Back Towards The Locus

Andrew McCarthy, writing in the National Review, just can’t understand these griping Iraqis…

“Thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds have been expended to provide Iraqis the opportunity to live freely. And this despite the facts that (a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy remains tenuous (our interest was the elimination of Saddam’s terror-mongering, weapons-proliferating regime), and (b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. Yet, to be blunt, the Iraqis remain ingrates. That stubborn fact complicates everything.”

It’s extraordinary, isn’t it. The way they whine incessantly on one would think that they’d been slaughtered, deprived of resources and forced to flee their homes or live in urban ghettos.

A less overt but similarly noxious “It was him, Sir!” gambit holds that the Iraqi government is solely responsible for its own failure. This is hinted at in an otherwise excellent NYT article on fraud and corruption…

“One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials.”

Well, what can you do when the tiresome grunts fritter away yer hard earned cash.

It’s certainly true that Maliki has been quietly dismissing anti-corruption officials, while many more have been murdered, but this should be placed in context.

The sudden privatisation that followed the toppling of Saddam led, quite obviously, to massive profiteering. The US ensured that Accountability officials were underfunded, while vindictively targeting whistleblowers. Meanwhile, their companies and contracters committing blatant fraud and various atrocities. At no stage has there been particular political stability, and so corruption is, regrettably, inevitable.

This isn’t just ideological mewling. The responsibility of US policy for events in Iraq need to be consistently identified so that it may be seen to be discredited. Iraq is not necessaril distinct from previous fiascos, but if it is held to be so similar events may be avoided.