The Curmudgeon

YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Its Own Reward

Though I bestow all the poor's goods, and though I give the bodies of a hundred thousand and more to be burned, if it profiteth me nothing I am become as a non-functioning landmine or a dud DU shell. Why, then, do the profits of British business interests in Iraq still lag behind those of their American counterparts, despite specialising in two high-growth fields - "private security" and "advising on the creation of state institutions" for government by business?

A report by Corporate Watch and the Independent newspaper identifies sixty-one British companies including private security services for the pacification of the antifreedomites; banks for the feeding and clothing of the poor and deprived; PR consultancies so that Iraqis can be cogently and comprehensively informed of how much better off they are; urban planning consortiums to rebuild the homes of the bombed and napalmed now that the occupying authorities have decided not to bother; and, of course, oil companies and energy advisory bodies because the war was Not About Oil.

According to Corporate Watch's estimate, twenty to thirty thousand "security personnel" are working as non-mercenaries in Iraq, half of them "employed by companies run by retired senior British officers and at least two former defence ministers". How nice to know that past defenders of our realm are being saved from a pauper's grave. As one would expect in a newly independent, sovereign Iraqi state, Britons are also involved in "restructuring Iraqi ministries" and have "advised on the 2004 elections and a campaign to promote reconstruction" in case Iraqis are unaware of the possibility that reconstruction might do some genuine good to British businesses. The campaign also promoted "support for the army and police, minority rights and public probity", presumably in that order.

Between them, these sixty-one companies have obtained at least £1,100 million (£1.1 billion, in Newspeak) worth of contracts and investments; probably much more, according to Corporate Watch, as "many companies prefer to keep their interests secret" and Charles Clarke has not yet decided that corporate privacy is conducive to international terrorism.

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