Iraq (and the world) after the war

The press is filled with endless scenarios about how the war will be conducted, what kind of resistance Iraq’s despotic leader will offer, whether his soldiers will surrender en masse, and how long the United States will have to occupy that nation in order to bring about needed changes.

No one knows the answers, but Joseph Braude comes very close to some in his book, The New Iraq: Rebuilding the Country for its People, the Middle East, and the World ($26.00, Basic Books). A senior analyst for Pyramid Research, a Cambridge, MA consulting firm, Braude knows both the history and languages of the Middle East, and he offers an optimistic forecast. "Once Iraqis stabilize and liberate their own capabilities and infrastructure, they will turn outward. Then the modern standard-bearers of the world’s oldest civilization will use their extraordinary talents as entrepreneurs and facilitators to shine light on knowledge and information gaps all over the Middle East and beyond."

What few Americans truly grasp because they have never experienced it, is the way Iraq today resembles the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The grip of its multi-level internal security agencies makes it impossible for anyone to express any opposition without risking imprisonment or death. Children are encouraged to turn in their parents, their brothers and sisters, for any hint of criticism. "The intelligence business was a growth industry in Iraq since the Ba’th takeover in 1968," notes Braude. "In 2003, available Iraqi intelligence documents surveyed suggest that more than 500,000 people spanning the country’s 18 provinces were serving as sometime snitches for the five principle services: special security, general security, general intelligence, military intelligence, and military security."

The transformation of Iraq from a society based on fear into one that taps the human and natural resources of the nation will take years, but we know that this was accomplished after WWII with the former Nazi Germany and we know that the former Soviet Union is beginning to build a flourishing capitalist economy.

The liberation of Iraq will generate many positive changes, not only for that nation, but throughout the Middle East. "Baghdad is poised to reclaim its traditional role as a hub of Middle East commerce," says Braude. With the spread of commerce comes the spread of new information and new ideas. The Middle East is in desperate need of both. "A viable Iraqi economy will reinvigorate intellectual activity throughout the Arab world by vastly increasing the demand market for Arabic-language books," says Braude who further notes that Iraqis are considered to be among the region’s most voracious readers.

Importantly, "Iraq can provide a model that strengthens security in the region and reduces bloated military budgets that divert public funds from investment in education, health, and industry." This aspect of the Middle East’s economy has largely gone unreported in the American and European press. Also unreported is an essential aspect of understanding Iraq today. It is totally impoverished. It has no real professional middle class because of the widespread criminality of its government. Its money is virtually without any real value. The entire economic structure of Iraq will have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

The war on Iraq with its emphasis on removing Saddam Hussein from power is about setting in motion changes that will affect the entire region. It is not just about oil. It is not just about curtailing terrorism. It is profoundly about spreading freedom, representative government, and ending the death grip of fundamentalist Islam on the lives of millions throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Will there be problems along the way? Yes, most certainly. Iraq was literally created by British politicians after World War I out of the disparate provinces of the former Ottoman Empire. A big question will be Kurdish independence and it affects not only Iraq, but Iran and Turkey as well. No one knows how this will play out.

Iraq is literally the cradle of civilization. The wheel, the invention of writing, the world’s great religions all began there. It was also the world’s first totalitarian state when the Assyrians ruled and it was a place, under the rule of Cyrus, where there was religious freedom. Its history is the history of the struggle between the worst elements of human nature with its best.

It has fallen to the United States and its allies to liberate Iraq and, in doing so, liberate the Middle East from the ignorance and backwardness of the worst aspects of Islam. The Iraqis have the capacity to join the modern world if given the opportunity. They have the potential of demonstrating to millions throughout the region and the world that freedom is the way of the future.