U.S. Plan to Privatize Iraqi Industry May Signal New 'Bomb Before You Buy' Doctrine

Interview with Naomi Klein, author and columnist, conducted by Scott Harris

The military occupation of Iraq has not gone according the plan made in Washington long before the war was launched against Saddam Hussein's government. Since President Bush declared major hostilities over in Iraq on May 1, more than 30 U.S. and British troops have been killed in an intensifying series of guerrilla attacks. With an average 13 engagements each day between U.S. soldiers and armed Iraqis hostile to the occupation, American military leaders are still reluctant to characterize the resistance as an organized effort. Instead, Pentagon and Bush administration officials maintain that groups attacking U.S. forces are remnants of Saddam's Baathist party or terrorists sympathetic to al Qaeda.

Fueling hostility toward the U.S. in Iraq are the increasing number of civilians being shot by jittery and exhausted American soldiers, the delay in establishing an Iraqi transition government and the spotty restoration of electrical and water services. Recent statements made by L. Paul Bremer III, President Bush's administrator in Iraq, that the U.S. will work to privatize Baghdad's state-owned industries has further antagonized many Iraqis.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with author and columnist Naomi Klein, who discusses her view that the Bush administration's economic plan for Iraq is but one element of a broader strategy to expand the power and wealth of U.S. based multinational corporations across the globe.

Naomi Klein is author of "Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the front Lines of the Globalization Debate" published by Flamingo. Visit her website at www.nologo.org.

Related links

"Downsizing In Disguise," by Naomi Klein, The Nation, June 23, 2003
"Iraq: Arabs Challenge U.S. Plan to Open Nation to Multinationals," by Emad Mekay, Interpress service, June 23, 2003
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