Thursday, April 03, 2003

Imperial Profiteers

Everyday for the past fortnight, Iraqis have experienced their own 9/11. But the Iraqi 9/11 goes on 24/7. The Iraqi 9/11 is not confined to two cities for a two-hour period. The Iraqi 9/11 is a nationwide horror, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Unlike the attacks on the United States, few people around the world have labeled the U.S. and British attackers as terrorists. Even the prominent European countries that refused to bless the U.S. invasion — France, Germany and Russia — have yet to attach the “terrorist” label to the U.S. invaders. There is no talk around the world about a war against superpower terrorism.

That’s the respect you get as a superpower. Just like Michael Jordan in his heydey in the NBA, the United States can get away with any infraction without the slightest penalty. All harm, but no foul.

Russia may talk tough against U.S. policy on Iraq but military and business officials from both countries still are working cooperatively on various military and scientific projects. Germany still lets the United States send its wounded to U.S. military bases on German soil. And France, the object of scorn by all red-blooded Americans, shows indignation that anyone would suggest that it does not hope for a U.S. victory against Iraq. Don’t be silly. France, of course, wants the U.S. to “win” the war. No point in siding with those loser Iraqis. That’s why the French government let Germany roll over it in WWII. The French thought Hitler was going to rule much of Europe longer than a measly five or six years.

Will France’s under-the-table support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq win French businesses any crumbs once the Bush administration starts doling out contracts to companies commissioned to help the United States create its Iraqi stronghold? It’s doubtful. It won’t be for a lack of trying. Colin Powell met with Dominque de Villepin, France’s foreign minister, on April 3 to discuss who will get to share in the spoils of the Iraqi pacification program. The foreign minister surely must have asked Powell about the chances for the French to get in on the action after the Americans tame the Iraqis.

Polly Toynbee, writing in the Friday, April 4 Guardian, is confident the Bush adminstration will not forgive the French for their insubordination. “[G]eneral Jay Garner and his battery of 24 Pentagon-approved Americans will run every ministry, with a tame Iraqi exile each. Contracts will not be awarded by a UN fair procurement process: why give the French or Russians anything? A new Iraqi government will be US and Israel-friendly: what happens when the Iraqis don’t vote that way is just blanked out of their minds.”

The Russians reportedly are beginning to see the merits of the invasion now that U.S. forces are beginning to circle Baghdad. “With U.S.-led forces reaching the outskirts of Baghdad, the Kremlin is softening its staunch opposition to the war in what analysts say is an indication Moscow wants to mend frayed relations with Washington and, perhaps, win a spot for Russian companies in postwar Iraq,” the Moscow Times reported.

Despite the Europeans’ angling for a role in Iraq, the plundering of Iraq will overwhelmingly benefit U.S. companies, with a sizeable number of contracts going to British companies as a reward for Blair’s obedience. The U.S. government’s goal will be to build a state in Iraq that can be used as a launching pad for incursions into other nations that have not properly genuflected to Washington through the years.

Kurt Nimmo writes in CounterPunch that the Pentagon actually is trying to preserve some of the Iraqi infrastructure in order to reduce rebuilding costs down the road. “Bush and his Pentagon planners want to avoid bombing Iraq’s already decimated infrastructure — not because they wish to avoid the human cost associated with such a brutal act, but rather because bombing Iraq to a Stone Age condition will make it more difficult to lord over the country, set up military bases in short order for future invasions in the neighborhood, and steal the oil. As well, killing too many Iraqis makes for resentful vassals and uncooperative near-slave laborers.”

-- Mark Hand

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