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unhinged
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how our government restructured iraq after we burned the place to the ground
bremer order 81 was primarily concerned with restructuring iraq's agriculture in the image of western agribusiness. as their ancient seed stores were destroyed in the war, the united states swooped in and shoved monsanto down their throats. the ancient ways of sustainable agriculture in the womb of modern agriculture were supplanted by gmo's and pesticides.
'order 81 is reputed to have been drafted by monsanto and emerges from the bush administration's close ties to agribusiness (and the extensive presence in the bush cabinet of those ties), yet those facts are almost besides the point. the orders expressed and executed bremer's purpose in iraq, which was not to democratize it, but to neoliberalize it...it is also noteworthy that the provisional government authorizing (these orders), whose members were handpicked by the bremer team and subject in all their actions to bremer's veto, consisted only of those who supported the u.s. occupation. in turn, this government proposed a process for ratifying the permanent constitution that excluded all political parties not supporting the occupation. again, this could be read as the direct and heavy hand of the united states in making iraq a playground for international capital and especially for u.s. corporations, ranging from halliburton to monsanto. more important, however, are the ways in which these moves represent distinctive features of neoliberal governance: while states operating on a business model will eschew EXCESSIVE uses of violence or extraconstitutional conduct, they are also not about to enfranchise competing or oppositional interests, cede control, or prioritize justice and welfare over investment climate and economic growth. this fundamental shift in state purposes and legitimacy is more important than the question of precisely which politicians, corporations, and banks are in bed with one another. that old model could easily be charged with corruption. neoliberal governance facilitates a more open_handed and effective fusion of political and economic power, one that largely eliminates the scandal of corruption as it erases differences in goals and governance between states and capital, indeed, as the best practices circulating between them perform this erasure.' - wendy brown
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170620
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