Penny and I were at the "IMI Kongress" (Staat im Krieg - Krieg im Staat: Wie der neue Kolonialismus den Krieg nach Hause bring" from Jürgen Wagner) today, Nov. 18th. I listened to a talk and discussion on "Neoliberaler Kolonialismus" and Penny stayed on to listen to Tobias Pflüger (member of the European Parliament).
The talk was very interesting (and long) and packed full of information. The discussion was not focused enough in my opinion. I felt that it would have been better to concentrate the discussion on just a couple aspects of this expansive topic.

One topic that came out well was the trend of European and American military forces be used more as police forces designed to run newly occupied territories. Traditionally soldiers are trained to attack and conquer. Now they are used more to “keep the peace” after the war. In Iraq we can see this happening. Wagner noted that armies and soldiers are not trained for this and that the US and Europe would never have enough soldiers to take on these jobs all over the world. Apparently this has been a fundamental policy in the Pentagon under Bush and Rumsfeld. German forces in Afghanistan are also taking on this new role. The changing policy of the Pentagon is, certainly, very influential across the world, but the European countries seem to be moving more in this direction too.

The IMI congress was well attended (about 80 folks I guess). The Hirsch Begegnungstätte was way too small.