Locally led nascent peace on earth and good presigned contracts to white men

A year and a half into the Iraq occupation, the U.S. State Department launched a new branch: the Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization. On any given day, it is paying private contractors to draw up detailed plans to reconstruct twenty-five different countries that may, for one reason or another, find themselves the target of U.S.-sponsored destruction, from Venezuela to Iran. Corporations and consultants are lined up on “presigned contracts” so that they are ready to leap into action as soon as disaster strikes. -- Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

It’s true, it’s true. Just wade through all the mil.gov.state.tweakspeak -- including the cringe-worthy “locally led nascent peace” -- on the Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization website and then gasp your way through the FAQs and the Essential Tasks Matrix.

The Core Mission of S/CRS [Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization] is to lead, coordinate and institutionalize U.S. Government civilian capacity to prevent or prepare for post-conflict situations, and to help stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict or civil strife, so they can reach a sustainable path toward peace, democracy and a market economy. [emph added]

Well that certainly sums it up. If your country or region has nationalized natural resources or other stuff that we want, the US Department of Regime Change has added you to its wish list of prime candidates. Norway -- you’ve been served.

Q: Why has S/CRS developed a planning framework?

The Presidential Directive for reconstruction and stabilization gives a very explicit mandate for planning. Specifically, it instructs and empowers the Secretary of State to coordinate an interagency process to: (1) identify states at risk of instability having stuff we want and lead interagency planning to prevent or mitigate grab the stuff we want and promote regime change and endless conflict; and (2) develop plans for integrated U.$. re$pon$e$ on recon$truction and $tabilization effort$. [editorial liberties taken]

It’s absolutely soul chilling. They’ve got the tool kits (their term), the metrics (their term), and the Essential Tasks Matrix (their term) all set to go, along with shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills.

And what really inspires total confidence is that everything is so cobbled together and riddled with typos and don’t-give-a-shit mangled syntax that you just know some rat-fucking ex-member of the College Republican National Committee got paid $250,000 to “create” the package. The Office of Reconstruction and Stability is going to take over and smoothly run most of the world on the basis of approximately 500 to 600 PowerPoint slides electronically cut and pasted together -- give or take a few weapons of mass destruction.

Well something had to be done. The technology, housing, and finance bubbles have burst and splattered, so total morbid vertical integration -- destruction, maiming, killing, reconstruction, healthcare, burial-cremation, destruction, maiming, killing, reconstruction, healthcare, burial-cremation -- is not only the next big thing it’s the only big thing left.