DUke --- I am ambivalent about the statements you have made. On the one hand I cannot dispute what you said about the remaking of Iraq in America's image. In fact, I agree completely with the majority of what you are saying. It is just another way of extending the US cultural hegemony further, and obviously to have nice friendly countries that buy buy buy.
However, the war is ENTIRELY about the oil. That is the reason that the USA has been meddling in the Mideast since god knows when. Do you think, for example, that Israel would receive such support from the States if it were situated in any other place? No, it is the curse of Iraq that it has so much to steal.
I mean, just look at the system that we have: the Americans are in martial control of Iraq. The "Council" that is "running" Iraq is a band of American appointed puppets. The companies that have reconstruction contracts are American. Obviously they are not going to repair the US - caused war damage for free. So, Bechtel etc. charge what they want, the Council rubber stamps it, and since Iraq obviously has no money, they'll take it in oil, thanks a lot. Naturally, it will not be at the standard international price for oil, since the Iraqis, nobly represented by the Council, can charge what they - I mean, their American masters - want. So the oil will be "sold" for a pittance, obviously. Believe me when I say the Iraqi debt will be astronomical.
Naturally the Council and someone in Washington will get handsome "contributions" for their efforts at facilitating the whole transaction. Meanwhile the Iraqis must bend over and take it.
DUke, and anyone else who cares, go take a look at
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com and
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com to get a view from the ground as to just how the occupation is going. They are 2 Iraqi women who happen to keep blogs on the web. But let me paste an excerpt from Riverbend's blog, to demonstrate what I am saying :
Riverbend :
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Listen to this little anecdote. One of my cousins works in a prominent engineering company in Baghdad- we’ll call the company H. This company is well-known for designing and building bridges all over Iraq. My cousin, a structural engineer, is a bridge freak. He spends hours talking about pillars and trusses and steel structures to anyone who’ll listen.
As May was drawing to a close, his manager told him that someone from the CPA wanted the company to estimate the building costs of replacing the New Diyala Bridge on the South East end of Baghdad. He got his team together, they went out and assessed the damage, decided it wasn’t too extensive, but it would be costly. They did the necessary tests and analyses (mumblings about soil composition and water depth, expansion joints and girders) and came up with a number they tentatively put forward- $300,000. This included new plans and designs, raw materials (quite cheap in Iraq), labor, contractors, travel expenses, etc.
Let’s pretend my cousin is a dolt. Let’s pretend he hasn’t been working with bridges for over 17 years. Let’s pretend he didn’t work on replacing at least 20 of the 133 bridges damaged during the first Gulf War. Let’s pretend he’s wrong and the cost of rebuilding this bridge is four times the number they estimated- let’s pretend it will actually cost $1,200,000. Let’s just use our imagination.
A week later, the New Diyala Bridge contract was given to an American company. This particular company estimated the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be around- brace yourselves- $50,000,000 !!
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The fact is, as long as cheap oil keeps flowing, the country from whence it came can go to the Dark Ages, for all the USA cares. Look at how Iran was manipulated. There is an excellent article on this subject (that makes me want to vomit) on an old edition of Time magazine, entitled "The Oily Americans". I can post the exact edition if anyone wants me to. No wonder the US is the "Great Satan" in those parts.
Saddam's big mistake was NOT HAVING his WMD. If you have the Nuke, people leave you alone. Full Stop. Until then, the guerilla war that is now occurring is the only way forward....
-- Astranbrulth --