Naomi Klein: 'Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon uto

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I've seen a lot of MUST READ postings, but if ever there was a "must read", it's this article Ñ and some of the most insightful responses that I've ever seen.


http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=17955&mode=&order=0


By Naomi Klein, Harper's Magazine

It was only after I had been in Baghdad for a month that I found what I was looking for. I had traveled to Iraq a year after the war began, at the height of what should have been a construction boom, but after weeks of searching I had not seen a single piece of heavy machinery apart from tanks and humvees. Then I saw it: a construction crane. It was big and yellow and impressive, and when I caught a glimpse of it around a corner in a busy shopping district I thought that I was finally about to witness some of the reconstruction I had heard so much about. 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. SUNBULAH: HONEY 100% NATURAL, made in Saudi Arabia.

[shraby]

1. I read it and here's a kick

to keep it topside. I knew the neocons are evil, but this goes beyond the pale.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[whistle]

2. Wow, 14 pages in Harpers Mag, this is a great article...

...I'm mailing out the link. I love, "Bush did have a pla....let lots of Honey flow, then sit back and wait for the flies". Kerry/Edwards should use that if Naomi doesn't mind.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Everyone needs to read this

I'm a Harpers subscriber and I realized how much I didn't know about the situation in Iraq when I read this. It's even worse than you think.

The good news is the Iraqis have the sense to realize how much destruction American-style capitalism would wreak on their economy and their lives.

The bad news is our government and our corporations don't care. They'll keep trying to rip this place off until they succeed. This is something the insurgents obviously understand.

Another excerpt:

<As the insurgency grew, it soon became clear that if Bremer went ahead with his plans to sell off the state companies, it could worsen the violence. There was no question that privatization would require layoffs: the Ministry of Industry estimates that roughly 145,000 workers would have to be fired to make the firms desirable to investors, with each of those workers supporting, on average, five family members. For Iraq's besieged occupiers the question was: Would these shock-therapy casualties accept their fate or would they rebel?>

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Definitely a MUST READ

It's too bad that Harper's doesn't put its content online right away, and I'm glad that someone else does.

Our "liberal press" isn't telling us any of this stuff.

[Moderator]

5. Great article--already posted here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x75225