[Marxism] Dollars for deaths: military-bureaucratic alienation in Fallujah

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

No doubt you've heard about "digging holes and filling them up again",
which I am told in some cases literally occurred in the Great Depression
of the 1930s as a condition for receiving the unemployment benefit,
but this is something else again. CNN reports that:

(...) [Fallujah's] population was believed to be between 250,000 and
300,000,
but U.S. and Iraqi officials estimated that 90 percent fled before the
assault. A 32-year-old taxi driver said the civilians who stayed behind, not
the insurgents, suffered. "[The Americans] say that they will pay us money
to repair our homes," he said. "How will they pay for someone's killed
brother or mother?" (...) Civilians will be paid $2,500 per home for
damage repair... and Marines have allotted $40 million for death claims
and reconstruction. The U.S. government has set aside $89.12 million
for 99 specific U.S.-sponsored projects scheduled to begin in Falluja
before the end of January, State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said. Iraq has identified $50 million for aid efforts, he said.
A U.S. official said reconstruction will start by restoring utilities.
After those projects are completed, ambassador Bill Taylor said,
attention will be directed to schools and clinics. On Saturday,
an Iraq Ministry of Housing and Construction team will go to Falluja to
begin a needs assessment.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/19/iraq.falluja/index.html

The mind boggles at the military-bureaucratic mind-set of the occupying
forces. It is bizarre, not to say mad. "So you lost a son or husband in
our clean-up operation? That's tough. Well here's news for you -
the State Department is paying good money to compensate your
loss. Plus, you're getting the benefit of all these reconstruction
projects". Operation successful - the patient died. It's like a bad
dream, a nightmare, only this is really happening. How anybody
can see this as "the liberation of Iraq" is beyond me. Inexorably
the "war against terror" has mutated into state terrorism
conducted with the blessings of the US Congress. And how
can this "build legitimacy for U.S. aims, methods and allies"
as Wesley Clark claims? Thankfully Holland and Hungary
are pulling the troops out soon.

Jurriaan




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