The political
economy of the invasion and re-colonization of Iraq
After five weeks of relentless
mayhem, destruction and murder against the Iraqi people, the U.S. government
quickly declared the "war" stage of "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
completed. The Bush regime then promised the world a U.S. occupation of
Iraq that will last at least one year and probably much longer.
A backdrop to this proclamation
are daily militant, anti-U.S. demonstrations staged by Iraqis in every
city in their nation. These demonstrations have been met with deadly shootings
by U.S. mercenaries on the ground. The people of Iraq have not only been
undeterred by these attacks, but have engaged in guerilla-style resistance,
successfully taking out some of their invaders with car bombs, sniper
rifles and concealed small arms at close range.
This current dynamic underscores
the transparent lies of the Bush regime, that still desperately attempts
to justify its crimes based on the need to "liberate the Iraqi people."
This empty rhetoric is wasted on all but the staunchest imperialist pundits.
It is clear. The invasion of
Iraq has only been motivated by one thing: a desperate attempt by the
U.S. government to revitalize the reeling U.S. and world economy. While
hoping to generate capital for specific corporations directly tied to
key players in the Bush regime, the Bush regime also sees the political
economy of colonialism as the solution to the general economic chaos afflicting
U.S. society.
The U.S. government has devised
a grand scheme to pay U.S. corporations to rebuild Iraq using Iraqi money.
It has petitioned the UN to allow U.S. control over Iraqi money and oil
revenues under a law called the Occupying Powers Act. This is an
insidious scheme. U.S. corporations are paid by U.S. tax payers
to destroy Iraq and then paid by the Iraqi economy to rebuild Iraq.
The primary corporate beneficiaries
of this scheme are those directly connected to the current Bush administration
as well as the former Bush administration and the Reagan administration.
Halliburton and KBR
The Pentagon has paid nearly $90 million to a subsidiary of the well-connected
Halliburton Co. to cater to U.S. personnel occupying Iraq. Dick Cheney
was Halliburton's chief executive officer for five years until he resigned
in August 2000 to be George W. Bush's running mate.
The Defense Department gave Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown &
Root (KBR) exclusive rights to the "catering" job of "post-war
Iraq." This has included fixing up an extravagant presidential palace
being used by the Americans under a broad U.S. Army logistics contract
that pays the company a fee based on a percentage of everything it spends,
according to Pentagon documents and Halliburton’s corporate filings.
In addition, an April 10, 2003
government contract awarded the Halliburton Co. subsidiary to fight oil
well fires in Iraq is worth at least $7 billion over two years. The contract
also allows KBR to earn another 7 percent in profit, valued at $490 million.
In Baghdad, personnel from
KBR currently occupy both the Republican Palace and the Babel Tourist
Hotel, two renowned, opulent sites in Iraq. To provide janitorial and
garbage services to them, the newly formed, London-based Iraq Project
& Business Development Co. pulls labor from the desperate and starving
Iraqi population. Iraqis are carefully screened by the IPBDC, then hired
to mop floors and clean latrines, used by KBR personnel, for $2 a day.
Bechtel
On April 17 the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded
a $680 million contract to San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., a private
company with close ties to the Bush administration.
The areas covered by the contract
include the rehabilitation of Iraq’s power, water and sewage systems
that were destroyed in the bombing campaign, rehabilitation of airports,
and the dredging of the Umm Qasr port. Bechtel’s future work in the
country will also likely include repair and reconstruction of hospitals,
schools, government buildings and irrigation and transportation systems.
Bechtel stands to gain much
more than the initial contract. USAID officials have indicated that the
final price tag will run into the tens of billions of dollars. Much of
this work (which includes operations in nearly every important area of
the country’s infrastructure) will go to Bechtel and its subcontractors.
The ties between Bechtel and
the Bush regime run deep. George Shultz served as the president of Bechtel
for seven years, in between his posts as Nixon’s treasury secretary
and Reagan’s secretary of state. After leaving government, Shultz
again joined Bechtel, taking a seat on the company’s board of directors,
a post he still holds today. Shultz chairs the advisory board of the Committee
for the Liberation of Iraq, a right-wing outfit that was critical in manufacturing
a justification for the war.
Jack Sheehan, a Bechtel senior
vice president, is also a member of Rumsfeld's advisory board, the Defense
Policy Board (DPB). Other members of the Defense Policy Board have included
Richard Perle, a vociferous advocate of war in Iraq and the U.S.'s current
pre-emptive strike foreign policy. Perle was forced to resign as chairman
of the DPB when conflicts of interest charges relating to his connection
with telecommunications giant Global Crossing were made in May.
Sheehan is responsible for
Bechtel’s petroleum and chemical operations, and oversees the execution
and strategy for the company’s activities in the Middle East, Europe,
Africa and Southwest Asia. He is a retired U.S. army general who served
as commander-in-chief of U.S. Atlantic Command until 1997. He also served
as a special advisor for Central Asia in the Clinton administration.
Bechtel’s chairman and
CEO, Riley Bechtel, was appointed by Bush to the Export Council, which
advises the president on international trade issues. Caspar Weinberger
was Bechtel’s general counsel from 1975 to 1981, before joining the
Reagan administration as secretary of defense.
The Carlyle Group
Along with the overt economic benefits of Bechtel and private equity firms
are behind-the-scenes firms profiteering from the colonization of Iraq.
The Carlyle Group is one of them.
Private equity companies buy undervalued businesses and then resell them
for a profit. It is a highly profitable field open to only the wealthiest
players. It has returned an average profit of 34 percent per year over
the past decade.
The Carlyle Group became a
major force on the world financial scene by employing prominent ex-officeholders,
such as former President George Bush, to provide a foot in the door to
government ministries around the world. Along with Bush Sr., the Carlyle
Group has employed former Secretary of State James Baker, former Secretary
of Defense Frank Carlucci, and Former British Prime Minister John Major.
Even more intriguing is that the bin Laden family was an investor in Carlyle.
Carlyle also has direct links
to the Saudi royal family and has been directly involved in training Saudi
troops to protect oil fields. It also helped build Saudi Arabia's national
guard from 26,000 to over 70,000 troops. The link between Carlyle and
Saudi Arabia is so strong that some have called Carlyle a "front"
organization for the Saudi royal family.
Since the September 11 attacks,
the Carlyle Group has reaped millions of dollars from government contracts
on things such as cleaning up anthrax-infected buildings, including the
Hart Senate Office Building, making X-ray scanners, providing logistics
support to the U.S. military, making metal-bond structures in fighter
jets and missiles, and providing employee background checks for the government.
The General U.S. Economy
But, while "Corporate America" is the easy target, the collective
wealth of white people of all classes will also benefit. All of the weapons
used to destroy Iraq, and all the supplies used to rebuild Iraq are produced
by workers inside the U.S.
Cheap gasoline and oil prices,
which have plummeted since Bush's victory declaration, reach into all
sectors of the economy. This brings down the cost of energy and transportation
that are required to transfer all products and services throughout the
U.S. economy.
Besides cheap gas and a job
producing the materials for destroying and rebuilding Iraq, the military
itself provides a boost to the economy. It is a jobs program for
those unable to find meaningful work and education in the private sector.
The military recruitment program is particularly aggressive and vicious
against domestically colonized Africans and Indigenous/Raza people. Military
recruiters comb schools with colonized people preying on African and other
young people, who are confronted with leaving high school with virtually
no employment opportunities outside of the illegal drug economy and fast
food chains.
The military also provides
jobs for those in the private sector producing all the materials that
the military needs.
Recently, the resistance of
the Saudi Arabian people resulted in the destruction of a luxurious housing
compound thought by the foreign, i.e. non-Saudi, residents to be impenetrable.
The specific residents targeted were U.S. citizens employed by the Vinnell
Corporation. Vinnell is a subsidiary of the weapons of mass destruction
manufacturer Northrup-Grumman, and is partly owned by the Saudi government.
Vinnell trains the Saudi National Guard. It is a company of
private soldiers.
These U.S. citizen mercenaries
of the Vinnell Corporation receive their wages and salary tax free.
Vinnell is probably one of many corporations offering U.S. citizens employment
overseas in the context of colonial domination of other nations.
Clearly, all the benefits to
the U.S. economy identified so far are only short term. Ultimately,
all of these "benefits" will result in the degradation and destruction
of the lives, environment and well-being of the benefactors of U.S.-led
world capitalism. This is simply a of law dialectical materialism. As
Malcolm X said, "the chickens always come home to roost."
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