meehawl

all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned

So It Goes

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A general capturing Baghdad proclaimed thus: “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.” 2003? No, try 1917.

I was talking to a mid-ranking official in the US Treasury about American plans for the post-war reconstruction of the Iraqi economy. She had just attended a meeting on precisely that subject. “So what kind of historical precedents have you been considering?” I asked. “The post-Communist economies of Eastern Europe,” she replied. “We have quite a bit of experience we can draw on from the 1990s.” When I suggested that the problems of privatisation in Poland might not prove relevant on the banks of the Euphrates, she seemed surprised.

Earlier here.

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