Baghdad Year Zero--a must read

[whirlygigspin]

Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia

Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004. Originally from Harper's Magazine, September 2004. By Naomi Klein.


http://www.harpers.org/


You must read this

"It¡¦s quite an accomplishment: in trying to design the best place in the world to do business, the neocons have managed to create the worst, the most eloquent indictment yet of the guiding logic behind deregulated free markets."

[Qanisqineq]

1. THANK YOU

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

After seeing the author on The Al Franken Show on Sundance tonight, I went out in search of the magazine and couldn't find it anywhere.

:toast:

[shraby]

2. Holy shit!!

Just when I think I've figured out the bastards, a more malevolent side pops out.

[jean]

3. Naomi Klein was exquisitely articulate in her interview with Al Franken

and Katherine Lanpher on Friday. Thanks for putting this link up.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Excellent!

Thanks.

This fills in a lot of missing holes.

[whirlygigspin]

5. thank you Naomi Klein

This article was so helpful in clarifying what has happened in Iraq, that I would hope everyone in America could read it.

[4morewars]

6. Thanks for posting !!!

Excellent ! I bookmarked this to pass on to as many as I can. It really explains what motivates these pirates. Real well written too. I think i will e-mail Naomi and let her know !

[shraby]

7. Kick this

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[izzie]

8. Well we knew this was going on but he put it in a good read.

I keep telling my kids that they should be watching corp. buying up water works, city parks, and graveyards. They think I am crazy.It has already started in this country. One good reason for the new laws on how you can sue also.Laissez faire is not what will work and we have had to fight it before.

[Eloriel]

24. Graveyards?

why on earth? Please, say more. I'm familiar with water supplies and treatment facilities, and parks certainly makes sense, but CEMETARIES?

[Kenneth ken]

42. re:cemetaries

I'd guess that with corporate ownerswhip/privatizarion of water, a die-off might follow.

Typical corporate business plan, profit from restricting access to water, those you kill off can still be profited from in terms of burying them.

But then, I'm pretty far beyond cynical.

[4morewars]

9. Kickin' it

It's a must read.
:kick:

[realFedUp]

10. definitely a must read

love Naomi Klein's insights.

[Wind Dancer]

11. Great article!

A must read!

[Raster]

12. I knew Iraq is being raped, I didn't realize how brutally. Read this.

And to think how little the American public know, or supposedly don't know of what is really going on in Iraq is amazing. The poor citizens of Iraq. It's like a bad joke.

"I've got some good news and some bad news.

"Guess what, you're being liberated from the bloodthirsty despot and dictator.

That's great, what's so bad about that?

You're being liberated by The Borg.

[Raster]

13. Here's another good thread on Iraq...

http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#109582366638394688

[whirlygigspin]

14. again, if you haven't read this article yet...

do yourself a favor and read it.

[fedsron2us]

15. Quite simply the best article I have read on Iraq

Thanks for posting it.

[Scaperjess]

16. ...

All I can say is WOW.... most impressed, highly recomended...

[Thurston Howell IV]

17. a Must Read article

I just came across it this morning and was looking to see if it had already been posted. Great to see this stuff is getting out. Namoi Klein has delivered Pulitzer Prize level investigative reporting on Iraq with this article. Even more important, I believe sheds light on Bush's twisted agenda for America as well.

Naomi Klein has a very worthwhile website: http://www.nologo.org/

[whirlygigspin]

18. I'm still floored by it

"Naomi Klein has delivered Pulitzer Prize level investigative reporting on Iraq with this article."

-worthy of a Pulitzer,indeed. anyone know how to nominate it?

...and the digging starts...

[patdem]

19. This is MOST educational...I wondered why they were fighting so fiercly

and now I understand.

I remember before the war they showed a clip from Iraq and a policeman directing traffic at an intersection and thought 'that is make work' cause I am sure Iraq has traffic lights. I then thought why should a 'brutal dictator' make work for people, after all he is brutal and a dictator, why should he care if the people of Iraq had jobs. Then I heard that there were food distribution centers, because the country was so devistated. Sort of like America's 'food banks'?

I guess there are some things worse than having Sadaam as your president, and that would be starving to death??

[LibertyorDeath]

20. Wow ! A must read

“There are two choices,” he said, looking me in the eye and smiling kindly. “Either we will set the factory on fire and let the flames devour it to the ground, or we will blow ourselves up inside of it. But it will not be privatized.”

[LibertyorDeath]

21. and I used to think it was all about the Oil

I'm so naive sometimes

[Raster]

22. Kick

:kick:

[brainshrub]

23. Damn, that was a great article!

I wish she weren't married.

[RussBLib]

25. Exactly who are the "terrorists?"

This passage makes you think that some attacks are just too convenient. Thugs, indeed.

Bremer had a formidable opponent: Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, the most senior Shia cleric in Iraq. al Sistani tried to block Bremer's plan at every turn, calling for immediate direct elections and for the constitution to be written after those elections, not before. Both demands, if met, would have closed Bremer's privatization window. Then, on March 2, with the Shia members of the Governing Council refusing to sign the interim constitution, five bombs exploded in front of mosques in Karbala and Baghdad, killing close to 200 worshipers. General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned that the country was on the verge of civil war. Frightened by this prospect, al Sistani backed down and the Shia politicians signed the interim constitution. It was a familiar story: the shock of a violent attack paved the way for more shock therapy.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/092604E.shtml
http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

Fantastic job, Naomi.

[bloom]

26. I sent highlights and a link out to many people I know...

whether I thought they wanted to hear it or not.

I know too many people giving Bush* the benefit of the doubt (? or something).

I think anyone who reads this would HAVE to start questioning what has been going on over there.

[proud patriot]

27. Wholey Moley

:wow: I'm still digesting all that :wow:

[NNadir]

28. Thanks, it explains a lot. n/t

[Paradise]

29. I don't think even we knew all of this. n/t

[whirlygigspin]

30. wow, this story finally hit the front page of DU

after 3 days...by that count the "mainstream media" might just report this in about two or three months...what? Drudge isn't talking about it? ya don't say...next you'll tell me Chompsky's never been on Nightline.

[Paradise]

31. forgot to say 'great', 'bookmarked', and 'thanks'.

i'm already passing it on to regular folk and the media (many may not have seen it).

[SHRED]

32. I posted this article...

on a mixed forum and I had a rightie actually say, "Is it just about the money with you? What about fighting for...blah, blah...".
I am serious! What a dumbass.

[whirlygigspin]

33. I spelled Chomsky wrong

me bad.

Oppologies to the great man, sorry sir.

[whirlygigspin]

34. nominate this article for a Pulitzer

www.pulitzer.org

[LibertyorDeath]

38. Great idea thanx

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[whirlygigspin]

36. more comments here....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x897843

[whirlygigspin]

37. Democracy Now! interviews Naomi Klein

We speak with journalist and author Naomi Klein about privatization and reconstruction in Iraq which is the subject of her new article in Harper's Magazine called "Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in Pursuit of a Neocon Utopia."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/20/144210

[bloom]

39. thanks

I've become an instant fan...

From the interview:

"So, what Iraqis see is the reconstruction of their country not as a kind of new deal project, which is a process of healing from war, occupation and sanctions, which is rebuilding their decimated industries, which is creating jobs. They see the opposite. What they see is another kind of foreign invasion. They see jobs going to foreigners. They see products pouring across their borders from foreign countries and they see their own industry in the dark, and because of that, the reconstruction has become a target and contractors have become targets.

<snip>

Yeah. I mean, it's more than the fact that they're not just -- they're not spending the reconstruction money that was allocated by U.S. taxpayers. It's that the money that they are spending on U.S. companies is actually Iraqi money. They're spending far more of Iraq's own oil money than they are of the 18.6 billion that was allocated..."

[cap]

40. Precursor of what will happen here in the US

should bush be re-elected.

[IrateCitizen]

41. Naomi's been reporting on this for a while, but this ties it all together

I just finished reading the whole article, and it certainly spells a lot of stuff out in some pretty excruciating detail.

One of my favorite (and I believe most telling) quips:

Iraq was to the neocons what Afghanistan was to the Taliban: the one place on Earth where they could force everyone to live by the most literal, unyielding interpretation of their sacred texts.

I guess this just helps prove that neoconservatism is the military arm, and neoliberalism is the financial arm of neocolonialism. I think that Iraqis have largely caught on to the grand ruse, even if they can't describe it quite in the way that Ms. Klein does.

[whirlygigspin]

43. original posting from sept.18

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=74054

[BootinUp]

44. So this information...will Americans hear about it?

This is a devastating article to Bush and his fucked up leadership. Why isn't our dem leadership talking about this?

[Jack Rabbit]

45. Bump

:bounce:

[shrike]

46. Everybody read this

We're next. Shrub will do this to us if he can get away with it.

[whirlygigspin]

47. word up

Al Franken just craked up and almost started crying on his show (live from Madison WI) talking about the "re-construction" in Iraq and how it's such a sham...very moving...

[myopic4141]

48. Sigh

... so much to report ...
sigh
... so little space and time to do so ...
sigh

[KoKo]

49. Kick!

:kick:

[realFedUp]

50. "The Green Zone was filled with Young Republicans.....

quote-
Many of the other CPA postings were equally ideological. The Green Zone, the city within a city that houses the occupation headquarters in Saddam’s former palace, was filled with Young Republicans straight out of the Heritage Foundation, all of them given responsibility they could never have dreamed of receiving at home. Jay Hallen, a twenty-four-year-old who had applied for a job at the White House, was put in charge of launching Baghdad’s new stock exchange. Scott Erwin, a twenty-one-year-old former intern to Dick Cheney, reported in an email home that “I am assisting Iraqis in the management of finances and budgeting for the domestic security forces.” The college senior’s favorite job before this one? “My time as an ice-cream truck driver.” In those early days, the Green Zone felt a bit like the Peace Corps, for people who think the Peace Corps is a communist plot. It was a chance to sleep on cots, wear army boots, and cry “incoming”—all while being guarded around the clock by real soldiers.

The teams of KPMG accountants, investment bankers, think-tank lifers, and Young Republicans that populate the Green Zone have much in common with the IMF missions that rearrange the economies of developing countries from the presidential suites of Sheraton hotels the world over. Except for one rather significant difference: in Iraq they were not negotiating with the government to accept their “structural adjustments” in exchange for a loan; they were the government.

[wiswrong]

51. Goal is neocon resume development

One of the clear goals of putting these neocon youngsters major roles in Iraq is to ensure that they have amazing resumes when they get back. These ultra-conservatives will then have the resumes to take major positions in government and private enterprise -- positions they never would have received with backgrounds as ice-cream scoops.

The neocons are thinking far ahead....

- w is wrong

[tishaLA]

52. Amazing.

thanks for posting this

[thanks jon]

53. great article

really puts together WTF is going on over there. Why aren't the wagging heads wagging over this. I mean we are really gettin to the gist of the matter here. I still have to go finish, my eyes and brain can hardly handle it.