Michael Schwartz writes in The TomDispatch that the…

“…rather comfortable portrait of the US as a bumbling, even thoroughly incompetent giant overwhelmed by unexpected forces tearing Iraqi society apart is strikingly inaccurate: Most of the death, destruction, and disorganization in the country has, at least in its origins, been a direct consequence of US efforts to forcibly institute an economic and social revolution, while using overwhelming force to suppress resistance to this project.”

This has all been reported on at some detail by folks like Naomi Klein with her excellent 2004 report “Baghdad Year Zero” and reports from the likes of Greg Palast on the corporate war profiteering going on in Iraq. This whole endeavor was a scam from the get go. It wasn’t about ‘freedom’ and ‘liberating’ Iraq. It was about instituting neo-liberal corporate economic policies from the ground up. A corporatist’s dream come true. Made possible by using the U.S. Marines as their own private Pinkerton enforcers. Some things never change, as Gen. Smedley Butler can tell you, way back in 1933 with his seminal work “War Is A Racket”.

Another part of what is really interesting about this report are the references to the ongoing intensity of action in Iraq, particularly the airstrikes. Totally under if not completely un-reported.

And then there is this…

A telling indicator of the condition of the Iraqi infrastructure and its immediate prospects can be found in descriptions of the elaborate embassy, referred to as “George W’s palace” by Baghdad residents, that the U.S. is now constructing inside the capital’s fortified Green Zone. According to the London Times, the $592 million structure will be “the biggest embassy on earth,” and will feature “impressive residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for evening functions.”

Outpost of the empire. Your tax dollars at work.

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