Over 50 US soldiers have died since George W. Bush declared major military operations were over on May 1. The war is not over. Phase I was the 1991 Gulf War. Phase II was the twelve-and-a-half years of sanctions. Phase III was the 2003 bombing and invasion of Iraq. Phase IV, this current war, is the occupation of Iraq and the corporate invasion.
This is no liberation, it is a process of selective exclusion of elements of Iraqi political and economic life that do not further Western corporate or the Allies’ interests in the region. Any genuinely representative Iraqi group is excluded from power. The talk is of “reconstruction”. The reality is: the country is up for sale: to the highest US bidder. Bremer has said: Iraq is "open for business”. A major goal of the country's reconstruction, he says, would be to shift Iraq away from state-dominated economies. These plans fit well with Bush's U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area proposal, which calls for a market open for Israeli and U.S. hegemony, thus demanding not only military occupation of Palestinian and Syrian lands (and the Cheba'a Farms of Lebanon), but also economic occupation of the region.

On the ground, the occupation forces are quickly working towards selling the Iraqi governmental services to private companies. Bremer revealed that contracts are pending to sell everything from oilfield technology to transportation services and telecommunications, even Iraqi Ministries. The sell-off of Iraqi companies and ministries is to take place soon. Tim Carney, U.S.-appointed ruler of the Iraqi ministry of Industry and Minerals said that dozens of Iraq's state-owned companies could be earmarked for privatization within a year. Previously, the U.S. occupying force had said it would wait until an elected Iraqi government had been appointed before it would start privatization. The industry and minerals ministry controls 48 state-owned enterprises employing approximately 96,000 people in eight sectors including food, textiles, engineering and chemicals. Glass and ceramics firms are to be privatized within the year. Iraqi textile companies, viewed by the U.S. as "money-losing firms," would be "dissolved"-meaning workers will lose their jobs. Numerous other Iraqi firms would be sold to foreign companies.

Iraqi economic laws and tax rates will be changed to create a better environment for US companies and, as the power in charge of imports to and investments in Iraq, the U.S. has proposed a temporary "holiday" on customs and duties on imported goods. UN resolution 1472 (March 28, 2003) transfers "legal" control over Iraq's oil industry from the United Nations and Iraq to the United States and its allies. Iraq's agricultural industry will be run primarily by Dan Amstutz, former senior executive of the Cargill Corporation, the biggest grain exporter in the world, and president of the North American Grain Export Association. Bush Jr. has stated that he wants U.S. farmers to feed the world. "Putting Dan Amstutz in charge of agricultural reconstruction in Iraq is like putting Saddam Hussein in the chair of a human rights commission," said Oxfam, the British aid agency in June. "This guy is uniquely well placed to advance the commercial interests of American grain companies and bust open the Iraqi market, but singularly ill-equipped to lead a reconstruction effort in a developing country." The former director of Voice of America, Robert Reilly, has been "entrusted" by the occupiers to "overhaul" Iraq's radios, newspapers and television and manage Iraq's media, in order to sell U.S. policies in Iraq. This pro-war, conservative ideologue believes that "delivering the news is not enough. We also have the duty to reveal the character of the American people in such a way that the underlying principles of American life are revealed." Newspapers that publish "wild stories," material deemed provocative or capable of inciting ethnic violence-or violence against the occupying forces-will be threatened or shut down. All Iraqi media must now be registered. Licenses will be revoked and equipment confiscated from media sources that break the rules. Individual offenders "may be detained, arrested, prosecuted and, if convicted, sentenced by relevant authorities to up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine." Not long ago, a rebellious writer could easily be accused of being an agent for the U.S. or Israel. "Now they put plastic bags on our heads, throw us to the ground and accuse us of being agents of Saddam Hussein," his editorial reads. "In other words, if you're not with America, you're with Saddam."

In this Phase III of the war against Iraq, more than 240,000 cluster bombs were dropped on Iraq. In addition, one-third of the bombs dropped on Iraq were old-style "dumb weapons"-despite suggestions from the Pentagon that 90 percent of munitions used would be precision guided. If we regard the killing of almost 3,000 people on September 11 to be a massacre, then we need to admit that there were massacres in Iraq. Almost 7,000 Iraqi civilians-possibly 10,000-were killed in the bombing war of Iraq (according to www.iraqbodycount.net). At least another 8,000 were injured-in Baghdad alone (May 18, 2003, Los Angeles Times). These figures do not include the thousands of Iraqi soldiers who died fighting to defend their country from invading forces. Meanwhile, limited access to clean water heralds widespread epidemics: the casualties of the peace might well exceed those of the war.