Magic Kingdom In The Emerald City?
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Apr 23, 2008 6:50pm
Satire becomes reality. In the preview for "War, Inc." that Bruce posted below, private contractor John Cusack executes a war for the American government and then watches bewilderedly as a hip-hop star and her entourage invade the country right behind him. Soon English-language billboards and bumper stickers are everywhere.
That's ridiculous, right? An over-the-top display of how the encroachment of American culture and capitalism works. Leftist Hollywood hysteria.
[Llewellyn] Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is pouring millions of dollars into developing the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, a massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum. It is being designed by the firm that developed Disneyland. "The people need this kind of positive influence. It’s going to have a huge psychological impact," Mr Werner said.
The 50-acre (20 hectare) swath of land sits adjacent to the Green Zone and encompasses Baghdad's existing zoo, which was looted, left without power and abandoned after the American-led invasion in 2003...[..]
A massive Disneyland-style amusement park, operated for American profit, plunked in the middle of Baghdad — that won't be a target for hostilities. Not at all.
The project will cost $500 million (£250 million) and will be managed by Iraqis. Under the terms of the lease, Mr Werner will retain exclusive rights to housing and hotel developments, which he says will be both culturally sensitive and enormously profitable. "I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn't making money," he said. "I also have this wonderful sense that we're doing the right thing – we're going to employ thousands of Iraqis. But mostly everything here is for profit."
Isn't that true for all of the American civilian presence in Iraq?
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It's official we've fallen down the rabbit hole.
Dubai?
So long as there's already a secret deal in place for it to be paid for by us, then turned over to private corporations, we win!
When you wish upon a star
you won't realize how screwed you are...?
Yes, everything there is for Americans profit. What will the Iraqis bring for the Prophet? I'm sure it will go over with a bang!
Hey kids, waddya say we run down to the amusement park for some of that running water.
Ohhhn, it's a profit thing.
Seriously, remember the grand tank roll into Baghdad after S&A? Every lightpost along the boulevard was adorned with an LG banner.
Frikkin LG! Life is Good! Disgusting war of occupation brought to you by Life is Good. LG.
Too bad appliances won't run without power. A$$holes.
iraqi people have no water, no electricity, no sanitation, no dependable police,
no hospitals, no consistant food supplies and no JOBS.
but this asshole is coming to put an amusement park......what a laugh.
how about $500 million in one of the real services they really need?
I can the see the commercials now,
Sombody is coocoo bananas. Who in their right mind would want to visit there?
This story isn't even funny. Good thing I don't have a gun in the house because it would probably be in my mouth right about now. I'm sure that all those brave military men and women died in Iraq for such a good cause. And I hope that all those maimed vets can someday return to Iraq to visit the newest Magic Kingdom.
It would be nice if they would pour some money into the infrastructure where they could possibly have clean water and a decent wwaste disposal. I don't think they need a place for thousands of children tol be gathered in one place to be attacked.
CD @ 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwWzbD_9Nfo
Well, I guess they don't really need those hospitals and schools after all, do they?
You just know that this travesty will draw an obscene chunk of what little energy and water is available in that country -- but it will have priority because, y'know, it's for PROFIT.
Dubai...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xdjcQ0ZJVA
1 min 30 sec.
Looks like disney to me!
Ooh, check it out, the Donald Rumsfeld House of Mirrors, and Abu Ghraib Haunted House! Lets go gang!
Dubai?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xdjcQ0ZJVA
This is sick. I pray it's not true. But then it probably is.
Destroy the cradle of civilization and build a Disneyland Park.
Figures
Don't you feel safer already? It's their new plan , Operation Fun!, designed to distract insurgents.
For God's sake, someone pinch me and wake me up from this nightmare.
Dark Horse so SINCERELY needs to republish its short lived Oktane series. Once again, it has hit the nail on the head.
"Then its finally true. America has gone mad."
Hey, its Blackwater Bear! Get a picture of me standing next to him! This place is awesome!
Capitalism has used up and chewed up the American people and workers anyway.
We're being discarded for cheaper labor and fresh peoples to exploit.
That is exactly the kind of language that invites moronic questioning of patriotism.
Great. If we can't bring peace and democracy, we can at least make it the Happiest Place on Earth. /s
This seems to be a concept that was not, to put it mildly, completely thought through. Any symbol that will remind the Iraqi people of the United States, no matter how allegedly benevolent the intent may have been, has almost no chance of succeeding. As other commenters have noted, this theme park will be a poor substitute for electricity, safe drinking water, schools, hospitals, etc. It is no wonder the terrorists have recruits flocking to their cause, with a theme park being built by Americans who have inflicted so much misery upon the Iraqis. Who will the proprietors of this entertainment complex have as security for their park, American mercenaries?
Blaaaahhhhh.....eeeechhh.......(I'm barfing).....
Blaaahhh....eeeechhh.....(you get the picture).
God help us.
We're all going to Disneyland !
Like the Roman practice of setting up bathhouses in newly-conquered provinces...
Xbalanque @ 30:
Please don't forget to include the Vomitoriae for the gluttons.
StirFry My-Dog-Wears-a-Monacle Elite @ 9:
theres going to be 8000 odd US personal plus families working in the Emerald Fortress / Embassy plus all the Iraqi gov people and the assorted hangers on and misc Us army personal and maybe some spouses and kids.
Thats quite a captive market for xtian fundie Disney entertainment, I bet they even have some genuine Iraqi experiences to take in, prob a plastic market, a plastic kasbar and some non Iraqis will face paint themselves and pretend to be Iraqis for the tourists/ rubes.
McCain will be able to go back and take a Disney walk in a plastic market and the cameras can show him safe, and the happy smiling pretend Iraqis all a smiling and friendly.
Meanwhile 1/2 a mile away the real Iraqis are starving and sweating with no AC and no water or electricity.
Subject to shortages ,checkpoints, deathsquads and all the usual CIA Republican sponsored hell on earth.
Erroll @ 27:
Average Iraqis will not be allowed within one mile of this Disney land, segregation will be the norm.
EliteLemming @ 23:
dont forget the KBR cartoon rapist smiling, smirking and snarling with his gun and bottle of date rape drugs, maybe Lumpy Rash or Billo could get this job when they are kicked out on their boiled infested arses in 09.
Lynda from DownUnder @ 18:
L.A. Confidential @ 19:
CD @ 1:
I agree. Dddddaaammmnnn, we've gone way past the rabbit-hole, here. We've officially entered....The Batshit ZoneTM.
All those people who criticized Communism need only look at this and wonder just how much better Capitalism really is....
ferrofluid @ 32:
say now !it dont sound like somebody thinks obamer or clintons going get us out of iraq! i mean you dont build a disney land just to hand it over to the enemy! right?
Rico @ 31:
Mann Coulter would be a good host for this attraction.
I just hope herr dubyah and the GOPigs commit tax-payer dollars to this important project.
This is the moment we dropped all pretense of you know, not being a colonial power. Before we could at least pretend this wasn't colonialism. Now?.......
And you know the place will be insured to the hilt against any and all attacks by people who are "dying to get in". So even if it constantly gets blown up and no one goes there, this dude makes money.
How Goofy, indeed.
L.A. Confidential @ 19:
Whoa, whoa...Yeah, the invasion and occupation are unconscionable, and we allowed the looting of the museums, but it's not like we were picking a fight with Gilgamesh and Enkidu. That territory has been fought over for nearly 6000 years, and most of the cities and treasures of the original civilization had been pillaged long before we got there and disappeared under the sand.
General_Rennenkampf @ 36:
If I remember correctly, from looking at Google Earth a while ago, even weird places like North Korea have theme parks and so on.
Governments and ruling partys no matter what their colour and claimed ideology, all have members and employees with bored spouses and screaming brats to entertain.
Its a universal human trait, reducing life to a cartoon.
Holy crap - click through to the Times UK article and look at the last paragraph -
Over half of the Iraqi population is UNDER 15 years of age?
I don't even know what the fuck to think anymore.
I'm sorry I won't be able to go there even for the fireworks. Those lucky kids that will be able to watch them will get a bonus when their arms and legs are blown off.
General_Rennenkampf @ 40:
Good point. This idea certainly must have received the blessing of the Bush administration. One wonders if the U.S. government is actually stupid enough to believe that it will somehow win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people by building this enormous white elephant.
Having grown up with the animated classics and the dream of becoming a Disney animator, I have a soft spot in my godless, liberal, anti-capitalist heart when it comes to Disney.. what can I say, to me it's about the beauty and the magic of the art. Having said that.. now I'll say this: This idea is beyond insane!!! The jokes are ready made but I won't go there. The very idea of spreading (what has now clearly become) the American "happy" virus into foreign lands repulses me to my core. Disneyland is an American experience and was, back in the day, and is today, only an illusion.. a happy byproduct of the age of cheap oil. Those days are now over. Disney gave us a smile through all of the madness of exponential growth in every conceivable human endeavor.. It pains me to say that the world doesn't need another Disneyland unless maybe it could be fueled from renewable energy and only then if a country came begging us for it because the majority of its population wanted it. How about first getting back the basics of life support to the poor devastated people of Iraq. To even suggest this absurd idea before getting clean water, food, and electricity to every single Iraqi in desperate need is the hight of imperial insensitivity. Every day I am more and more embarrased to be citizen of the United States.. I don't think Walt would approve of damn near anything they've done to his company.
that's the cities and treasures disappearing under the sand, not us. Though the latter could always happen, couldn't it?
Bud Osama @ 44:
15 years of sanctions, invasion, occupation, civil war, refugees leaving to neigbouring countries and general nastiness sure drops the average age of a population done several notches.
if theres one thing that this shows, a young teen 20 something population would fight at a drop of a hat, they have nothing to live for, everything to die for, and suffer the usual teen angst and enjoy strife.
ferrofluid @ 43:
Yeah, but at least the Communists kept it in North Korea instead of invading some random place like Bali and building one there after tearing the heart out of that region.
Bud Osama @ 44:
This is also evidence of genocide, pretty much a text book example of the outcome.
managed by Iraqis...
So, they can manage a theme park, but not an army. Let the American's get shot and blown up, but no army. "We'll stand down when they stand up". Does that count standing in line for the tilt a whirl?
Let me get this straight....We're going to build a Disneyland-style amusement park in a country that has been ravaged by war, has seen hundreds of thousands of it's citizens murdered. Is that right?? This isn't a hoax,is it?? Uh, excuse me a minute......BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Ah, that's better! It's amazing how therapeutic banging my head on my desk has become. Now, where was I - oh yeah- this is a country with no water, very little food, devastated neighborhoods with death literally on every corner, and most importantly NO FUCKING JOBS! AND THEY WANT TO BUILD A WHAT??!!! YOU'VE GOTTA BE SHITTING ME!!! Jesus! This has become so fucking insane!
ferrofluid @ 43:
Iraq under Saddam had one.
Saddam claimed it was better than Disneyland.
Thing is though Amusement Parks are FAR from practical.
Iraq needs electricity in every house that had it before we invaded.
Not roller coasters.
Well, the market will decide. If Iraqis have no interest in such a thing, the whole thing will be doomed to fail. Hopefully it will. But if the locals like it and it makes them happy, they sort of deserve that as well. The only thing that I don't like is that there are people who are trying to plot ways to make a profit off of this whole mess.
No doubt the reaction of the locals to this park will be the same as if Iraq had invaded and conquered the U.S. and then built a giant Mecca-like shrine right in the middle of New York . Get ready for lots more insurgency .
Whoa!
Iraqis don't have food, water, shelter or freedom but they want to build Disneyland?
This is beyond idiotic, it's shameful.
I sure Iraqis don't want to see anything American or white.
US can't protect markets, what makes them think they can trust mickey.
This is sick, sick, fucked-up.
The wonderful thing about tiggers
Is tiggers are wonderful things!
Their minds are made out of qurans;
They're martyrs blown up with c3.
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy,
Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!
But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
there's more than only one!
The 8 Stages of Genocide
Genocide does not just happen. It is organised, planned and executed precisely. Genocide usually follows eight stages in it's development and execution.
Classification
Classification is the categorising of people into groups. They are classified by race, religion and/or nationality. An us versus them attitude is introduced and promoted. Classification will always take place, it has happened in Ireland. There are divisions drawn between Protestants and Catholics, and between Nationals and Non-Nationals. There are ways of insuring that these classifications don't escalate. If both sides find a common ground and institutions that transcend these divisions, inter-relationships and tolerance can grow.
Symbolisation
Groups are given names and other symbols that can be used to classify them. Classification and symbolisation are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanisation. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of groups.
Dehumanisation
Dehumanise: to deprive of human qualities (Dictionary extract)
This process implies that members of one group are dehumanised. They are likened to animals, vermin or disease. Why is dehumanisation important? By dehumanising a group, those planning genocide feel justified and the killing of the other group is not seen as murder. Dehumanisation overcomes the human revulsion against murder.
Organisation
The genocide is organised. Hate groups are organised and militias are formed, trained and armed. Plans are made for the genocide. At this time propaganda institutions like newspapers and radios are strengthened and propaganda increases.
Polarisation
Form or cause to form into groups with directly opposite views;
Polarisation is used to describe the way that extremists drive the two groups involved in genocide apart. The us versus them attitude is emphasised. At this time a new view is formed, if you are not with us, you are against us. Moderates are denounced as traitors and are persecuted. Some are even killed. It now becomes a kill or be killed situation.
Preparation
Plans are made for the fast approaching genocide. Lists are drawn up of those who are to be killed. Trial massacres are conducted to give the murderers practice. If these massacres go ignored by the international community, genocide is ready to proceed.
Extermination
This is when the killing begins. It is termed "extermination" as the killers believe their victims to be less than human and that they are purifying society.
Denial
During and after every genocide the crime is denied by the perpetrators.
How can you deny genocide?
* You lie, block investigations and dispose of the evidence.
* The killers hide the bodies in mass graves and intimidate any witnesses brave enough to speak out.
* Most say that the genocide was justified by claiming that the killings were part of a war or a repression of terrorism.
Genocide
Sign on rides:
If anyone is caught cutting in line will be transported to Gitmo.
Look Daddy! It's the waterboard ride.
Reading this story literally caused me to beat my own forehead with my fist for about a minute to get the stupid out. Or maybe just out of inexpressable frustration. Grah.
A Disneyland in the middle of war zone?
Is it just me, or are we gonna be reading in the paper about "IED blows up Mickey Mouse rollercoaster, killing 5".
The people need this kind of positive influence. It’s going to have a huge psychological impact,” Mr Werner said.
Oh, I'm certain it will, along the lines of "The occupiers and their puppets party while we die of Cholera!"
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t making money,” he said. “I also have this wonderful sense that we’re doing the right thing – we’re going to employ thousands of Iraqis. But mostly everything here is for profit.”
Off of whom? Last I checked many Iraqis are unemployed, and some are actively trying to kill one another. But of course, like most projects, it will be overbudget, bombed to shit, and never finished, like most of the waterworks in Baghdad.
Iraq needs inclusive elections with all parties cooperating.
They need to talk to each other, outside mil forces need to STFU & LEAVE and let the Iraqis get back together and talk out their differences and their common ground, this could have happened in 2003.
IMHO its the puppet government and its death squads that were causing the trouble in Iraq, not the general factions.
The inter factional chaos was most likely stirred up by US and UK special ops people, like those two SAS types caught with bombs in their car a few years back, just before all those mosques got blown up.
For those of you old enough to remember: Bringing a whole new meaning to the term "E-ticket" ride...
ferrofluid @ 49:
Yeah, and an amusement park is exactly what they need... :(
Come on, these little cubbies have heads stuffed with greed and hearts made of cold steel. If this is true, this is just obscene. How far have we fallen? What a lot of fun to go to a park with the IED ride. The Iraqi people must think that we have no souls. This is just bread and circuses again! My family and I have not been to Disneyworld since the 2000 election. Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris scared us away!
In defense of Disney I've got to point out that this company is the one that developed Disneyland.
Not the Disney company it's self
The difference is the same as exists between the people that built the Kremlin and those who worked in it.
All I have to say is....INFUCKINGCREDIBLE
This is a joke I hope?
These people have been shot at, crapped on ,etc.....
And someone wants to build them a Disneyland
No further evidence for commitment papers is required.
Any excuse to listen to the Dada classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9XHlvV1Ubk
I wonder what the roller coaster at Aushwitz was like.
CD @ 67:
In what way?
Actually, Rumsfeld was not his family name at birth.
But as Mr. Duck, people would actually got suspicious about his real intentions, invading a sunny country.
xoites (Bitter Before Country Was Cool) defends Constitution @ 72:
One group builds it, the other works in it.
xoites (Bitter Before Country Was Cool) defends Constitution @ 71:
The new passengers were required to shovel off their own seats. Not much padding, but always warm, even on cold days.
The Iraqis will eat the animals.
I refuse to believe even Republicans are _this_ insane. I think these ringleaders are just bored. "Let's see. What's the bat-shit craziest idea I can think of? Ok. Now let's see how many people I can actually talk into buying a piece of it."
Abbie Hoffman couldn't have thought up better. Will there be LSD in the fountains for that _really_ technicolor Disney experience?
Gaza Disneyworld?
Talk about tough jobs...how about security guard at the Baghdad America-Land Experience.
Maybe for fun they can have a 'knock down the twin towers' ball toss game.
Never Neverland.
dadams @ 8:
This is a very important point. The world will look at Americans as first class assholes that will sell their mothers for profit. Sick, very cold and sick. These people are fucking goofy.
geneHUSSEIN214 @ 53:
Life imitates art aka War Inc.
smchris @ 77:
You could put money on Chabli being involved in this, its almost on a par with 2003 itself in lunacy and immorality.
I can understand the why, its for the Green Zone people not the locals, they wont be allowed anywhere near it except in costume...
sh1t bad idea that, people could hide nasty things under big ridiculous costumes
Paul Bremner who will eventually rank up there with Heydrich in infamy in the history books.
Five years of neglect and looting will have left those factories as empty shells.
This "amusement park" will be a smoldering pile of rubble within 2 weeks of opening....they might as well design it like a giant circular target. It's amazing to me how such stupid people somehow manage to make so much money. Then, they think something like this is a good idea so they dump their millions into something so amazingly moronic. I suppose, given the loopholes provided by Bush INC., it's all a write off though... Whatever the case, it's such a BAD idea on so many levels I don't have time to list them.
A vast, Disneyland-like amusement park in the heart of Baghdad? Wonderful idea. But where will they get the electricity to run it?
What's next? A motherfucking Walmart?
Read about this earlier today on thinkprogress, mentioned it to my NCO's, we had a good laugh at the stupidity of it, asked if the roller coaster would be made to look like little humvees that went into a spin when it hit an IED, also figured jihad Mickey could greet guests while wearing a suicide vest. Personally I liked the comment about if there would be a shooting gallery in the park.
Thinkprogress said that GEN. Petraus thinks that this is a good idea.
The theme park will last for about 20 minutes after its grand opening. Then it will be car-bombed, mortared and suicide bombed out of existence.
I wonder if these shitheads have any idea how depraved a probable majority of Iraqis would view such a place as being?
Suicide-bomber target #1.
Idiots.
I can't wait to go and see all of the great attractions:
1. Visit Tomorrow Land! Hint: It looks like Afghanistan
2. The Abu Gharib Experience: Free naked Twister!
3. The Fecal Matterhorn: A pile of trash from Sadr City.
4. Get your picture taken with the 7 Iraqi dwarves: Ok, their really suicide bombing victims with no legs.
And #5: It's a Shitty World: A boat ride through Sunni and Shite areas. Don't count on coming back unless you're a Kurd.
Ya I'm sure a 500 million dollar monument to American Capitalism smack dab in the middle of Baghdad won't upset anyone!
Are you sure this story wasn't lifted from "The Onion" ?
Yes. Yes, building a great big monument to American capitalist values in the heart of the middle east will have "a huge psychological impact" of some description...
It would take a hell of a lot more than a theme park to bring happiness and stability to the Iraqi people, ( then make them let us take their oil, of course). Gee, the morons might be won over, maybe.
I thought I was wierd, but I thought maybe pouring a lot of money into making their deserts bloom might do it, but almost anytding we do for them now they would probably try to undo. Put up electrixc poles, they will tear them down, etc. That happened in Vietnam, too
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