Bribery & Corruption: the NEW Iraq Criticism

First the anti-war argument was that it would send the region into turmoil and create a monster from the "Arab street" rising up; maybe there would be an Iraqi civil war or new dictatorships. None of that ever happened (except for pro-democracy rallies), so the arguments soon evaporated. Next, there was chaos - too much looting and insecurity - which proved that the U.S. should never have removed Saddam. Then, the violence was so bad that elections could never work....you get the idea.

The latest favorite argument seems to be that the new democracy in Iraq is not good for the Iraqi people because the construction of its infrastructure is too corrupt. Many international media sources discussed the issue last week, although the American media hasn't popularized it much - yet. According to a study by Transparency International, an international anti-corruption group and picked up by the usual suspects of anti-American media, there is widespread corruption throughout Iraq. Interestingly, the BBC article spends almost the entire article on Iraqi corruption related to construction and practically ignores the UN oil-for-food scandal. The BBC interpreted the scandal this way: "the management of Iraq's oil revenues needed to be much more transparent and accountable." And for the "U.S. inspired" construction in Iraq? This is how Transparency International describes it:

If urgent steps are not taken, Iraq will not become the shining beacon of democracy envisioned by the Bush administration, it will become the biggest corruption scandal in history [surpassing the UN?]....The US has been a poor role model in how to keep corrupt practices at bay.

So there you have it: the UN is basically innocent, while the U.S. is the real culprit. If you haven't heard the "mass corruption" stories yet (along with more gratuitous Halliburton references), be prepared...they are surely coming...because democracy in Iraq just cannot be a good thing.