To Laugh or be Outraged
When I first viewed this video I could not decide if it was a spoof worthy of the Daily Show or a truly outrageous coporate presentation on an economic proposal for a casino to be built in Baghdad's Green Zone.
I would entitle in "Salvation by Casino". It is not only insensitive to the cultural values of the country (ie. gambling in forbidden in Sharia Law) but also full of clique capitalist notions, ie, what is good for high rollers is good for the poor.). Well I leave it to you to listen and judge for yourself. I encourage you to view it.
If this video , broadcast last February on Iraqi TV, it not a spoof it is revealing how some have come to see Iraq as an American colony to be exploited by all kinds of get rich quick schemes.
This contains a vision of Baghdad as a future Havana, before Castro tossed the crooks and gamblers out.
It has become evident that the United States has no intention of leaving Iraq any time soon. The Bush administration is working very hard to guarantee large Western Oil Companies full access to Iraqi oil under free market conditions. (Most countires have nationalized their oil. Iraq is the last great chance for free market exploitation .) Iraq will lose it's sovereignty over it oil.
The second Bush administration "spoil of war" is to get the Iraqi's to agree to a mutual security pact . status of forces agreement, that would see 58 permanent US military bases established in Iraq from which Americans would be exempt from Iraqi law and the US military could arrest Iraqi citizens and operate militarially without Iraq's permission. Iraq is seen as the platform for the US to continue it military interference in the Arab, Persian and Central Asian world. The reason of course is OIL. http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid=12985
Only the Iraqis can stop this loss of their sovereignty. A very large majority want the US to just leave. Even the vassel government has grave doubts. But, of course, democracy does not win the day in the military or the corporate boardroom.
The Iraqi capitalist oil law and the mutual security agreement will be passed onto the next administration as a done deal, a Bush commitment beyond his presidency.
Mark my word, Barack Obama, who has promised to get the US out of Iraq will come to say this means something other than literally getting out of Iraq. He will reduce the number of troops but leave significant troops behind in US bases in Iraq to "help" the Iraqis. This is what he meant all along. How cynical !
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