Tuesday, January 04, 2005
The advantages of corruption
Western sources close to reconstruction efforts in Iraq recently have shared details about endemic corruption within Iraq's fledgling government, which they say extends to every branch and level of bureaucracy. Local Iraqi sources -- both Shia and Sunni -- have corroborated these reports.
The Western sources are concerned the corruption will retard the reconstruction process in Iraq and might foster the ongoing insurgency there. However, the pervasiveness of the corruption within the government might prove a strength to a government whose stability is in question. After all, if everyone has a hand in the cookie jar, everyone has a vested interest in making sure the jar remains intact....
The Shia, Sunni, Kurds, Turkomen and other groups might scrap with one another for power publicly, but behind-the-scenes they have formed a kind of alliance based on the financial benefits each faction receives as part of the graft and lack of oversight in the Iraqi government. There might be no honor among thieves -- but an ad hoc alliance of mutual benefit is about as beneficial as anything the fledgling Iraqi government can hope for right now.
Americans, and especially the American press, tend to be real bluenoses when it comes to graft. Generally that's a good policy, but for every thing there is a season. Just as we should think twice about destroying Afghanistan's opium crop (why don't we buy it?), let's hope that in Iraq we have the wisdom to appreciate the cohesive power of money.
5 Comments:
By 
Pile On®, at
Tue Jan 04, 11:27:00 AM:
If you talk to anyone who does business in that part of the world, you will learn that it is a bit different than what we are accustomed to in our culture. If you want to get anything done, certain culural niceties are expected (payoffs).
By TigerHawk, at
Tue Jan 04, 11:40:00 AM:
One wonders whether the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act will keep American businesses from doing deals in the new Iraq. I imagine that our companies will be doing very little business there by 2008.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Tue Jan 04, 12:05:00 PM:
Sounds like fertile ground for Marc Rich!
By Gordon Smith, at
Tue Jan 04, 01:16:00 PM:
Great idea about buying the Afghani opium poppy crop! U.S. and other western governments could then sell it to the medical community to recoup costs. Morphine and other useful opiates can be made from these poppies rather than having them shot into the veins of junkies worldwide.
Good thinking, Hawk.
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