Post-U.S. invasion economic strategy ‘complete shambles’, says Iraq Central Bank official

[sabra]

Source: Azzaman (Iraq Daily)

The years since the 2003-U.S. invasion of Iraq have done more harm than good to Iraq’s economy, a senior Central Bank official says.

“One of the reasons for the failure of the economic administration in the past seven years is the misuse of the resources which the country owns,” said Mudher Saleh, the bank’s official consultant.

He said there was imbalance and mismatch in Iraq’s economy with the state in control of 80 percent of the country’s riches and other sectors the remaining 20 percent.

“This mechanism cannot achieve any economic feasibility and therefore its unproductive and doomed to failure .. it is a complete shambles,” Saleh said.

It is very rare for senior central bank officials to be so harshly critical of their countries’ economies.

He accused the powers which overthrew the former regime and the subsequent governments of not being able “to bring prosperity to the Iraqi people.”

Read more: http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2010-09-19/kurd.htm

[gratuitous]

1. So they're not going to pay for our invasion and occupation?

I wonder if there will be a chapter in Rumsfeld's book about that? Buncha goddam welchers. Ungrateful, to boot. And after all we've done to for them!

[tabatha]

2. neither were they able to bring prosperity to the US.

There should be a book about that.

[BillH76]

3. From the article: Iraqi unemployment = 15%.

Not bad for a country that has been devastated by war. Only 5 points higher than the US. Note: I am not defending US policy in Iraq. Just sayin'.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/201...

[Nihil]

8. If the US had lost as much of its population to war, sanctions & "post-combat" as Iraq has ...

... you might find the difference more noticeable ...

"Just sayin'"

:shrug:

[L.Torsalo]

9. As believable

a number as the offical USG unemployment figures. Color me skeptical.

[ladywnch]

4. mission accomplished. n/t

[tanyev]

5. You mean the economic policies crafted by GOP ideologues hasn't stood the test of time?

Quelle surprise.


Many of the other CPA postings were equally ideological. The Green Zone, the city within a city that houses the occupation headquarters in Saddam's former palace, was filled with Young Republicans straight out of the Heritage Foundation, all of them given responsibility they could never have dreamed of receiving at home. Jay Hallen, a twenty-four-year-old who had applied for a job at the White House, was put in charge of launching Baghdad's new stock exchange. Scott Erwin, a twenty-one-year-old former intern to Dick Cheney, reported in an email home that “I am assisting Iraqis in the management of finances and budgeting for the domestic security forces.” The college senior's favorite job before this one? “My time as an ice-cream truck driver.” In those early days, the Green Zone felt a bit like the Peace Corps, for people who think the Peace Corps is a communist plot. It was a chance to sleep on cots, wear army boots, and cry “incoming”—all while being guarded around the clock by real soldiers.

The teams of KPMG accountants, investment bankers, think-tank lifers, and Young Republicans that populate the Green Zone have much in common with the IMF missions that rearrange the economies of developing countries from the presidential suites of Sheraton hotels the world over. Except for one rather significant difference: in Iraq they were not negotiating with the government to accept their “structural adjustments” in exchange for a loan; they were the government.


http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. If Bush/Cheney had run the Marshall Plan

Western Europe would have joined the Warsaw Pact.

[boppers]

7. A huge, centrally planned, state owned economy?

We brought USSR-style government to Iraq?


Weird.

[No Elephants]

10. And sharia law in the Constitution. And birth of Al Q'aeeda in Iraq, as well as one of the great

recruiting tools for Al Qaeeda the world over (our conduct in Afghanistan, of course, being another great recruiting tool).

Yep, a real Bonanza for America, not to mention for Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, et al.