[Iraqi] Business Becomes a Big Casualty--Dahr Jamail

Tweet "Juhasz said the new laws, which were a part of the 100 'Bremer Orders'
instituted by former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer when he headed the
Coalition Provisional Authority during the first year of the occupation,
provided a flood of benefits for U.S. companies.

"These included "100 percent repatriation of profits earned in Iraq by
foreign companies; 100 percent foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses,
including banks; privatisation of Iraq's state owned enterprises; 100
percent immunity for U.S. contractors and soldiers from Iraq's laws; and
'national treatment' which allowed for Iraqis to be all but excluded
from the reconstruction for years while the U.S. government paid 50
billion dollars to some 150 U.S. corporations for work in Iraq."

The article ends this way:

"The picture of Japan after World War II dominated the minds of
businessmen in Iraq after occupation," he said. "Most of us thought the
American invasion of Iraq was bad for many things, but it must be good
for business in general and industry in particular. We were terribly
wrong. The Iraqi economy was meant to be destroyed for political reasons."