"Corporations have taken over the government and turned it against its own people." Ralph Nader
'Direct investment' has been redefined and it is this direct directive by corporates that has forced Western political leaders to advocate military interventions of the immoral and unethical nature we see unfolding before us. All these compilations of war crimes, abuses etc are nothing but a sham to give a touch of 'we did justice' to the injustice taking place. The fact is military interventions are happening primarily for the economic interests of not the country invading by the corporate lobbyists who are waiting to land and plunder invaded nations. It is not foreign invasion it is corporate invasion that is taking place and national leaders/governments are getting eliminated for standing in the way of that quest.
Iraq was a neoliberal invasion - so too have been all the countries that have fallen before and after Iraq. If it is not oil, it is some other 'monetary' interest that leads to the declaration of 'war' without any provocation. What happens thereafter is removal of restrictions to foreign ownership and trade, contracts given to foreign corporations to develop this that and the other. The smokescreens are 'production sharing agreements' where governments own the oil but the development of the oil field, the pumping, refining, shipping are all done by the foreign companies. It is simply draining out everything that should belong to the country and its people.
American corporates NOT America or its people have secured the world's second largest oil reserves which belonged to Iraq! This was why Bush immediately announced after the invasion of a Middle East Free Trade Area to spread the economic invasion to the rest of the region by 2013. That has happened through the Arab Springs! When Bush said he would 'counter terror with trade' it was a giveaway. The war plan was prepared by US consultancy firm Bearing Point Inc - which received $250millon contract to make Iraq's economic infrastructure!
The plan was to fire entire Iraqi military (500,000), so that many of these jobless would take to guns and start an insurgency, which happened according to plan. 120,000 of Iraq's senior bureaucrats were fired throughout government, schools and even hospitals, new laws reduced taxes on all corporations by 25% to open up for foreign investment and these firms were allowed to own 100% of Iraqi businesses as opposed to partnership framework, corporates could send their entire profits home without investing a cent in Iraq. More than 150 US companies won contracts in Iraq worth over $50billion. There was no law to state foreign companies had to hire Iraqis - so these firms imported foreign workers! What resulted were the Iraqis turning against the new invaders who came in as 'liberators'. Whats more new laws entitled foreigners to buy land in Iraq that are now exclusive holiday homes for foreigners - is it difficult to picture what Iraq would look like in time to come?
Comment: Dieudonné's lawyer: "It's a victory for Dieudonné, he will perform tonight - January 9th 2014 - in Nantes."