| OAKLAND, CA - August 26 - What do the "war on terrorism" and "free trade" have in common? According to a new report by Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, they are the two formidable pillars of U.S. foreign policy, custom-fit to help privatize the world's resources for its corporations and a matter of growing concern with the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial in Cancun, Mexico.
Calling this policy the "new Monroe doctrine," the report, "Open Fire and Open Markets: Strategy of an Empire," details the use of military and economic power by the U.S. to discredit the United Nations, spurn international treaties, and demand market deregulation from other nations--all in the name of fighting terrorism.
"America's 'war on terrorism' is at one with its expansionary goals for the market: open invasion in some places and open markets everywhere," said Anuradha Mittal, Food First co-director and author of the report. "While thousands of Iraqi civilians have been terrorized, humiliated, maimed, injured, and killed through British and American bombing, contracts to rebuild Iraq were guided like smart bombs into the laps of large U.S. corporations."
The report also exposes how U.S. business leaders are setting policy that drives privatization. "Despite recent signs from the World Bank, of all places, that privatization has not lived up to any of its promises, these policy makers consider lesson number one to be: 'Privatization Works Everywhere,'" said Mittal. "So what is really happening in Iraq is the systematic dismantling of public assets, gift-wrapped by this administration for U.S. corporations, creating a dream economy for privateers."
The report points out these policies will cost more than money. The price of the war could reach $200 billion while the new U.S. defense budget is more than $396 billion. And the country faces a $455 billion budget deficit that continues to grow. These costs will be paid from funds that would otherwise be used to address joblessness, hunger, poverty, and health care needs in the United States and abroad.
"In June alone, 30,000 jobs were eliminated in the U.S. May job losses, initially reported at 17,000, were revised to 70,000," said Mittal. "Unemployment claims are trending up: in the first week of war, 445,000 people filed new claims for unemployment benefits. So while the President hands out favors to his corporate cronies, pink slips are being handed out to America's working poor.
The report concludes that as the United States forges ahead with its unilateral empire-building, anti-war movements in both North and South are linking up to challenge the WTO, FTAA, NAFTA, and other trade agreements that constitute an economic war on the poor. Not surprisingly, at the upcoming WTO Ministerial in Cancun, peasants, indigenous peoples, women, and workers are uniting express their opposition to the WTO and to war.
To read the report, click here.
For a PDF version click here.
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