Iraq After 10 Years

[Mousa54321]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ten-years-on-from-the-war-how-the-world-forgot-about-iraq-8518490.html

Article speaking of the situation Iraq in today.

Some interesting (sad) quotes:

"hough Iraq now enjoys $100bn (£66bn) a year in oil revenues. In Baghdad there is scarcely a new civilian building to be seen and most of the new construction is heavily fortified police or military outposts. In Basra, at the heart of the oilfields, there are pools of sewage and heaps of uncollected rubbish in the streets on which herds of goats forage."

"One-third of the labour force is unemployed and, when you include those under-employed, the figure is over half. Even those who do have a job have often obtained it by bribery."

" “I feared seven or eight years ago that Iraq would become like Nigeria,” says one former minister, “but in fact it is far worse.” He cited as evidence a $1.3bn contract for an electricity project signed by a minister with a Canadian company that had only a nominal existence – and a German company that was bankrupt."

"Ordinary Iraqis are pessimistic or ambivalent about the future. Professor Yahya Abbas says: “If you ask my students ‘What do you want?’ About 95 per cent will answer ‘I want to leave Iraq."

Thoughts? How can Iraq benefit from its vast oil wealth? When and how will the situation get better?

[Bani Qaiser]

I still cannot believe it. 10 frikkin years have passed since Invasion of Iraq. It feels like yesterday watching CNN wherein they are showing Baghdad getting bombed by Americans.

[AJ 12]

Iraq has it,s problems but these pundits never talk about the improvements in Iraq they keep dwelling on the past Iraq and these pundits need to look to the future

nevertheless here's some good ones

The new normal in bagdad http://mondediplo.com/2013/03/02iraq

The slow road back http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21572777-decade-after-american-led-invasion-iraq-place-patchy-progress-and-dysfunctional

[Yusuf_Ali]

Salamu Alaikum,

The hegemonic powers know what they are doing when they tear down a countries infrastructure for their "nation building" missions. The thing is there are very few people/governments in the world whom have the peoples best interest at heart when dealing with this kind of revenue. The Iraq government has this money as well as countries like Iran collaborating with them on projects for their infrastructure to be rebuilt, but yet still aren't making progress ? This is a crying shame ! With that kind of money floating around everyone should have work. InshAllah, the situation improves.

Yusuf Ali

[CLynn]

"With that kind of money floating around everyone should have work."

My feelings exactly.

I'm sorry, reading that first article(posted by AJ12)... are you kidding... still blaming the U.S.?

For years all it was ever about was, 'get them out', 'get them out'. Now they have left and they are being blamed for that? Still placing blame on the U.S. for everything? Are you kidding me?

These are the statements that have meaning:

"Iraq will have to end the deadlock of a political system whose many loose ends keep the country’s future perpetually suspended."

"A disastrous brain drain could one day be reversed, if the state were to nurture talent instead of cultivating loyalty, cronyism and family ties."

The second article(posted by AJ12) is a fair analysis.

Salaam.

Edited March 4, 2013 by CLynn

[Yusuf_Ali]

Iraq has it,s problems but these pundits never talk about the improvements in Iraq they keep dwelling on the past Iraq and these pundits need to look to the future

nevertheless here's some good ones

The new normal in bagdad http://mondediplo.com/2013/03/02iraq

The slow road back http://www.economist...d-dysfunctional

From the articles you posted it seems as though they have some wrinkles to iron out. IshAllah, this is the case which would be normal following what the Iraqis have endured the last decade. I've heard brothers that say their pilgrimage there was beautiful. I guess you would only know the truth if you went right ?

Yusuf Ali

[Kurdi Fehli]

I call bull[Edited Out].

Baghdad in particular. The place is turning into the next Dubai. Yes there are places that are still run down but you cannot say all of Iraq is like that.

The level of building and reconstructure is staggering. There is a video on youtube of the market streets of Baghdad. Wallah it looked just like Dubai except no one wore towels ;) . All lovely Iraqi's enjoying their lives.

Before someone comes in and says "BUT LOOK AT THIS PLACE!" Fact is Iraq was destroyed. You want Iraq to be rebuilt in 10 years? 10 YEARS. Half of that was civil war. You cannot honestly believe a country can be rebuilt that fast.

However already we are seeing universities competing for students, you would be hard pressed to find an area without a university. We are seeing people having money. We are seeing people buying land. We are seeing people buying whole lambs frequently.

This doesn't happen in Nigeria.

Iraq is turning into a mighty country. Those that do not support it are against it. You want progress? LOOK at the progress isntead of pointing out the things that haven't been done. I can point things out in Australia too but I cannot for a minute ignore the works that are happening.

[Noah-]

100bn a year? Is that include the revenues from Kurdistan where Baghdad do not have a say in it?

Anyhow, these people are just simply hopeless that Iraq did not fall into larger chaos and civil war with the second raise of Baathists and the Takfiri sympathizers after the Americans left. Now, they want to weaken the government through these tactics so eventually divide the people and benefit it for a few ex-Baathists and Takfiris.

[Systematic]

Most people I know were opposed to the American invasion of Iraq. But now, at least the Shi'a are partly glad for it because it has led to Shi'ahs becoming the strongest political group in Iraq when earlier they had no political power whatsoever. So do people here think that the American invasion of Iraq was a good thing? If you could go back in time and prevent it from occurring, would you do it?

[hasanhh]

Most people I know were opposed to the American invasion of Iraq. But...

My experience was the opposite. Most people around here were all for "Operation: Blast Away"

[jhonkerry]

Ten years ago this week, on March 20, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq.

The war officially ended on Dec. 15, 2011 — eight years, eight months, three weeks and four days later — when the last American forces withdrew. In the days between, hundreds of thousands of lives were altered irrevocably. Home Fires asked 16 veterans who served in Iraq to reflect on how their lives changed on the two dates bracketing the war. Their accounts will be published in Home Fires on consecutive days this week.

[Sayeda Ja'fri]

You can pick some countries in the world and say that one part of it is primarily developing, however, America did have faults when it came to Iraq for 'weapons' and found nothing, and yes it is a 'Shiite State', but why are so many Shias being constant targets in Iraq by minorities? It's always minority groups whatever they believe in to cause trouble.

The only difference from 2003-2013 is that Saddam Hussein is gone.

Syria is the next target in sight if you ask me. Already some nations have been found supplying weapons to Syria. What sort of Arab Spring is this. We have to look at the bigger picture, and yes things are developing, but destruction is still prevalent as it was- maybe not as harsh; but still there.