Noami Klein "Iraq was intended to be rebuilt as a global corporate "utopia"

[madfloridian]

Last edited Tue Feb 19, 2013, 07:50 PM - Edit history (1)

This was in Harper's in 2004. It is still in Information Clearing House. Considering the privatization of everything now, including education, it makes so much sense.

Baghdad Year Zero

Klein said they wanted to see how giving corporations free rein would work in a way it that it could not work in this country because all us liberals and environmentalists got in the way.

Iraq was going to change all that. In one place on Earth, the theory would finally be put into practice in its most perfect and uncompromised form. A country of 25 million would not be rebuilt as it was before the war; it would be erased, disappeared. In its place would spring forth a gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics, a utopia such as the world had never seen. Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders, minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions. The people of Iraq would, of course, have to endure some short-term pain: assets, previously owned by the state, would have to be given up to create new opportunities for growth and investment. Jobs would have to be lost and, as foreign products flooded across the border, local businesses and family farms would, unfortunately, be unable to compete. But to the authors of this plan, these would be small prices to pay for the economic boom that would surely explode once the proper conditions were in place, a boom so powerful the country would practically rebuild itself.

Hubris is an excellent word to use for the invasion of Iraq. It was not a war, it was an invasion and an occupation.

Iraq was to the neocons what Afghanistan was to the Taliban: the one place on Earth where they could force everyone to live by the most literal, unyielding interpretation of their sacred texts. One would think that the bloody results of this experiment would inspire a crisis of faith: in the country where they had absolute free reign, where there was no local government to blame, where economic reforms were introduced at their most shocking and most perfect, they created, instead of a model free market, a failed state no right-thinking investor would touch. And yet the Green Zone neocons and their masters in Washington are no more likely to reexamine their core beliefs than the Taliban mullahs were inclined to search their souls when their Islamic state slid into a debauched Hades of opium and sex slavery. When facts threaten true believers, they simply close their eyes and pray harder.

Klein describes her visit there while Bremer was in charge.

But three hours after my arrival in Baghdad, I was finding these reassurances extremely hard to believe. I had not yet unpacked when my hotel room was filled with debris and the windows in the lobby were shattered. Down the street, the Mount Lebanon Hotel had just been bombed, at that point the largest attack of its kind since the official end of the war. The next day, another hotel was bombed in Basra, then two Finnish businessmen were murdered on their way to a meeting in Baghdad. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt finally admitted that there was a pattern at work: "the extremists have started shifting away from the hard targets ... and are now going out of their way to specifically target softer targets." The next day, the State Department updated its travel advisory: U.S. citizens were "strongly warned against travel to Iraq." The physical risks of doing business in Iraq seemed to be spiraling out of control. This, once again, was not part of the original plan. When Bremer first arrived in Baghdad, the armed resistance was so low that he was able to walk the streets with a minimal security entourage. During his first four months on the job, 109 U.S. soldiers were killed and 570 were wounded. In the following four months, when Bremer's shock therapy had taken effect, the number of U.S. casualties almost doubled, with 195 soldiers killed and 1,633 wounded. There are many in Iraq who argue that these events are connected – that Bremer's reforms were the single largest factor leading to the rise of armed resistance.

Take, for instance, Bremer's first casualties. The soldiers and workers he laid off without pensions or severance pay didn't all disappear quietly. Many of them went straight into the mujahedeen, forming the backbone of the armed resistance. "Half a million people are now worse off, and there you have the water tap that keeps the insurgency going. It's alternative employment," says Hussain Kubba, head of the prominent Iraqi business group Kubba Consulting. Some of Bremer's other economic casualties also have failed to go quietly. It turns out that many of the businessmen whose companies are threatened by Bremer's investment laws have decided to make investments of their own - in the resistance. It is partly their money that keeps fighters in Kalashnikovs and RPGs.

The Iraq invasion divided my family. Why? Because I expressed outrage about it at a time when none of my mostly Republican family wanted to hear it. I finally got the message and shut up about it, but it took a toll on me.

It was a shameful sickening time in our country. It played out on TV with all its shock and awe. All the George Bush cowboy followers cheered.

I will always be thankful for having a place like Democratic Underground during those days.

[Faryn Balyncd]

1. Thanks for a most important post.

[madfloridian]

3. Thank you for reading it.

Rachel's show has brought out new anger in me.

[HeiressofBickworth]

2. Isn't this what Somalia is?

No government, no regulations, no market restrictions -- a totally free open market. Is that what they really wanted in Iraq? The sick twisted bastards.

[arely staircase]

4. pure libertarianism in somalia

eom

[xxqqqzme]

42. Haiti is closer

It is the first stop on the Ayn Rand World Tour of libertarian utopias.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Are you all damn sure that they weren't experimenting with that bullshit here in the U.S.?

Because I'm not. I think there were test sites in this country where they were allowed to throw out the Fourteenth Amendment.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022366720#post39

[LeftInTX]

6. Were they hoping it turn into a gigantic Dubai or something?

LOL

[shadowmayor]

7. Can we get a Hell Yeah over here?

Iraq was an invasion. A mad plan by neocons preying upon the angst of an America attacked by thugs. Cotton head George was the perfect puppet. My year in "Baghdad" actually in Abu Ghraib prison with fellow grunts from NY, VA, KY, and MI was a clockwork orange nightmare. All this rah rah, we are liberating this country. We couldn't fly the American flag as we were a liberating force, not an occupying force? The "chapel" had a mural of a militant Jesus leading troops over the hill into heathen Mesopotamia. We lived in prison cells as they provided better protection from the metal things falling from the sky that brought loud and powerful explosions. Our prison areas where we were garrisoned were called Life Support Areas - I shit you not!

For the Iraqis, the roads were broken, the water supplies kaput, the electricity was pathetic and the hospitals were even worse. And still, many of our soldiers wondered why they shot at us because we were the "good guys"? Maybe because we invaded their country, broke all their shit, and killed their families and friends? Still waiting for the flowers to land on my boots Dickfuckingcheney!

[madfloridian]

10. What you said is stunning. Yes, it was an invasion with a religious theme as well.

You said:

The "chapel" had a mural of a militant Jesus leading troops over the hill into heathen Mesopotamia. We lived in prison cells as they provided better protection from the metal things falling from the sky that brought loud and powerful explosions. Our prison areas where we were garrisoned were called Life Support Areas - I shit you not!

That is simply downright crazy. There is no other word for it.

[shadowmayor]

13. Your post is a most important reminder

Madfloridian

Thanks for coming to "work" - this is all part of the neocon madness. The whole economic utopia angle has been completely forgotten. We had diptards from Pat Robertson's phony school putting together the new stock market in Iraq and other bible belchers running the show. A lot of soldiers actually invested in the new Iraqi currency convinced it was going to soar on the world market. Guess that didn't work out too well.

Still no electricity, water, hospitals etc. And let's not forget, we've been kicking the shit out of Iraq for nearly two decades now.

[annabanana]

38. Welcome to DU, shadowmayor.

Your perspective is unique & valuable. Stick around.

[CrispyQ]

19. Cheney, who had five deferrments to stay out of his generation's war.

Cowards. All of them.

"All this rah rah, we are liberating this country." A lot of that state side, too. And we were allowed to fly flags. OMG, there were flags, flags everywhere! Flags on clothing, on cars, on trashcans, no kidding. W even signed a flag. The flag code went out the door. It was a disgusting display of nationalism.

Maybe you should write about your experience over there. The country seems to be more receptive to hearing what really happened back then. I'm a solid believer that letters to the editor make a difference!

Welcome to DU.

[lindysalsagal]

8. And the fundies were set to evangelize. They had the bibles all printed up in arabic,

and now they're in storage.

I believe he had to get all 3 legs of the stool on board:

1. War hawks. That's a no-brainer: Ka-ching! "God bless the USA! These colors don't run! Support our troops!"

2. The financial people: "It will forstall the coming recession. Let's do it!"

3. The fundies: "We'll be killing for god, so, it's OK!"

Regular america: a.k.a.: Soccer moms, had to select a reason, and then it was ready to go.

Most people found that at least one of those groups worked, and if not, there was always the promise of cheap oil.

"How dare those infidels get born over our oil!!"

[madfloridian]

43. Amen to this part you wrote:

"I believe he had to get all 3 legs of the stool on board:

1. War hawks. That's a no-brainer: Ka-ching! "God bless the USA! These colors don't run! Support our troops!"

2. The financial people: "It will forstall the coming recession. Let's do it!"

3. The fundies: "We'll be killing for god, so, it's OK!"

So sadly true.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Everyone should read that Harper's article

and many others besides.

Unfortunately, Harper's is too difficult reading for most of the "America, fuck yeah!" crowd.

[moondust]

11. Aynrandistan.

Did not know how grand their plan delusion was.

Thanks.

[madfloridian]

12. Good one.

[dtom67]

14. I disagree with Klein...

I think is was intended to be what it became; an endless money pit for the US tax payer. It was to be an endless source of "do nothing " government contracts for wealthy elites. Free money for the rich. Who knows how much of our national debt can be attributed to make believe causes like this. The War on drugs,terror and global poverty are all just money making schemes for a particular sector of the wealthy elite....

[Initech]

15. The relentless corporate pursuit for obscene profit is going to kill us all.

[calimary]

16. I love this part best, madfloridian:

"It was a shameful sickening time in our country. It played out on TV with all it's shock and awe. All the George Bush cowboy followers cheered.

I will always be thankful for having a place like Democratic Underground during those days."

EVERY WORD I'm yelling "YESSSS!" Or "TELL IT!" Or "DAMN STRAIGHT!" Or "FUCKIN' A!"

It SO SO SO WAS a shameful sickening time in our country. And you'd tell people the truth and they wouldn't listen. Or they'd argue with you or accuse you of knowing nothing, or worse - hating your country and being against the troops and being a Saddam-lover and an enemy sympathizer, getting your car keyed because of your anti-war and anti-bush bumper stickers, getting fired, losing friends, disrupting lives - and hell, WE were the lucky ones! We at least kept all our arms and legs and our stomachs and our skulls and both eyes and both ears and skin intact. We at least can still move all our moving parts and don't have to be wheeled around or attached to appliances or machines or artificial limbs. We at least aren't suffering from the day and night terrors of PTSD. We at least haven't seen what our troops have seen, heard the noises, smelled the smells, felt the fear and the heat and the concussions from bomb blasts.

I swear these bastards who sold us this bill o' goods should be in leg irons!!! For the rest of their miserable accursed days!

And, madfloridian, what's so damn galling on top of all of the above - is how WE KNEW! WE SAW THROUGH IT! AND WE TRIED TO WARN EVERYONE WE KNEW!! We tried to get the truth out wherever we could, and most of the doors were closed in our faces and locked securely. No one wanted to hear it. And so they won. They carried the day. They called the shots, set this up, put it in motion, and counted all the eggs before they even had any hens to lay the eggs. Of course they laid a humdinger of an egg all of their own.

THEY'RE the ones who aren't fit or suitable for high office - they who sit and judge Chuck Hagel, basically because he finally had his eyes opened and he responded accordingly. Or they who get the big speakers' fees now and the celebrity treatment and the life on Easy Street and the taxpayer-funded protection (at least for awhile).

We should all be repeating as often as possible - They HAD their turn. And look what happened. There's no way we can either trust them or give them back the car keys, after we finished pulling it out of the ditch THEY drove it into. They've HAD their turn. And look what happened. They've thus forfeited any chance at another chance! Game's over for them and they've been sent to the showers. And look how things turned out! How's that free-markety thing workin' out for ya, neocon chickenhawk bastards?

It is just tremendously infuriating.

[3catwoman3]

17. In addition to the leg irons...

...I vote for staking them over fire ant colonies.

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Only if you smear them with dog food first.

[calimary]

34. Welcome to DU, 3catwoman3!

I guess since we have four cats, maybe that makes me an honorary 4catwoman4?

Glad you're here! If your idea gets the most votes, I'd add lots and lots of honey poured on.

[madfloridian]

22. Yes, infuriating. People were swallowing such nonsense. We became fringe then.

In fact the DLC even called Dean supporters "fringe activists".

Here is some stuff from the no longer available archives of that campaign site. Here is a part of the attacks toward anti-war people from the DLC, our own party.

Fringe Activists

SNIP..."These days, Democrats act as if they're so far gone they've forgotten where they're from.

Every weekend, yet another special-interest group hosts a candidate forum to pressure the presidential candidates into praising its agenda. Some of the candidates seem intent on running applause-meter campaigns, measuring success by how many times they tell the party faithful what they want to hear.

There's one big problem with this strategy: Most of those party activists the candidates are trying so hard to please are wildly out of touch not only with middle America but with the Democratic rank and file. The great myth of the campaign is the misguided notion that the hopes and dreams of party activists and single-issue groups represent the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. They don't.

The fact is, "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean likes to call it, is an aberration, a modern-day version of the old McGovern wing of the party, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist interest-group liberalism at home. That wing lost the party 49 states in two elections and turned a powerful national organization into a much weaker, regional one. ....."END SNIP

[CrispyQ]

18. Good post.

I lost three friends & had a major rift with my mother. One of the friends went total fundie during the W years. Boy, I didn't see that one coming! The other two thought I was a far left loon. Maybe I am, but I have principles.

I'm reading Klein's Shock Doctrine. It's hard reading. I'm up to the Russian shock. Time after time they are proved wrong & yet it happens over & over & over. Will there ever be social & economic justice on a global scale?

Good to see you Mad.

[madfloridian]

23. It was a terribly divisive time.

We were divided from family, even had neighbors yell at us in our own home when we questioned the president's motives.

Good to see you also.

[Zorra]

21. Naomi totally gets it..and then some. Her

no holds barred journalism is a treasure.

Great article, thanks. Nothing to add, she nails it perfectly.

[Taverner]

24. Any time you hear "supply side," PLEASE take this article and throw it at them.

Aim for the head

This is proof positive SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS DOES NOT WORK

Hell, this is proof Capitalism is doomed, but let's go with what we can show

[madfloridian]

48. Do you remember Al Franken's cartoon strip and video on Supply Side Jesus?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017100087

[yardwork]

25. Also, the fundamentalist Christians flowed into Iraq.

Many graduates of Liberty University were put in leadership positions. The new model was going to be a fundamentalist Christian model.

[Lars39]

28. Franklin Graham was in Iraq about 2 weeks after Shock an Awe.

[madfloridian]

29. Our Southern Baptist Church called it a holy war.

That is when we left. They said we were not patriotic.

How in the world did something like this take hold in our country?

Probably because Bush used the religious right to get elected.

[yardwork]

30. Some of the churches got co-opted into the empire building.

It started back in the late 70s. They helped elect Reagan and they've been players in the political sphere ever since.

It's sad. It's tragic. It makes me mad.

[calimary]

35. reagan used the religious wrong to get elected!

That's when the cancer started to metastasize. Back in the 80s. When they made a pact with the Devil for the sake of all those evangelical voting blocs. Sold their souls for loads of votes.

And I'm being generous here - in assuming they even have souls.

[riverbendviewgal]

26. I learned much of the way of the world and politics through DU.

I too feel like you .
" will always be thankful for having a place like Democratic Underground during those days. "

In May 2001 my husband died....18 months after our son died. I and my older son read DU and it was our salvation and helped in our grief.

I watched the Iraq war unfold through DU. I read and read.
I learned about Naomi Klein and Robert Greenwald through DU.

The Iraq war divided me and my relatives in NJ...My brothers and mom ...who when Obama came to be president became even more right wing.

I hated the Viet Nam war because it was a manipulation. Friends died in it ...for what? Rachel showed the beginnings of it last night on her Hubris document and how it was a manufactured war. just like the following ones.

One thing I am happy to say is the our Prime Minister Chretian did not join up with troops in the Iraq war.

Thank you DU'rs for being my family. I know how you suffered your family MadFloridan...I know...

[madfloridian]

27. That really truly was a time of grief for you. So sad.

Vietnam was a terrible time. I remember one church service remembering and naming the ones lost, and having their families in the service. It was hard not to cry.

One of the worst times for me was when Phil Donahue's show was taken off MSNBC for speaking against the Iraq invasion.

[AnnieK401]

31. Now it all makes sense! Thanks for the post.

[Rex]

32. The BFEE/PNAC crowd wanted Eye-Rack to be our premiere

torture center/spy citadel.

[ewagner]

33. For weeks after I read "Shock Doctrine"

I walked around in an absolute rage....first asking acquaintances if they had read the book and when I found that they didn't (almost universally), I went into a detailed explanation (rant) about Iraq and the whole concept of economic shock...the whole "Chicago School" theory; the whole Austrian theory...Latin America..the whole ball of wax!!!

But you know what?

Nobody cared..

Nobody except the community here on DU

Maybe Rachael will open enough eyes to create a critical mass to throw the Repubs out of elected office where ever we may find them and NEVER allow them back in.

[mountain grammy]

45. Nobody cares because nobody understands. That's the beauty of Klein's book.

It makes you understand. It reminds you of all the "news" reports you listened to thoughout the years and never had a clue. I think, more people are understanding how we've been so decieved.

[benld74]

36. Keerist!? Just KNOWING the history of that region would give a SANE

individual the knowledge that this idiotic idea HAD NO CHANCE, hell a snowball in hell would have a better chance of succeeding, to succeed.

[Demeter]

37. The Iraqis took exception to the Fascists' Plans, I Presume

That's what bombings and assassinations and civil war mean, right?

[EC]

39. Why didn't they just look at old

Fascist Italy...there was a reason so many Italians fled here. It wasn't all about the war...it was lack of work.

[Uncle Joe]

40. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, madfloridian.

[madfloridian]

41. You are very welcome.

That article is too important to get lost over time.

[YOHABLO]

44. Klein always gets it right. after reading ''Shock Doctrine'' I told everyone to read it ....

no one cared to read it. I would say, read Naomi Klein's book if you want to get a good perspective of what the hell is going on .. everyone gave me a ''well maybe''. It should be required reading in every high school, if not college and university. At the same time I read ''Confessions of an Economic Hit Man'' by John Perkins. My mind was opened, expanded to a point of clarity I'd never had before about Corporate America. I think perhaps that the giant has become so overwhelming that the future looks ever-so gloomy. MSNBC has a left voice, only because they found it profitable .. there are no bleeding heart liberals in corporate America. Money is their god. I have lost hope.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

46. That worked out so well.

Ended up costing us a shitload of money. Crony capitalism at its finest.

[Martin Eden]

47. All the old anger is welling up again.

I remember those days and all the battles I fought online, with family, and with people I met.

Most of them now have a generally unfavorable opinion of the war, but they have no concept of what really happened.

In the wake of the national tragedy of 9/11 the administration of GW Bush lied through their teeth in matters of war and manipulated the fear, grief, anger, and patriotism of the American people. It was the worst betrayal of trust by a president in our nation's history.

If the public knew the facts and understood the depth and severity of this crime, Bush and Cheney would not be free men today.

[madfloridian]

52. And they should not be.

Free men, that is.

[watoos]

49. Isn't this what they did in Chile?

Kissinger and the CIA helped overthrow Chile in 1973. Milton Friedman and his cronies went to Chile and installed their Chicago school of economics policies. Everyone from the left was either killed or imprisoned.

I worked in Chile in 2002 and 2003. I saw no safety regulations, no womens rights, no minimum wage.

I worked side by side with Chileans doing the same work, they made $2,500 a year.

The miners who were pulled out of the mine several years ago made $2,500 a year.

This is what they want for America.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

51. Naomi Klein has a chapter about the Shock Doctrine in South America, especially Chile

You'll never look at world events the same way.

[Overseas]

50. K&R. I remember this article. It's great.

[madfloridian]

53. Yes, it is great. The "honey" theory of Iraq..

see how many flies will come around.

"But as I got closer I noticed that the crane was not actually rebuilding anything - not one of the bombed-out government buildings that still lay in rubble all over the city, nor one of the many power lines that remained in twisted heaps even as the heat of summer was starting to bear down. No, the crane was hoisting a giant billboard to the top of a three-story building. SUNBULA: HONEY 100% NATURAL, made in Saudi Arabia.

Seeing the sign, I couldn't help but think about something Senator John McCain had said back in October. Iraq, he said, is "a huge pot of honey that's attracting a lot of flies." The flies McCain was referring to were the Halliburtons and Bechtels, as well as the venture capitalists who flocked to Iraq in the path cleared by Bradley Fighting Vehicles and laser-guided bombs. The honey that drew them was not just no-bid contracts and Iraq's famed oil wealth but the myriad investment opportunities offered by a country that had just been cracked wide open after decades of being sealed off, first by the nationalist economic policies of Saddam Hussein, then by asphyxiating United Nations sanctions."

So tragic.

[Raksha]

54. K & R, bookmarking to read later.