Home | Hegemony | Archives | Blogroll | Resume | Links | RSS Feed | subscribe by email    

Flagrancy

to Reason

 

blog roll


    in their own words..., 2003-12-11 16:13:59 | Main | further circumflections in the torture trade..., 2003-12-13 17:40:31

    the logic of conquest:

    is guns and butter. To paraphrase: the Europeans that haven't spilt blood for the new American century thusly aren't party to reconstruction contracts, i.e. war booty, in Iraq. The fact that they are spilling and have spilt their blood and are spending their money in Afghanistan and on what might otherwise be considered the 'war on terror' should remain disregarded. Etc. etc.

    I'm having a hard time figuring out why this announcement has been so widely noted, being as so many Iraq contracts haven't been through a bidding process at all. This particular addenum to the administration's policy isn't much more than a political charade to satiate the diet of American anti-Europeanism (I know I know, 'freedom fries' was about French foreign policy, not the cheese-eating surrender monkeys themselves) that is characteristic of Bush's popular base.

    The fault is that little or no debt forgiveness will be forthcoming from these nations which happen to hold much of the Iraqi debt - a burden created by a Western supported dictator that will inevitably fall upon Iraqi shoulders. Adding insults to injury isn't a good way to get another state's cooperation when it comes to dominating a third state: Germany, France and Russia were the countries that handled most of the trade - largely restricted by the sanctions to humanitarian programs (with some more nefarious dealings) and oil (for food) when trade wasn't just blocked by the sanctions committee - with Iraq before they were kicked out by the US invasion. The obvious fault is that it locks out much of the industrial world from bidding for Iraqi contracts - not that a bidding process has been terribly common thus far - and is effectively nothing but a protectionist racket for US/UK companies, a flippant rejection of international law, from the UN charter to the WTO. The very concepts of Iraqi sovereignty and the 'free trade' spoken so highly of when it protects the rich are held in utter contempt by Iraq's colonial administrators. There should be a bidding proces, and bids should be accepted from all comers: how else do the Iraqis get the best returns for what's supposed to be their oil?

    Karl Rove is a sharp snake oil peddler, lashing out at hoity-toity Europe makes for good press. The entire project has been derailed by utter negligence, and with the train slipping off the tracks the idea is to cut and run, get in as much war profiteering as possible for the administration's backers while finding a way to spin the train wreck into a political opportunity. There's nothing here but political macho and steps to make sure that reconstruction money continues being shovelled through the revolving door.

    Plus: Instapundit goes soft on communism, so long as it 'vindicate's the American war machine.


:: posted by buermann @ 2003-12-12 16:38:39 CST | link





    go ahead, express that vague notion
    Name:
    Email:
    Homepage:
    Comment

    your turing test:

journals, notes,
and
other curmudgeonry

Enforcing
American
Hegemony
- A Timeline -

Oil for Nothing:
US Holds On Humanitarian Supplies
Iraq: 1997-2001


the good book
and other cultural
artifacts


The Autobiography
of
Mother Jones


Contact Info:
buermann@mastodon