“the occupation of Iraq by the US and Britain serves to privatise the Iraqi economy for Western capital.”

As Professor Kees van der Pijl points out in Part I of his essay , “Atlantic Rivalries and Globalisation,” points out, although “Resolution 687 states explicitly that the ban on Iraqi exports will be lifted when Iraq complies with UN weapon inspections,” the U.S. position, declared by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in March 1997, did not accept that view. Van der Pijl further states that “Iraq, as we now know, destroyed its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction soon after the first Gulf War, but the embargo was kept in place, punctuated by US and UK air attacks,” and concludes that “the occupation of Iraq by the US and Britain serves to privatise the Iraqi economy for Western capital.” In legal words, the contract was breached by American and British governments, whose lawyers began looking for a loophole to vindicate their illegal acts.