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Stolen harvest: the AWB scandal is merely indicative of the tactics adopted by the Australian government's in helping to ensure Western control over Iraqi agriculture.

Article Excerpt
With the arguments for the Iraq War so thoroughly discredited three years after the invasion, John Howard's justification for Australia's participation now rests on 'liberating' the Iraqi people and helping them establish democracy. But far from promoting democracy, Australia has focused more on making Iraq a friendly destination for global capital.

The one area where Australia has been an equal partner with the US, through participation in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), has been in restructuring Iraqi agriculture to ensure both continued wheat trade, while also facilitating the dominance of Iraqi agriculture by Australian and US corporations.

Along with the US and the UK, Australia founded the CPA in May 2003, and was complicit in all Occupation actions undertaken by the CPA until the so-called handover of sovereignty on June 28, 2004. Headed by the US's Paul Bremer, Australia's representative was long time diplomat Neil Mules. The CPA Occupation has been almost as controversial as the invasion itself, involved in...

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