In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
How neo-con ideology endangered Iraq (and thus the united states)
I've read this before, but this little bit is all you need to know --even if you supported Bush's doctrine of preemption, even if you supported his invasion of Iraq-- that Bush is a complete failure when it comes to implementation. He depends on advice from short sighted tunnel visioned near sighted cross eyed neo con idiots.
Bremer arrived in Baghdad in May after the Pentagon fired General Jay Garner. According to Garner, the Pentagon objected to his plan to hold early elections before Iraq's economy had been privatized. Bremer's mandate was, above all, to privatize. In June, as Bremer returned to Baghdad aboard a U.S. military transport plane after speaking at an international economic conference, he discussed his plans for Iraq with Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran. According to Chandrasekaran, Bremer spoke of privatization "with such fervor that his voice cut through the din of the cargo hold." "We have to move forward quickly with this effort," he said.
Bremer's economic program wasn't confined to selling off state enterprises. Bremer saw privatization as part of the broader conservative economic agenda that Reagan had endorsed in the 1980s. It would include supply-side tax cuts and elimination of import duties. And he proceeded to get his way. In September 2003--against the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention that require occupying powers to respect existing laws--Bremer got the Iraqi Governing Council to issue an order privatizing state companies and abrogating Iraqi laws that prohibited private ownership of "national" resources and the "basic means of production." Later, he also got his way on taxes and import duties.
You might think that in the face of the continued insurgency, the absence of electrical power, and of elementary safety on city streets, Bremer would have seen these measures, in the words of the poet Blake, as "sand thrown up against the wind." But this month, as he was about to leave his post, Bremer told Chandrasekaran that "Iraq has been fundamentally changed for the better" by the occupation. He said that "among his biggest accomplishments ... were the lowering of Iraq's tax rate, the liberalization of foreign-investment laws and the reduction of import duties."
"Yes I know you lost your family in the war and that your village is in what seems to be a permanent state of anarchy and you don't have any power... but you do realize that foreign investment laws have never been this conducive to corporate wealth generation?!? I mean you are living in a wondrous time. You should me more grateful, I mean, heck, we've even lowered your taxes."
It wasn't about a free society; it was about freedom to increase the wealth of the wealthy. It isn't about Free Enterprise either, Bush isn't for that. The industries he promotes and safe guards depend on and are protected by the teat of government. Bush is a crony-ist, not a capitalist.
- rob 5:46 PM - [PermaLink] -
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