And now we see what it was all about. Not empire. Not religion. Not even oil.
It was all about the all-consuming hegenmony of … American fast food.
Stephanie Schaudel, co-coordinator for Voices in the Wilderness, an anti-war group in Chicago, said the “richness of culture” in Iraq is going to be subjected to Americanization by U.S. corporations during the post-war rebuilding of the war-torn nation. The result, she indicated, would be difficult for Iraqis to swallow.
“Some people would think that seeing a KFC (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken) on a street corner is a sign of progress, I certainly don’t,” Schaudel said.
Okay, so it is all about oil — oily food.
Peter Cook, an organizer with the radical anti-war group International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), agrees about the threat of American culture to the Iraqis.
“The U.S is putting in place an old-fashioned colonial regime [in Iraq]. We can be pretty sure that the U.S. is going to be impacting all aspects of Iraqi society,” Cook said. He also does not believe Iraqi citizens will benefit from America’s influence or rebuilding.
Hmmm. I’ve always had the impression that, in Britain at least, the colonial period eventually enriched the British palate by expanding the food types available. Heck, maybe this will lead to chickpeas becoming a much more popular food in the US than before.
Dustin Langley, a spokesman for International A.N.S.W.E.R. in Washington D.C., sees the Americanization of Iraq as inevitable.
“What we will see is they will enter this homogenized McDonalds culture and of course we will see a loss of local traditions and a local way of life,” Langley said.
That’s right — we’re going to round up the Iraqis (like Iraqi dissidents used to be rounded up), ship them off to surplus prison buildings formerly run by Iraqi secret police, and brainwash them into giving up their healthy local food (when they could get it) in exchange for Big Macs and Cokes.
Poor little brown brothers, unable to avoid the temptations of Capitalist Big Fast Food — we must save them from themselves!
(via SDB)