Much of the Iraqi government exists only on paper.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article319606.ece

Extract from an article by The Independent's Patrick Cockburn, 14 October 2005:

The only part of Iraq that is prospering is Kurdistan, because it has security. Even prostitutes from Baghdad have migrated to Sulaymaniyah on the grounds that the capital is too dangerous to work in. For all the billions of dollars supposedly spent on reconstruction in the rest of Iraq there are very few building sites to be seen outside the three Kurdish provinces where businessmen throng the hotels...

"The Iraqis are suffering from corruption, terrorism and occupation," says the veteran opposition leader Mahmoud Othman. "Every year it is getting worse."

...Insurgents are tightening their grip in Sunni-dominated districts in south and west Baghdad.

...In theory Iraqi army and security forces are being built up towards the 200,000 level but when Kurdish intelligence counted a unit entering Kirkuk they found most of the soldiers were not there. Its men stayed home or never existed while commanders pocketed the salaries of these "ghost battalions".

Much of the Iraqi government exists only on paper. It is more of a racket than an administration. Its officials turn up only on pay day.

Elaborate bureaucratic procedures exist simply so a bribe has to be paid to avoid them...

A set of milestones were devised - the turning over of sovereignty to Iraq, the elections, the constitution - whose primary purpose was to give a spurious sense of progress to American voters. Not surprisingly they show increasing anger at being duped.


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