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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 9/3/11

Carving up the Libya Corpse for Profit

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Carving up the Libya Corpse for Profit - by Stephen Lendman

Libya is Western states latest profit center.

On September 1, dozens of predator states met in Paris to pick apart Libya's bones even though it's breathing, if barely.

We've seen it before, notably in Iraq under Paul Bremer's 100 orders that turned the country into a cutthroat capitalist laboratory. Baghdad was open for business at fire sale prices with US and other Western firms having first dibs on everything.

The "cradle of civilization" became Iraq, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate predators. The Iraq that was no longer exists.

A wish list of economic laws followed. Corporate taxes dropped from 45% to a flat 15%. Foreign companies got to own 100% of Iraqi assets and be able to repatriate all profits back home. Import restrictions ended, and investors could sign 40-year deals and leases so no future governments could change them.

Destruction, invasion, occupation, and reconstruction made Iraq a bold new experiment, transforming a once independent country into a fully privatized new market with a huge pot of public money helping at the expense of Iraqis left out entirely.

It was pure pillage, a classic example of war spoils to victors, taking full advantage of their new prize, backed by hardline enforcement to crush resistance.

As a result, mass arrests, aggressive interrogations, torture, other mistreatment, and death squads traumatized and cowed a shattered people. Iraq was erased and rebooted. For investors, a corporate utopia followed. For Iraqis, however, it's been a hellish dystopia.

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