which meant, bluntly, now is the time for US finance capital to buv bankrupt Korean companies. This brutal approach has not been forgotten.
Opinion is East Asia is also polarised by the magnetic attraction exercised by China. The Chinese government is engaged exceptionally aggressive economic diplomacy with countries like Thailand and Vietnam, granting hugely favourable aid and trade deals which bring China little or no economic reward in the short term, in an attempt to tilt structural economic dependence towards China long-term.
This is not designed to force any kind of political conrontanon derween unese states and the US or to break their many political ties with the US system of alliances. Rather the effort is long-term subversion of the US position.
To bolster its Asian position the US has been vigorously courting India, appearing at one point to promise the Indian government the status of accepted and legitimate nuclear power, in return ironically for Indian support over Iran's nuclear wcaDols and the war on communist Cold War before it
taking at home, including George Bush's falling popularıtv ratings and the deepening unpopularity of the war, the truth is that no major strategic alternative to the Rumsfeld-Cheney endless war is emerging ın maınstream politics. Democrats and Republicans both have eyes fixed on the November 7 Senate and governor elections, and the Democrats and Republican critics like John McCain are running salca of Dellg The war on terror is becoming an organising principle of US politics long-term, like the antiof the war itself.
Despite large and vibrant US anti-war movement, all this has long-term negative consequences. The war on terror is becoming an organising principle of US politics long-term, like the anti-communist Cold War before it, a political regime, a "regime of acumulation".
Such regimes limit the disof official politics, COUISC create new reactionary norms on surveillance and civil liberties, swivel the economy to higher allocations to the military, baptise LOrLUIO and murder as the defence of freedom, heighten racism and xenophobia and bathe the whole of public life in a reactionary atmosphere.
What the anti-war and other progressive movements in the United States need now
that their. struggle is boosted and magnified 100 times on an international basis. Karen O'Toole The reconstruction of Iraq will soon run out of money. The reason has less to do with insurgency, and far more to do with the systematic theft of huge amounts of cash set aside for reconstruction; including the bulding of hospitals, schools and health centres. Contractors give cash... to themselves According to the US Special Inspector General for Iragi Reconstruction (SIGIR), $12 billion which was supposed to have been used for the rebuilding of basic infrastructure such as water supply, health, oil and the electric grid remains unacCOUHICO TOR
Congressional auditors the General Accountability Office (GAO) go even further and have found evidence of theft. Two senior officials - both private contractors put in charge of money for reconstruction - have been arrested in the US.
Philip Bloom has been charged with a myriad of offences including conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. According to reports, he is said to have rigged reconstruction bids and bribed Calition Provisional Authority (CPA) officials who awarded contracts to his company GBG Logistics.
Robert Stein, former regional funding officer for the CPA was given control of $82 million in defraud the US taxpayer out of $3.5 million.
Vice President Dick Cheney still owns stock options in Halliburton worth more than $10 million dollars.
On a separate contract in Irag, for logistics support to the United States military, more than $11 billion had been disbursed to Kellogg Brown & Root according to the Army Field Support Command, Pentagon duanlors are seraunlizing une conIraq: the Bank During October 2005 HSBC completed the acquisition of 70.1% of Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank, having begun negotiations earlier in the year.
The Coalition Provisional Authority originally granted HSBC along with Standard Chatered and National Bank of Kuwait licences to operate in Iraq. HSBC is the third largest Cheney's pals are piling up profits corporation in the world in terms of assets.
British and US troops are protecting the financial and commercial interests of some of the largest multinationals in the world. That's just another reason to bring the troops home.