Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/309/12615
From The Socialist newspaper, 19 July 2003
Iraq Watch:
Debts and democracy
IRAQ'S POVERTY-wracked people face being "lumbered with billions of dollars of debt" under US plans to mortgage future Iraqi oil supplies, claim campaigners for debt relief.
Much of Iraq's enormous oil revenue will be used as security for billions of dollars of loans, under proposals from Wall Street bankers and such contractors as Bechtel and Halliburton.
Both these firms have links with the Republicans - Bush's vice-president Cheney was formerly chief executive of Halliburton while big Republican benefactor Bechtel made money from Iraq under Saddam by building a £1 billion complex for the Ministry of Industry and intends to carry on under 'democracy' too!
So getting post-war 'reconstruction' will depend on gambling with Iraqi oil, then using these 'debts' to keep US control of Iraq while hoisting up share prices for American banks and construction firms.
Plans like these confirm what the socialist said about the war in Iraq: that US imperialism has been conducting it to increase its national power and its companies' profits.
Rogues' report
TONY BLAIR used the ridiculously misnamed conference on "progressive governance" to defend his role in the Iraq war.
He prepared a document for it seeking new powers for global intervention against 'rogue states' in cases "where a population is suffering serious harm as a result of internal war, insurgency, repre-ssion or state failure and the state is unwilling or unable to halt it or avert it."
Blair is threatening to send imperialist troops - mainly from the US with British back-up - into states which are in revolt, are suffering from civil war etc.
And who are the rogue states in the world at present? Many people worldwide would put Bush's USA at number one in this chart.
As the truth comes out about Bush and Blair's real 'solution' in Iraq, is Blair preparing for more possible worldwide adventures in support of the rogue in Washington?
Why not click here to join the Socialist Party, or click here to donate to the Socialist Party.
In The Socialist 19 July 2003:
Devon Bus Workers Fight Low Pay
Right Wing Booed Out Of PCS Leadership
Whipps Cross hospital workers: "Where we fight, we win"
Asylum Seekers Fear Repression
Kirklees Nursery nurses: United Action Gave Us Confidence
Fight For Trade Union Rights In Colombia
Socialist Party features
Weapons of mass destruction: A Web Of Lies From Day One
Gay Rights Aren't Only For Bishops
Genetic engineering: Science And Big Business
International socialist news and analysis
Kazakhstan: Foundry workers fight for nationalisation of factory
Africa in Crisis: Development reversed by Capitalism
"Stop The Reform Or We Will Stop The Country"
Home | The Socialist 19 July 2003 | Join the Socialist Party
Join us today!
Printable version
email to friend
