Profits in Blood
By Eugene Byrne

Now that the war is virtually over the focus of attention is on a post-war settlement, which needless to say, will be one which benefits America. Whether that is with UN backing remains to be seen. The companies tasked to reconstruct Iraq now that the allied forces have stopped bombing it to bits won’t have seen the dead bodies on the streets. Neither will they have any affinity with the dehumanised soldiers who were willing to kill or be killed because of misplaced patriotism aroused by cynical politicians with other agendas.

The obvious winners are the suppliers of military equipment and weapons, for which the US government will pay at least tens of billions of dollars. Members of the Bush administration and assorted hangers -on have plenty of connections to this sector such as, former general Jay Garner, the man with the responsibility for establishing a new Iraqi government fresh from his job as chairman of a munitions supplier. The buildings and homes wrecked by these weapons will take billions to replace and the involvement of companies closely connected to the Bush administration has been noted widely. The withdrawal of Dick Cheney’s old company Haliburton from the tender for one of the most lucrative contracts has done little to remove suspicions that the war will benefit corporate friends of sections of the Republican Party.

The product which will generate most profit is undoubtedly oil and the extraction of this. One of the hypocritical contentions of the warmongers is the guarantee that the revenues from Iraqi oil will be put to the benefit of the Iraqi people. But of course that is after the multinationals Shell B.P, Exxon mobile etc. move in to provide the expertise that the Iraqis lack to exploit their reserves to the full. They are expected to demand what are called production sharing agreements, controversial contracts that will give them ownership stakes in the oilfields and guaranteed relief from national tax and environmental laws. This will be justified on the basis that they are the only ones who can afford to restore Iraqi oil production to 6m barrels per day and to develop the vast untapped oil-fields estimated at 220 billion barrels.

Politically who controls Iraq now the war is finally over is important, but financially the oil companies will control the main assets and the liabilities will be largely borne by the US who despite prosecuting the war without U.N. sanctions will have no problem looking for international support.

The payback to the Bush administration will probably be massive campaign donations when Bush looks for re-election next year. In addition, whatever money the Iraqis get for their oil will then be demanded as payment for the reconstruction of the country. This money trail will land back in one form or another with the republican party with very little of it reaching areas like the former coalmining states like Kentucky, ravaged by unemployment. States, which supplied soldiers, to fight in foreign countries and give their blood because the army was the only career available to them.

None of this should be surprising as big businesses are there to make money in whatever way they can and at others’ expense if at all possible, it doesn’t have a social conscience. This was exemplified last year when property owners wanted to restore the 13.4 million square feet of lost office space, as opposed to a memorial to the dead at the world trade centre.

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