily influenced the neoconservative bowel movement Leo Strauss
He wrote that Nietzsche was the first philosopher to properly understand relativism
Friedrich Nietzsche
Well these philosophers embedded in existentialism, which I studied in college weren't completely there. They lost themselves in introspection and thought. Nietzsche -
On January 6, 1889...decided Nietzsche must be brought back to Basel. Overbeck traveled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time, Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of insanity, and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in Jena
I thought what Nietzche wrote was crazy talk back in college, though I did quite well in the courses. Strauss and the neocons are pretty much made up of the same gangrenous philosophical tripe that makes us all shake our heads at their insanity. They act on thought patterns or philosophies, economic, social, political, etcetra as truth when in fact is simply philosphy which cannot be applied directly to reality.
This is what is leading this nation and our military. If there is anything to fear, it is continuing the thought of maintaining this type of leadership as if success will be found in the future. When in fact, Nietzsche's final destiny will likely be the only result.