Don't These Guys Ever Read The Newspapers?

by pessimist

With the American media full of Rice, I thought I'd wander down the International media path and see what I can find. On my first link, I hit this:

Businessmen Told to Prepare for Investment in Iraq

With a dateline of 'JEDDAH, 10 April 2004', I knew I had to read this one!

Dr. Fahd ibn Saleh Al-Sultan, secretary-general of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI), has called on the Kingdom’s business sector to prepare for an active participation in Iraq’s reconstruction.

In a statement on the eve of a Saudi-American seminar scheduled to open in Riyadh today, Al-Sultan spoke of the huge business opportunities in Iraq with reconstruction work in the war-torn country estimated at $100 billion.

Must be the scut work that Halliburton won't touch. I can't see them passing up a single dinar otherwise!

“Iraq requires a development investment of $10 trillion to achieve an annual growth rate of ten percent,” the CSCCI chief said.

That's a good one! With the US 2003 GDP calculated at $10,390 Real GDP (billions of 2000 dollars), such investment in our own country only results in 10% unemployment.

“I believe that the Iraqi reconstruction program will not be successful without the participation of the Saudi business sector,” he added.

Hmmmm .... With all the troubles, you think maybe Halliburton is having second thoughts about staying in Iraq and raking up all that gold in them thar Eye-Rackee streets? Seems to me that just last year, Halliburton was being assaulted by Bechtel for hogging all those no-bid contracts the Pentagon was handing out!

More than 100 businessmen are expected to take part in the seminar organized by the CSCCI in association with the US Embassy in Riyadh.

I guess this is the sort of service that campaign contributions totalling $708,770 (95 percent to Republicans), of which Bush got $17,677, buys a poor defenseless multinational corporation stuck in a Middle Eastern quagmire.

“The seminar is a good chance for Saudi businessmen to know about business opportunities in Iraq,” Al-Sultan said. “We have already made proposals to US officials on strengthening the Saudi private sector’s role in the Iraqi reconstruction program,” he said.

I can hear it now. "You want us to take over? Here's the deal - we give you a penny on the dollar, because we're accepting all the risks. And we won't raise your oil prices too much." Works for me.

At the seminar, there will be presentations by US officials on possible participation and registration of Saudi companies in Iraq. The seminar will focus on investment opportunities in agriculture, health, electricity, communications, the petroleum industry, water and others. US officials will reply to the queries of Saudi businessmen.

For FREE??? Such a deal!

This uprising of Iraqis against the Occupation has to be one of the resons this is happening. In researching some of the background for this post, I found lots of current links from the last few days on this topic. Add in the UPI business investment article I linked to in the hostage post, which advised pulling in one's foreign investments, and this picture becomes a bit clearer.

My television-watching relatives tell me that they have noticed a change in the way Iraq is being covered by the major networks, with Bush not getting the benefit of the doubt over what's going on there. About all I can chalk it up to is that there must be some disillusioned multinationals out there who are getting tired of waiting for the rose throwing (and massive profit-taking) to begin. Turning on Bush as I'm told they are tells me that they blame him. In reality, they should be blaming those guys they find in their mirrors every morning. It was their greed that got them into this, not the fanciful lies of George Warmonger Bush's (mis)Administration.