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Mismanagement and the destruction of institutions that are still in the process of rebuilding have been constant in the 20 years following the unauthorized invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies. According to organizations specializing in the study of the war, many Iraqi families paid a high price for this transition from Saddam Hussein’s regime to the current system.
“The Americans came and said, we’ll give you whatever you need: full food rations, paved roads, sewage systems, and electricity. None of this happened. They just came, destroyed the country, stole the wealth, and then left.” This is how he describes his situation, 20 years after the start of the invasion, an inhabitant of Baghdad.
Two decades after the war started by the United States, Iraq still has not recovered from the conflict that devastated it not only physically, but also economically. An invasion that, for many, has contributed to generating a great scourge in what was the cradle of universal civilization: corruption.
Iraqis do not understand how the second largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which generates some 8 billion dollars a month, is unable to provide basic services to the population. The answer, according to Transparency International, is that Iraq ranks 157 out of 180 countries on the corruption index.
Despite being one of the richest countries in oil on the planet, the economy is stagnant, as evidenced by an unemployment rate that in 2002 was 8.9% of the working population and today is 16.5%, according to the World Bank.
the cost of war
According to a report by Brown University in the United States, the total costs to Washington of the wars in Iraq and Syria have been $1.8 trillion over the past two decades. But if you add in the costs of living for war veterans through 2050, the figure rises to $2.9 trillion.
The Joe Biden Administration is asking Congress for $842 billion for the Pentagon in budget year 2024. This is the largest request since the peak of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the mid-2000s, when the Hundreds of thousands of deployed troops skyrocketed war spending abroad.
An oil powerhouse without a diversified economy
Oil has been for Iraq, as for many of its neighbors, one of the main sources of resources, specifically 95% of federal income, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
This body revealed that, in 2020, when world oil prices plummeted, the Government was unable to finance basic services and even stopped paying public sector salaries and pensions.
A founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC for its acronym in English), Iraq has a voice and vote within this group that equates much of the world’s oil supply.
The once tourist destination of the cradle of civilization
With the US invasion, the Iraqi population also lost much of their cultural heritage. After Baghdad was taken, looters entered museums, libraries and archaeological sites, destroying and looting goods dating back to ancient Mesopotamia.
Today the country is trying to win tourists back to historic sites like the biblical city of Babylon, which is said to have housed the Hanging Gardens. There, archaeological and religious tourism stands out, since it was where keys to the development of humanity such as writing, codified laws, the wheel or agriculture arose.
With AP, EFE and Reuters
