|
CounterPunch
October
8, 2002
Iraq: It's About
Globalization, Stupid
by
JOSH FRANK
Corporate malfeasance and take-overs aren't going
to be the topics of debate in this fall's election, in fact they
probably won't even be brought up. The war in Iraq on the other
hand will be a top contender, and as usual the debate will be
archaic and flat, with a dash of gun rights and abortion snaps.
The general public will go on their daily lives and not notice
that the war against Saddam is a war for the US economy, and
the price will be paid with the blood of soldiers and innocents
alike. This same blood could be compared to the sweat and tears
millions of people throughout the world have shed as a result
of our corporation's never-ending grasp for cash, and this war
is no different.
The mainstream debate about Globalization
has so many facets and layers that the critics (myself included)
have a tough time keeping up with them. This debate has been
so greatly muted that the connections between war and global
governance have not be dissected accurately.
We have to realize that the outcome of
the proposed " Iraq regime change" is not for humanitarian
reasons, and not about terrorism; but about placing a friendly
government in Iraq that will allow our corporations to start
moving their oil tankers. In the last years of Clinton's presidency
Dick Cheney was lobbying on behalf of Halliburton to get the
administration to press the UN to drop sanctions against Iraq.
I find it hard to believe that only 3 or 4 years later, Dick
and company don't have any corporate interests in Iraq. Has Karl
Rove so brainwashed us that we are unable to see past the "weapons
of mass destruction?" Are our foreign policies not weapons
of mass destruction in their own right?
Global dominance fashions itself in many
ways; from trade agreement to loans, to war and government control.
The war against Iraq is just one more puzzle piece in a collage
of corporate take over that has plagued the earth for decades.
We must oppose this war with as much vigor and pride as we have
opposed the IMF and WTO cabals. Lies and deceit have flooded
the public discourse, so those that know the truth have a responsibility
to speak up. For if we don't, we are as much to blame as the
Democrats and Republicans, who are worried more about their re-elections,
then the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be lost as
a result this conflict. We cannot afford to sit silent any longer.
Josh Frank
is a 24-year-old writer and activist living in Portland, Oregon.
He can be reached at: frank_joshua@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
Features
Bruce Jackson
Queen
Dershowitz
Ted Steinberg
This
One Will Kill You:
A Participant's Guide to the Death Penalty
John Stanton
When the Bullet Meets the Bone: Ari Fleischer's Single Bullet
Theory
Harry Browne
Ireland
Kicks at the Foundation of the New Europe
Dave Marsh
Talking Blues
Edward Said
Arafat the Hunted
Benjamin Shepard
Class War in the West Village
Gloria Bergen
Smash Capitalism! Stuff the Monarchy!
Philip Farruggio
Dear Junior
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned
Citizen:
a Serialized Novel
Vest, O'McCarthy, Dailey
Poets' Basement
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- How to Change the Subject: Corporate Scandal and Pension
Reform as Weapons Against Warmongering;
- Padilla's Predecessor: Court Ruling Cites 1904 War
Against Mining Union;
- Adios Hitchens: the Dorian Gray of Our Time;
- Object of Suspicion: How the FBI Watched Janis Ian
From Birth;
- First Carter, Then Clinton,
Now Sen. John Edwards:
Another "New South" Slimeball;
- Corporate Crooks: Nature or Nurture?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 4,
2002
Ahmad Faruqui
The Anvil
of War and the Ailing American Economy
Norman Madarasz
The
Truth and Violence
of a Symbolic Act
William Hughes
Political
Show Trial for
Marwan Barghouti
Ron Jacobs
The Struggle
Against
Another Oil War
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Bush War
Plan:
Blind and Improvident
Michael Schwalbe
The
Costs of American Privilege
Ralph Nader
Holding
Politicians' Feet to the Fire on Corporate Crime
Robert Buzzanco
Pacifica
Caves in to Zionist Smear Campaign
October 3,
2002
Gary Leupp
Talking
to Your Kids About Fascism
Will Youmans
The New
Anti-Apartheid Movement: The Campaign to Divest from Israel
Deb Reich
Report from a Mad World
Todd Chretien & Sue Sandlin
"It's All About Power on the
Docks"
Kurt Nimmo
Poetry
as Treason
Amiri Baraka
Somebody
Blew Up America
Alexander
Cockburn
October Surprises
October 2,
2002
Carol Wolman,
MD
Is the
President Nuts?
Diagnosing Dubya
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
Rotten in Klamath
Linda S. Heard
Might Sharon
Nuke Iraq?
Joanne Mariner
When
the Judge Says:
"I Botched It"
Peter P. Mahoney
A Vietnam
Vet Makes the
Case Against War on Iraq
Mark Engler
From the
Quarantine
Agaisnt Greed
Uri Avnery
Manufacturing
Anti-Semites
Jennifer Berkshire
Converging Against Capitalism
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|