The Same Old Racket in Iraq

[impeach the gop]

To the Victors, the Spoils: Bush's Colonialism Will Only
Deepen Resistance
by Tariq Ali

Iraq remains a country of unbearable suffering, the sort that only soldiers
and administrators acting on behalf of states and governments are capable
of inflicting on their fellow humans. It is the first country where we can
begin to study the impact of a 21st-century colonization. This takes place
in an international context of globalization and neo-liberal hegemony. If the
economy at home is determined by the primacy of consumption,
speculation as the main hub of economic activity and no inviolate domains
of public provision, only a crazed utopian could imagine that a colonized
Iraq would be any different.

The state facilities that were so carefully targeted with bombs and shells
have now to be reconstructed, but this time under the aegis of private firms,
preferably American, though Blair and Berlusconi, and perhaps plucky
Poland too, will not be forgotten at handouts time. Meanwhile, Dick
Cheney's old firm, Halliburton, awarded a contract (without any
competition) to rebuild Iraq's oil industry, is happily boosting profits by
charging the US government $2.64 a gallon for the fuel it trucks into Iraq
from Kuwait. The normal price per gallon in the region is 71 cents, but
since the US taxpayer is footing the bill, nobody cares
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1213-05.htm