Naomi Klein: The disaster capitalists have been busy

By Ben Cohen

An interesting article from Naomi Klein on the continuation of corporate capitalism in response to rocketing oil and food prices, and the continued neo colonial policies in Iraq:

Once oil passed $140 a barrel, even the most rabidly right-wing media
hosts had to prove their populist cred by devoting a portion of every
show to bashing Big Oil. Some have gone so far as to invite me on for a
friendly chat about an insidious new phenomenon: "disaster capitalism."
It usually goes well--until it doesn't.

For instance, "independent conservative" radio host Jerry Doyle and I
were having a perfectly amiable conversation about sleazy insurance
companies and inept politicians when this happened: "I think I have a
quick way to bring the prices down," Doyle announced. "We've invested
$650 billion to liberate a nation of 25 million people. Shouldn't we
just demand that they give us oil? There should be tankers after tankers
backed up like a traffic jam getting into the Lincoln Tunnel, the
Stinkin' Lincoln, at rush hour with thank-you notes from the Iraqi
government.... Why don't we just take the oil? We've invested it
liberating a country. I can have the problem solved of gas prices coming
down in ten days, not ten years."

There were a couple of problems with Doyle's plan, of course. The first
was that he was describing the biggest stickup in world history. The
second,  that he was too late: "We" are already heisting Iraq's oil, or
at least are on the cusp of doing so. Read more