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Cutting through the machinations and
effects of the U.S. empire
The following op-ed was featured in the
Bangor Daily News on November 8, 2003
UMaine and war profiteering
Why should Maine citizens be concerned
about the University of Maine 's sponsorship of a conference on
"Doing Business in Iraq"? The Bangor Daily News (Nov.
1–2) quoted the founder of the U.S.-Iraq Business
Alliance, Dennis Sokol, who sees only profit-making
opportunities in Iraq. "When there are diamonds and gold
out in the streets, you don't wait a couple of years to pick it
up."
But many of us ask who will pay the price
for these corporate profit gems. Our troops and Iraqi civilians
who are dying so that the wealthy elite can make a financial
killing in Iraq? Mainers and other Americans who see billions
of their tax dollars poured into private contracts for
rebuilding Iraq? Iraqis who have suffered under Saddam,
sanctions, and war and now offer a great opportunity for the
war-profiteering "gold rush" by multinational
corporations?
Should the University of Maine be a
willing partner and benefit from the war profiteering of
corporations who will pay $850 to attend the conference to hear
about "investment opportunities, the privatization of the
country's rich oil fields, security needs and priority
development such as communications and health care"? The
BDN also reported that the university has paid $1,500 to become
one of the forty members of the alliance, along with for-profit
corporations paying from $5,000 to $25,000 to join.
On Sept. 19, Paul Bremer's
U.S.-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority issued Order 39
by decree. These new "laws," promoted by the
Alliance, allow foreign investors to own 100 percent of any
Iraqi asset except oil and real estate and to remit profits and
royalties when they choose. They reduce import tariffs to 5
percent, allow foreign banks to take over Iraq's banking
system, and, according to U.S.-appointed finance minister,
Kamel al-Gailani, offer Iraq as "one of the most open
countries in the world" for the huge corporations
attending the UMaine conference.
According to Geov Parrish of Working for
Change, foreign firms will be able to bid on l92 of Iraq's
public-sector companies. "The plan allows for more access
to the Iraq economy than almost any other developing nation -
with lower taxes, no limit on the amount of money that may be
taken out of the country, no requirements that Iraqis be hired
or otherwise benefit from the successful bidders'
operations." According to Rania Masri of the Institute of
Southern Studies, "A handful of Bush-connected
corporations are poised to make billions in profit while U.S.
troops are killed almost daily and Iraq plunges deeper into a
colonial nightmare."
If the U.S.-Iraq Business Alliance
respects Iraq's right to seek "to have a free, fair and
open democratic society that will make its own decisions,"
as the executive director of the Alliance claims, how can he
also predetermine for the Iraqi people that "It's the
American private sector that will restore Iraq's
greatness" (as quoted in the BDN). Furthermore, the
alliance was formed in June 2002, eight months prior to the
time President Bush announced he had finally decided to invade
Iraq. Clearly, the profit motive was in play long before the
president promoted his questionable case for attacking. Can an
invasion and subsequent economic transformation on these terms
lead to democracy for the Iraqis? We think not.
This past October the U.S.-Iraq Alliance
sponsored a conference in London similar to one being sponsored
by the University of Maine. It was attended by about 100
private companies, mainly from Britain and the United States,
to discuss investment opportunities in post-Saddam Iraq.
Corporate delegates were greeted by protestors from Voices UK,
a group opposed to the war in Iraq. A spokesperson for the
protestors said: "After 13 years of war and economic
sanctions Iraqis need a reconstruction process that they
control and which is centered on their needs. What we are
seeing is war profiteering on a grand scale and cronyism. Not
only are there concerns about how much ordinary Iraqis will
benefit, but it is actually delaying the reconstruction of the
country with potentially catastrophic consequences. It is
outrageous that the United States and Britain, having illegally
invaded and occupied Iraq, are now forcing their free market
ideology on the country whilst selling its assets off in what
can only be described as a fire-sale."
A recent study by the Center for Public
Integrity found that the 10 largest contracts granted without
competitive bidding in Iraq were major campaign donors to
President Bush. The top contractor was Halliburton, the company
headed by Vice President Cheney before he resigned to run with
Bush in 2000. The second largest contractor was Bechtel, with
former Secretary of State George Shultz on its board of
directors. The keynote speaker for the "Doing Business in
Iraq" conference will be Caspar Weinberger who was
Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan and formerly
vice president and general counsel of the Bechtel Group Cos.
The University of Maine may sponsor this
conference under the guise of academic freedom, but we question
its priorities and academic integrity. We question the
university's complicity with the business of the exploitation
of the Iraqi people by multinational corporations so closely
entwined with the Bush administration and without the necessary
structures in place for Iraqis to decide their own future
democratically.j
This commentary was written by Douglas
Allen, a University of Maine philosophy professor, Ilze
Petersons and Eric T. Olson, a UMaine alumnus. All three are
members of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine.
More than 100 people have additionally signed this commentary
in support.
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