Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Iraq reconstruction

Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine), page 381, on Iraq "reconstruction":

"So while the reconstruction of Iraw was certainly a failure for Iraqis and for US taxpayers, it has been anything but for the disaster capitalism complex. Made possible by the September 11 attacks, the war in Iraq represented nothing less than the violent birth of a new economy. This was the genius of Rumsfeld's "transformation" plan: since every possible aspect of both destruction and reconstruction has been outsourced and privatized, there is an economic boom when the bombs start falling, when they stop and when they start up again -- a closed profit-loop of destruction and reconstruction, of tearing down and building up. For companies that are clever and farsighted, like Halliburton and the Carlyle Group, the destroyers and rebuilders are different divisions of the same corporations."

in the midst of the crisis, i wonder: was the war the birth of a new economy, or more hopefully, the apex of a corrupt, horrific stage, a stage now collapsing under its own fetid weight?

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