Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
 RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Why the ?1 in 73 Muslims in Rotherham? Statistic Is Misleading Thu Jan 16, 2025 11:00 | Noah Carl
One figure that has been repeatedly cited in the grooming gangs debate is that 1 in 73 Muslim men in the town of Rotherham has been prosecuted for grooming gang offences. However, this figure is slightly misleading.
The post Why the ?1 in 73 Muslims in Rotherham? Statistic Is Misleading appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Heat Pumps May Never be Cheaper than Gas Boilers, Miliband Admits Thu Jan 16, 2025 09:00 | Will Jones
Heat pumps may never be cheaper than gas boilers, Ed Miliband has admitted as Labour sneaks a new boiler tax through Parliament that will push up prices.
The post Heat Pumps May Never be Cheaper than Gas Boilers, Miliband Admits appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Net Zero vs AI: Starmer Hasn?t Worked Out That The U.K. Can?t Be a ?Superpower? in Both Climate and ... Thu Jan 16, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile
Keir Starmer wants Britain to be both an "AI superpower" and a "clean energy superpower". He can't have it both ways, says Ben Pile. AI is hugely energy intensive and inconsistent with the path Net Zero is leading us down.
The post Net Zero vs AI: Starmer Hasn’t Worked Out That The U.K. Can’t Be a ‘Superpower’ in Both Climate and Computing appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Thu Jan 16, 2025 00:50 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Labour U-Turns Over University Free Speech as it Brings Back Tory Law ? But Removes its ?Teeth? Wed Jan 15, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
Labour has U-turned over university free speech as it brings back a Tory law clamping down on 'woke' cancel culture ? but removes its "teeth" by dropping the ability of academics to sue their institutions.
The post Labour U-Turns Over University Free Speech as it Brings Back Tory Law ? But Removes its “Teeth” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Trump and Musk, Canada, Panama and Greenland, an old story, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jan 14, 2025 07:03 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?114-115 Fri Jan 10, 2025 14:04 | en
End of Russian gas transit via Ukraine to the EU Fri Jan 10, 2025 13:45 | en
After Iraq, Libya, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, the Pentagon attacks Yemen, by Thier... Tue Jan 07, 2025 06:58 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en Voltaire Network >>
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Baghdad Year Zero, By Naomi Klein
 international |
anti-war / imperialism |
other press
 Friday September 24, 2004 13:52 by redjade
Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia
Baghdad Year Zero
By Naomi Klein
Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia The honey theory of Iraqi reconstruction stems from the most cherished belief of the war’s ideological architects: that greed is good. Not good just for them and their friends but good for humanity, and certainly good for Iraqis. Greed creates profit, which creates growth, which creates jobs and products and services and everything else anyone could possibly need or want.
[....]
Iraq was going to change all that. In one place on Earth, the theory would finally be put into practice in its most perfect and uncompromised form. A country of 25 million would not be rebuilt as it was before the war; it would be erased, disappeared. In its place would spring forth a gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics, a utopia such as the world had never seen. Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders, minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions. The people of Iraq would, of course, have to endure some short-term pain: assets, previously owned by the state, would have to be given up to create new opportunities for growth and investment. Jobs would have to be lost and, as foreign products flooded across the border, local businesses and family farms would, unfortunately, be unable to compete. But to the authors of this plan, these would be small prices to pay for the economic boom that would surely explode once the proper conditions were in place, a boom so powerful the country would practically rebuild itself.
The fact that the boom never came and Iraq continues to tremble under explosions of a very different sort should never be blamed on the absence of a plan. Rather, the blame rests with the plan itself, and the extraordinarily violent ideology upon which it is based.
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