THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 194, September 16, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
NATION-BUILDING: A SUCCESS IN IRAQ?
By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
A FAILED U.S. POLICY IN IRAQ: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S SPENDING OF $53 BILLION IN AMERICAN TAXPAYER MONEY ON
RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS IN IRAQ -- THE IRAQI ECONOMY & THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF IRAQ'S GROWING RELIANCE ON
OIL FOR INCOME -- INABILITY OF THE PRESENT IRAQI GOVERNMENT TO MAKE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS IN ALLEVIATING
IRAQ'S PROBLEM OF LONGTERM UNEMPLOYMENT -- THE MASSIVE CORRUPTION & INEFFICIENT BUREAUCRACY THAT
HINDER EXECUTION OF ANY MAJOR RECONSTRUCTION PLANS -- LACK OF SKILLED WORKERS TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE
U.S.-FUNDED RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS -- THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF THE FOREIGN POLICY FAILURE & MONUMENTAL
WASTE OF U.S. MONEY: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S PURSUIT OF THE FANTASY OF A FREE, STABLE, DEMOCRATIC, &
ECONOMICALLY PROSPEROUS IRAQ
FULL STORY:
Did the U.S. government's spending of $53 billion in American taxpayer money on reconstruction efforts, or
"nation-building," work in Iraq? According to New York Times columnist David Brooks, it did. Unfortunately,
however, his argument is flawed on numerous counts by selective evidence.
To begin with, he cites the International Monetary Fund's report that Iraq will have the twelfth fastest growing economy in
the world with a projected 7% economic growth this year, but such a statistic is misleading because, as in Hugo Chávez's
Venezuela, this expansion is almost entirely due to rising oil prices, and has nothing to do with development projects
funded by U.S. taxpayers. Indeed, Iraq has become increasingly oil-dependent like its neighbors in the Gulf region, such
that petroleum revenues account for about 70% of GDP and around 90% of government revenues.
The growing reliance on oil for income is having several adverse effects. Most importantly, since the oil industry is not
labor intensive, the present Iraqi government can do little to alleviate the problem of unemployment in the country that
stands at approximately 15%. Nations that depend on petroleum exports for income normally create bureaucratic jobs that
serve little practical purpose to compensate for the lack of employment opportunities offered by the petroleum industry.
Nonetheless, this cannot be done much further in Iraq, where the state is already the largest employer with a workforce of
around 3 million, or roughly 10% of the population. Since 2005, the number of public employees has doubled.
In fact, the revenues from petroleum have provided the government an excuse for leaving unreformed the top-down,
centralized command economy that is a legacy of, in the words of Daniel Pipes, the "Stalinist nightmare of Saddam
Hussein," from which Iraq is still emerging. The results? Massive corruption and inefficient bureaucracy that hinder any
major reconstruction efforts. If anything, the pouring in of development money from the U.S.A. has only increased
corruption. In 2003, Iraq ranked 113th out of 133 countries on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index
(CPI). Six years later, Iraq fell to 176th out of 180 countries.
As for bureaucracy, one need only look at the prolonged and poor quality construction of schools, hospitals, water
treatment plants, and electricity substations. In 2009, the World Bank ranked Iraq 153rd out of 183 countries for ease of
doing business, and 94th out of 183 countries for dealing with construction permits. On average, fourteen permits are
required to build anything in the country and take 215 days to complete. For example, in May, 2010, the city of Karbala in
the south announced a plan to build 250 housing units, yet by the end of June, nothing had happened owing to
difficulty in obtaining the necessary licenses.
A further problem is that ambitious reconstruction projects funded by U.S. taxpayers, even if finished, lack skilled
workers to manage them effectively, something which Brooks concedes. Such an outcome was a result of the fact that
Iraqis were often not consulted as to whether they wanted these reconstruction projects in the first place. For instance,
in Hilla, sixty miles south of Baghdad, a $4 million maternity hospital built by the U.S.A. is largely unable to serve its
purpose because the staff cannot operate most of the equipment. Likewise, a sewage treatment system in Fallujah, at a
cost of $104 million, has been left partly finished, unable to operate at full capacity and only able to serve at most one
sixth of the city's residents because of poor quality work on construction and a lack of sufficiently trained Iraqi staff to
put it to proper use.
A minor point advanced by Brooks is the fact that there is increased Internet access, along with ownership and
availability of consumer goods such as cell phones. Again, though, none of this can be attributed to U.S. spending on
reconstruction efforts, but is actually due to the removal of tariffs by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in the
period 2003-2004, which led to a flood of cheap imports from China, Iran, and Turkey -- and aggravated the problem of
unemployment in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. Moreover, ownership of consumer goods is not a real
indication of the humanitarian situation in Iraq, which has the highest illiteracy rate and the second highest infant
mortality rate in the Middle East.
With all these major shortcomings, is it any surprise that the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, in direct
contradiction of Brooks' explicit statement that "nation building … has been a success," considers the rebuilding
enterprise since 2003 a failure?
Nevertheless, the question arises of who is to blame for this monumental waste of money. Of course, one feels tempted
to blame Iraqis, but, as Daniel Pipes concludes, "the real blame belongs with the George W. Bush administration, which
had a vision of "a free, … stable, democratic, and prosperous Iraq" and did not let realities get in the way of its fantasy.
As so often was the case with Bush, the motives were good, but the implementation terrible."
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Oxford University and an intern at the Middle East Forum.
The foregoing article by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi was originally published in the Foreign Policy Journal,
September 15, 2010, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-ŕ-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/ 2747/iraq-nation-building)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
September 16, 2010
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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