'Disneyland' comes to Baghdad

[Siara]

America won when the first McDonalds went up in Baghdad. Will they not stop until there is no trace of independent culture left on the planet?

Half of the world will slide into a homogeneous culture of Disneyland/McDonald's/pricey computer gadgets. The various fast food companies will get into an international battle to see who can ladle the most cholesterol down the throats of their customers. Eventually, the entire happy-America-culture will die of a giant coronary. Unfortunately this will take a couple hundred years so we won't live to see it.

[bathory]

it's the impoverished who decide that it's better to blow something up in a suicide tryst, than to suffer in poverty and hopelessness.

the average suicide bomber was an educated, middle class muslim.

Its not about poverty, its all about ideology, poor people (generally) are too busy trying to provide for their families.

[War Eagle]

Cool just think, all them kiddies with severed limbs smiling taking pics with Mickey Mouse & Goofy with explosions and smoke billowing from the background.

Whats next, McDonalds.

[Silmarillion]

the average suicide bomber was an educated, middle class muslim.

Its not about poverty, its all about ideology, poor people (generally) are too busy trying to provide for their families.

Maybe we disagree on education. For me education is pushing the boundaries forward, questioning everything and seeking truth - not being brainwashed by an ideologue in either a community college or a madressah. Middle class, ok. Just goes to show the "education" that a middle class wage can buy these days.

[Plainbob13]

Cool just think, all them kiddies with severed limbs smiling taking pics with Mickey Mouse & Goofy with explosions and smoke billowing from the background.

Whats next, McDonalds.

Your right. Mickey mouse is not a good choice. How about muhommad with a c4 vest or a Jihadist with a sword. The kids could pose with him on thier knees like they are about to be decapitated. That would fit so much better.

[War Eagle]

Your right. Mickey mouse is not a good choice. How about muhommad with a c4 vest or a Jihadist with a sword. The kids could pose with him on thier knees like they are about to be decapitated. That would fit so much better.

Cut the **** man.

Funny how multi-national corporations, in this case the 'fun & friendly' Disney happen to stake a claim even before the war is declared over.

[Plainbob13]

Cut the **** man.

Funny how multi-national corporations, in this case the 'fun & friendly' Disney happen to stake a claim even before the war is declared over.

Right lets cut the ****. How about Wac-a-Israelie. Or Hang-a-Homo. Better yet Stone-a-woman. What kills me is people really think disney would build a themepark there.

[Cradle of Fish]

Maybe we disagree on education. For me education is pushing the boundaries forward, questioning everything and seeking truth - not being brainwashed by an ideologue in either a community college or a madressah. Middle class, ok. Just goes to show the "education" that a middle class wage can buy these days.

bathory is right actually. Poor Muslims in these besieged countries might throw in with extremists, for whatever reason, but thats not where the real radicals are drawn from. All of the 9/11 high-jackers were either university educated to some degree, or had a university degree. These aren't the poor victims of Israel, those will join militias for protection, but they most likely wont commit a suicide bombing. Living is more important to the poor, their faith might act as a crutch to get them through, but dying for Islam won't make life better for them or their families. It's young, well educated men who are recruited for suicide attacks, the myth that it's the poor ones has gone on too long.

[War Eagle]

Right lets cut the ****. How about Wac-a-Israelie. Or Hang-a-Homo. Better yet Stone-a-woman.

And your point is?

What kills me is people really think disney would build a themepark there.

Something tells me it's only a matter of time...

Already U.S. companies, have been awarded $4.9 billion in contracts for the "reconstruction" of Iraq and financial analysts estimate that total contracts could easily amount to more than $200 billion over the next few years.

U.S. Corporate Contracts in Iraq (Partial List)

Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root: $8 billion (oil, private security)

Bechtel: $680 million (infrastructure)

MCI WorldCom: $30 million (wireless network)

Dyncorp: $50 million (law enforcement)

Flour Corporation: $100 million (construction for army)

Perini Corp: $100 million (construction for army)

Stevedoring Services of American: $4.8 million (manage ports)

Skylink Air and Logistic Support USA: $10.2 million (manage airports)

Louis Berger Group: $4.8 million (harbor cleanup)

Research Triangle Institute: $167 million (set up local governments)

Creative Association Int. Inc.: $62.6 million (revise educational system)

[Silmarillion]

My view, and I choose not to search for statistics. However, my undergraduate thesis (The Persian Revolution; The Politics of Religion in Twentieth Century Iran) leads me to conclude that western FDI investment in an Islamic country is doomed, provided that the Western investor had not acknowledged and adjusted for the power of religious clerics and their proteges (who often go off on a "terrorist" tangent). (Someone of American persuasion explain to me, please, how this thesis is dissimilar to a thesis that King George of England failed to adjust his policies for the "clericism" of American Republican revolutionaries in the late 18th Century.) What was the outcome of King George's failure?

I have posted here and on other threads. U.S. policy failed in Iran (CIA overturned Mossadeg, and later assisted patricide when Mohammad Reza Shah overturned his father); British policy failed in Egypt (19th - early 20th centuries); U.S. and British policies have to date failed to achieve true peace among the Israelis and Palestinians.

Bottom line, Americans are AmeriCo.-centric. American policy makers cannot see past the American corporation to the Islamic corporation. It's shortsighted, as is the short-sightedness of all modern western corporations (who are more socialistic than capitalist in any event). The boss I loathed the most in the U.S. - when I said that her ideas about generating revenue for the quarter would lead to ruin in the following year, she said: "We're not worrying about next year!" That's par for the course. And that is precisely why American policy will fail in Iraq. America thinks in terms of the current quarter - not in terms of what will be the outcome of our actions in five years, ten years, or for subsequent generations. And that is also why the U.S. is suffering economic turmoil at present in the American domestic front.

It began with the "stupefication" of America - 1950's (GI's who had suffered through the Great Depression and had seen so much death and destruction in WWII - they spoiled their kids). By the Sixties, America was into excesses. Excesses about warring against USSR in VietNam, excesses about Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll. Hell, they don't even require Greek or Latin any more in the best American Prep Schools and Academies. In the past, American elites would learn the classics so that when they came of age, they would be able to apply these lessons to business and government. Since the 1950's? Well, it's been a downhill trend in America - a place where the short-term bottom line means far more than a well-researched and insightful policy statement or business mission statement. Hell, most Americans have been brain-washed so far as to choose "not to think" for themselves anyway. For me, it's the death-knell for a once great Republic. The citizens don't even think anymore. Fifty years hence, China will be the dominant superpower. I wonder how the U.S. military-Industrial complex will handle that transition. I hope the U.S. doesn't try to gain superiority through warfare or nukes. It seems to me that that's about all the U.S. will have remaining. Nukes! And a power to threaten other sovereign countries.

And your point is?

Something tells me it's only a matter of time...

Already U.S. companies, have been awarded $4.9 billion in contracts for the "reconstruction" of Iraq and financial analysts estimate that total contracts could easily amount to more than $200 billion over the next few years.

U.S. Corporate Contracts in Iraq (Partial List)

Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root: $8 billion (oil, private security)

Bechtel: $680 million (infrastructure)

MCI WorldCom: $30 million (wireless network)

Dyncorp: $50 million (law enforcement)

Flour Corporation: $100 million (construction for army)

Perini Corp: $100 million (construction for army)

Stevedoring Services of American: $4.8 million (manage ports)

Skylink Air and Logistic Support USA: $10.2 million (manage airports)

Louis Berger Group: $4.8 million (harbor cleanup)

Research Triangle Institute: $167 million (set up local governments)

Creative Association Int. Inc.: $62.6 million (revise educational system)

Edited April 25, 2008 by lmbeharry

[bathory]

Maybe we disagree on education. For me education is pushing the boundaries forward, questioning everything and seeking truth - not being brainwashed by an ideologue in either a community college or a madressah. Middle class, ok. Just goes to show the "education" that a middle class wage can buy these days.

I'm not talking community college or madressah (although the madressah's do play a key role), I'm talking University educated, I mean, look at the Glasgow airport bombers, they were doctors, hardly the ignorant poor, cornered by the evil west,

[Silmarillion]

Sorry DUPLICATE BELOW. Bad internet...

Edited April 25, 2008 by lmbeharry

[Silmarillion]

Sorry. I had made a bad argument. I was just waiting for your comeback. You're right, in most cases these guys are suicidal because of "truth." The other class, though, the minority (of "terrorists") are the ones whose families get $20,000 if "the terrorist" carries twenty sticks of dynamite on their torsos into a "clean, well-lighted place."

I'm not talking community college or madressah (although the madressah's do play a key role), I'm talking University educated, I mean, look at the Glasgow airport bombers, they were doctors, hardly the ignorant poor, cornered by the evil west,