[This is Part 2 of a 2 part essay: see Chicago School for Part 1]
No one in the Bush administration anticipated that the application of Milton Friedman ‘s basic principles would cause the “violent backlash” that occurred. It was assumed that after “shock and awe” the population would be so frazzled that they would happily accept the privatization of their economy. But amazingly, instead the Iraqis shocked Washington by insisting that they wanted a voice in any changes in the economy. So what did they do immediately after the invasion? They voluntarily held elections on their own in every municipality in Iraq. Didn’t Bush tell them that they were to become “the democratic state” of the Middle East? So when Paul Bremer, who had previously run a private counter-terrorist company, arrived and saw what was happening, he within the first two weeks canceled all the elections. He further canceled any election of delegates to a constituent assembly which would, if allowed, vote for members of an executive council. He realized quickly that any such election would put Iraqis in power over whom we had no control. Instead he would appoint the delegates and the executive council. In addition Bremer and his committee would appoint the local leaders as well.
Obviously if the Iraqis were allowed freely to vote for their own representatives, we would be giving up control of the oil, establishment of military bases and corporate investment. And certainly the Iraqis did not intend to give up the nationalization of their resources. So what happened? Violent uprisings across the country occurred. Despite our lying promises, the trusting Iraqis believed every word. In the end we denied them their democratic rights because those rights would negate the real purpose of the invasion. Interestingly enough, a poll that was taken in 2003 after the invasion indicated that 49% of Iraqis would vote for a political party that promised an increase of government jobs and only 4.6% would support a political party that promised more “private” jobs. This poll may have had something to do with Bremer’s decision to cancel all elections.
And so the ebb and flow of forceful resistance has continued for the past five years. In order to combat the resistance, because Rumsfeld refused to increase our forces, we had to hire private security firms to protect our VIPs and our contractors. So here we are privatizing our army. Over time the mercenaries were involved in “street combat”. In the first year there were only 10,000 private fighters but three years later it had increased to 48,000.And these guys were fighting side by side with the regular army. They came from all over the world. Some had actually been in our army but after discharge joined the private army because the pay was significantly better. Blackwater became well known as a security firm and private army and got into serious trouble for killing too many civilians. Blackwater is a neoconservative right wing organization. It has given large amounts of money to the Republican Party.
Reference:
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine. N.Y. Holt, 2007
1 comment:
Spot On !
Many of your key points were also supported on the recent Nova special on PBS - called "Bush's War" (a 2 part, in depth look at how we got into Iraq).
It would have been fascinating to have been a fly on the wall for the undocumented conversations between Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Bremmer, and the rest of that 'cabal', but the memos and documented contacts that are now known, show a clear and dangerous bungling, confusion, mis-management, and unconscionable avoidance of any paths or lines of information that would have precluded involvement in Iraq.
The Nova special can easily lead one to the common sense conclusion that some sort of 'war-crime' type trials, indictments ought be made for the astoundingly inept, ill thought out, muddled and confused, territorial wars, and complete lack of understanding of the mid east, and worse, banishing all input from genuine experts already in place in the CIA, and Pentagon. I was astonished to learn that the CIA had a ready to go comprehensive plan for fighting counter terrorism - prior to 911, but was completely shut down since it specifically avoided any actions against Iraq.
We now see that the 'secret agenda' for corporatizing of the mid east was well in place before 911 (and even before the first election of Bush!) , and it is becoming clearer now - thanks to articles like yours, and the Nova special... how much the 'behind the scene' players of this administration were gunning for any excuse to get to Iraq - and thus the oil. Co-incidence that Cheney was CEO of Halliburton ? I think not! Co-incidence that Bremmer was CEO of Blackwater? I think not!
Bremmer became self anointed 'Regent' of Iraq, and was such a loose cannon, that he even scared the insiders at the White House and Pentagon! It's curios that we only count the military troops as our official count of our 'boots on the ground', but with the additional thousands of private 'security', the total numbers become quite scary!
Powell and Rice, to their credit, resisted all this, until Powell got sandbagged with the UN speech, which led to his resignation for being lied to, and it's a curious twist that Rice is now in charge. I worry that Cheney is still the 'puppet-master' and pulling the strings, but 'letting' Rice be 'out-front' so he can do what he does best... work in the shadows with no papertrail or record of his activities.
The more light that is shone on this - though articles such as yours, and Nova etc - the more apparent it becomes that the corporatizing of the war ... and the government in general, has been a disaster on a scale that will take years to fully understand, and perhaps longer to correct!
Excellent article! - we need more patriotic voices like yours - keep up the great work! - A secret admirer
PS - this is my second try to post. My first attempt to post this comment was oddly 'blocked', and I was unable to post this. I had to re write it, and will copy/ paste to try and get it posted. I hope it 'takes' this time. I'm not so sure we need to have the 'domestic spying' bill passed or enhanced. 'They' seem to be doing a pretty good job of censoring and tracking dissenting voices already.
Was my first post 'blocked', or 'censored'? Who knows? ... but we seem to be reliving the days of Germany from 1929-33. New sheeps clothing on an old wolf ?
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