The Iraq success story

Kevin McCullough:

The nation and economy known as the new Iraq is succeeding, and those who dispute this are simply lying.

Call it whatever you'd like - a quagmire, a country torn by violence, the next Vietnam, etc. - but it is dishonest to say is that this nation is not a success. Government corruption, uncontrolled militias, and (as the drive-by media likes to remind us) daily attacks using improvised exploding devices - but it is not an economy going under.

Take yourself back to the days following 9.11. Do you remember the near stand still our economy experienced? The airline industry down for days and the markets went into the tank. I can only surmise that similar bumps in our economic stability would be felt if we were seeing radicals crossing the borders from our neighbors (and who knows - they probably are), and decided once here they would blow up policemen, military check-points, and the passing civilians on a daily basis.

Despite the violence the economic growth in Iraq is defying all expectations by nearly any observer.

Want proof?

The leading cell phone company Iraqna is set to take in nearly $520 million in revenues in 2006. That follows a record year in 2005 of $333 million. The leading export of Iraq is producing nearly $41 billion in revenues. In 2004 there were only 8,000 registered companies with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - today there are over 34,000.

While we in the U.S. are thrilled to hear about GDP (gross domestic product) coming in at around 4% (so much so that it begins to bring down our national debt faster than expected), imagine enjoying Iraq's GDP growth of 13% in 2006. Which followed a record year in 2005 of 17%.

Since 2003 the salaries of average Iraqis have risen in excess of 100%. In addition the Iraqi government has slashed the income tax rates from 45% to just around 15%. That has resulted in the average Iraqi family being able to develop long term nest-eggs (we call them IRAs).

Gasoline is only .56 cents a gallon. It wouldn't be that high except that Iraq decided to payoff some of its debt to the World Bank and are using energy profits to do so.

In addition much of the formerly centralized organization of the economy has been turned over to private sector endeavors and while some government sectors have seen a spike in unemployment, private sector unemployment is hovering around 30%. (High to you and me, but still better than in the Saddam era.)

There will be many who will read this latest round of good news and dismiss it out of hand. But thinking people will understand that this growth did not happen in a vacuum.

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So how did the main stream media miss this important story. My speculation is that if it happened while a Democrat was in office they would think it was important. The author recognizes that there is more to be done in Iraq, but one thing should be clear. This type of growth will not happen in a country ruled by our enemies.

Iran's economy is in the tank despite record oil revenue. Afghanistan was a basket case living on charity when ruled by the Taliban. The Palestinian territories are also a basket case living on charity. Somalia is below a failed state. Where ever the the Islamist are in charge their culture drags the local economy into an abyss. It is the Islamist culture that makes them poor and not the "plundering" of resources by the west as claimed by economic idiot, Osama bin Laden. If they would accept the western culture of capitalism and freedom as was done in places like South Korea, they could have prosperity. What the Islamist are trying to do is kill prosperity.