US AMBASSADOR: looting allowed in Iraq to downsize & privatize government

[yurbud]

Barbara Bodine who served in Iraq said one goal of allowing the looting after we invaded Iraq was to downsize the government and lead to privatization of functions government had provided before.

If the Democrats were smart, they would repeat "privatization equals corruption" until Republicans are forced to make up a new euphemism for theft of the commons.

Remember all the looting throughout Iraq after the US invaded? Many Pentagon-types concede that the US should have done a better job protecting the Iraqi infrastructure. Well, according to former U.S. Ambassador Barbara Bodine, one of the three panel guests on the show, the Administration actually wanted there to be mass looting in Baghdad because it would help downsize government. In other words, Rumsfeld wanted to implement Ronald Reagan's limited government model in Iraq.

So I did some digging on the issue. I found a 2003 story in The Nation magazine that confirmed this strategy. It's quite disturbing that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld would want there to be looting. But it all makes perfect sense:

As the Bush Administration becomes increasingly open about its plans to privatize Iraq's state industries and parts of the government, Bremer's de-Baathification takes on new meaning. Is he working only to get rid of Baath Party members, or is he also working to shrink the public sector as a whole so that hospitals, schools and even the army are primed for privatization by US firms? Just as reconstruction is the guise for privatization, de-Baathification looks a lot like disguised downsizing.

We need to ask ourselves what the purpose was behind Reagan's ideology? Why do conservative Washington insiders want limited government? Is it because their brand of government would be more efficient, or because the phrase "limited government" is code for selling democracy to the highest bidder?

http://www.thebluestate.com/2007/09/the-darkest-of-.html

[Ravy]

1. Iraq, built on the Republican model they want in the US.

Small government, privatization, flat tax, etc.

[yurbud]

2. and when people drop dead in the streets, you can harvest their organs for sale

[Ravy]

5. There you go! (n/t)

[Solly Mack]

3. at the time, Rumsfeld said about the looting "Stuff happens"

"Declaring that freedom is "untidy," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday the looting in Iraq was a result of "pent-up feelings" of oppression and that it would subside as Iraqis adjusted to life without Saddam Hussein."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/11/sprj.irq.pentagon/

[TwilightGardener]

4. Looting allowed? Like museums full of irreplaceable artifacts from

an ancient civilization? Sick.

[EFerrari]

6. I heard later that a lot of those items were taken home by employees

to keep them safe -- but, I'm sorry, don't remember where.

[TwilightGardener]

7. I hope that's true. What a loss to humanity if they were destroyed,

altered or "held hostage" to the highest black market bidders.

[EFerrari]

8. from the Wiki entry:

Various ancient items believed looted from the museum have surfaced in Jordan, the United States, Switzerland, and Japan, and on eBay. Among those arrested for attempting to bring looted antiquities into the United States were a reporter and a camera man for Fox News.

On May 7, 2003, U.S. officials announced that nearly 40,000 manuscripts and 700 artifacts belonging to the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad were recovered by U.S. Customs agents working with museum experts in Iraq. Some looters had returned items after promises of rewards and amnesty, and many items previously reported missing had actually been hidden in secret storage vaults at the museum prior to the outbreak of war.

On June 7, 2003, U.S. authorities announced that world famous treasures of Nimrud were recovered from a secret vault in Iraq's Central Bank. The artifacts included necklaces, plates, gold earrings, finger and toe rings, bowls and flasks. Officials said that of the 170,000 items initially believed missing, just 3,000 remained unaccounted for. And, of those, 47 were main exhibition artifacts.

In November, 2003 Coalition officials reported a few dozen of the most important items remained missing from the museum's public galleries, along with another 10,000 other items -- most of them tiny and some of them fragments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Iraq

[CGowen]

9. If it worked for the Nazis it's good for the Neocons.......n/t

[yurbud]

12. this used to be how armies were paid--five finger discount. Now the soldiers don't but suits do

[CGowen]

10. If you are against privatization you are being investigated

Undersecretary Paul Brinkley, who heads efforts to boost business in Iraq, faces allegations of mismanagement.

WASHINGTON -- A Bush political appointee and former Silicon Valley executive who has faced opposition in his bid to bail out Iraq's struggling factories is under investigation by the Defense Department on mismanagement allegations.

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul A. Brinkley, who heads an economic task force in Baghdad, is accused of mismanaging government money and engaging in public drunkenness and sexual harassment, a Defense Department spokesman said last week.

The allegations stem from a 12-page memo filed this month by two former members of the task force. The charges are being investigated by the Defense Department's Office of the Inspector General.

Bob Love, director of operations for the task force, said he was shocked by the allegations, saying they were related to "personnel issues." He said the former task force members were dismissed before they filed their complaint.
...

Although Brinkley has won support from military commanders for his campaign for taxpayer-funded investment in Iraqi factories, the plan is opposed by State Department officials here who believe the former state-run factories should be privatized.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-factories27aug27,0,1235171.story?coll=la-home-center

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Limited government, enforced by an occupying army.

That sounds about right. That's the only way that privatization will hold.

[yurbud]

13. the big prize: TENS OF TRILLIONS worth of oil LINK

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2006/09/iraq-oil-war-resources.html

[superkia]

14. Everyday there seems to be new evidence that the war is for money.

I would love to see it stop and I hope that you all do too. When it comes time to vote at the primaries, vote to end this corruptness and this horrible thing they call war. Step up to the plate and show the world that Americans do care and its some of our government not the citizens to blame. If we vote for a candidate that doesn't want this war to end, you can bet your ass the deaths will continue and then we can accept some of the blame for continuing it. Lets show the world what we the American citizens stand for!

[yurbud]

15. Most of the dems step around the economic rape of Iraq like it's a sleeping cobra.

[Skidmore]

16. I saw her say that.

Dems cannot condemn this because they have been complicit with the invasion and sacking of an ancient civilization. To hell with them all...every single person who voted for or stood by silently as this evil was perpetrated on the planet. For evil this is.

Damn them all.

[Skidmore]

17. I'm kicking this because this is telling of the evil...yes, I'll use that word...

evil we are faced with in our government. The rot and corruption and the messianic hubris. Now. If you are all done contemplating your peepees, perhaps we can get back to work.

[OneBlueSky]

18. Barbara Bodine . . . wasn't she the one who told Saddam that . . .

the U.S. would have no interest if Iraq retaliated against Kuwait for slant-drilling into Iraqi territory? . . . and when he did retaliate, it set off the first Gulf War? . . . been a long time, so I may be wrong about this, but it rings a bell . . .

[Skidmore]

19. Wasn't that someone named Gillespie?

[OneBlueSky]

21. ya know, I think you're right . . . my bad . . . (it's the senility) . . . n/t

.

[dbt]

20. bu$hco is NOT incompetent. There are NO blunders or missteps.

Everything they've done has been deliberate, from 9/11 through Katrina. Ms Bodine's statements are simply a rare moment of candor. I can't believe she was allowed to out the strategery like this; she oughta stay away from small aircraft and dark alleys.

As to the purpose behind Raygun's ideology (or the one that his handlers told him was his), it's VERY simple: get as much wealth as possible into as few hands as possible.

Nothing new here.