I went to go see Laura Nader speak last night and am back in the Nader camp. She, being a world renowned anthropologist in her own right, only briefly touched on the pink elephant of her brother and the upcoming election. Of course I would vote for Kerry if I was in a swing state but in the end it does seem that all he does is put a smiley face on all of the things Bush is doing obviously. Kerry would also have a far better domestic agenda and stop, or slow, the funneling of money from the lower and middle classes upwards. But the international economic, political, and military practices of the US would continue with less international condemnation and attention than they would under Bush. Dr. Nader brought up the fact that over a million people died from the depleted uranium left over by Clinton’s bombing in Iraq, mostly children. Bush has yet to kill a million Iraqis, it’s just that he gets more attention and is a horrible diplomat.
Dr. Nader also talked about use of US economic and political restructuring as a modern form of plunder. The difference between Genghis Kahn and Bush is that Kahn didn’t feel like he had to justify anything, Bush uses law for that. But pretty much the gist is that we go in, and set up a system where all the wealth and resources of a country get funneled into the hands of a powerful few and out of the country into multinational corporations. It’s all perfectly “justified” under law, but that law exists to make people money.
Order 39 of Paul Bremer’s recent edicts (Hello colonialism) exists to encourage foreign investment, sets up a free market economy, privatizes many state run industries like parks and financial institutions, and then declares multinationals can remove 100% of their profits from the country until 2005, when his edicts *might* be able to be changed. That means no one, especially not Halliburton, has to pay taxes to the Iraqi people. Also, Order 17 grants immunity from Iraqi law to all members of the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq, as well as to foreign contractors and diplomats. Order 57 establishes independent inspectors general in every Iraqi ministry who are authorized to conduct investigations, audits, evaluations, and other reviews. The Bremer-appointed inspectors serve five-year terms. He also made a committee to over see elections and can remove candidates they are not fond of.
A full list of Bremer’s edicts can be found here.
And an article from the Washington Post is here.
This is a great article by Naomi Klien from last year on the subject.
And here is a great article from the International Movement for a Just World (whoever they are).
“By a stroke of a pen, the American Governor of Occupied Iraq had transformed an economy which under the earlier Baathist Constitution had barred the privatization of vital State enterprises and prohibited foreigners from owning Iraqi firms, into an ultra capitalist economy which to all intents and purposes is designed to serve as an appendage of neo-liberal American capitalism. Though Order 39 is a violation of the Hague Regulations of 1907 and of international law, Washington has pushed ahead with the economic occupation of Iraq since that was one of the primary purposes behind the March 2003 invasion.”
Dr. Nader ended by saying that our country is very much in trouble and we are. She even appealed to Canada to help, which seemed horribly useless, but shows how grim the situation is. We have torture camps people! This is us, OUR country, WE are allowing our government to hold and torture prisoners outside of US borders and, therefore, the Geneva Convention. WE are planning to use MICROWAVE guns to nuke the skin of Iraqis as of next year (see below). I’m fucking telling you people, this system is getting out of control and right now it’s ravishing the world, but it’s only a few more years till the American people get restructured as well.
One very hopeful thing she had to say was that the NeoCons are really just a handful of very motivated and powerful people. Which is true. And it should give us hope that if we can become very motivated and powerful, we can change things too.
So now all of the above seems like an argument against Ralph and for Kerry. But I don’t think any of you are in swing states so really, there is no reason to vote for Kerry if you don’t want to. And please don’t think I am making the oversimplified argument of “they are both the same.” Kerry would do wonders for our international reputation and possibly keep our oh-so-fragile international law and human rights from falling to pieces. But things need to change fundamentally rather than just putting a nice face on it. The Republicans are nice and obvious with their pulling rights out of libraries and phony terror warnings on drugs from Canada (2 days after banning them for Medicare patients!). Kerry is not the man to change things. Ralph is sort of crazy and has no chance ever but at least he’s fighting the fight.
OK. END RANT.
Posted by bluprnt at September 24, 2004 05:58 PM personally. I feel lucky to be. Canadian AND on the
spam list of this and rightious and hot woman.