US: Iraq's $100bn debt ...we need it back!
George Azariah-Moreno | 11.04.2003 10:51
US intent on recovering Iraq's $100bn debt! The war would not only cost America nothing, but this gives them a ticket for making a HUGE profit from it!
US claims Iraq has around "a $100bn debt as a conservative estimate" -which it seems intent on making Iraquis pay -despite the fall of the regime responsible for it (BBC World Serv). This seems to me a pretty neat way to, not only recover the costs of war, but also make a profit! This is no more than an excuse to legitimate US exploitation of Iraqui oil... ("We bomb you, destroy your government, even 'liberate' you -so pay up; give us a return on our investment!"). The legality of this debt burden needs to be vigorously challenged!!!!
George Azariah-Moreno
e-mail:
g.azariah-moreno@ucl.ac.uk
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Jubilee Iraq
11.04.2003 12:15
However, the US is actually being quite good about this issue. Why? BEcause the bulk of the debt is owed to the Arab countries and France and Russia, so the US and UK can take the moral highground. This, of course, is no reason for not pushing for the cancellation of the debt and the freeing of the Iraqi people from economic injustice.
I think the US government are hoping that if they push for the cancellation of the debt, no-one will notice and so no-one will make the links to all the other developing countries that US-led debt is crippling. If we make those connections, the US start to look decidely like a bunch of hypocrites.
Oh, and they'll bring in the IMF and the WB to Iraq as a condition of the debt cancellation of course...a nice course of neoliberalism coming up for that country....
www.jubileeiraq.org
Matt
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