Amir Taheri: The Iraq We Don't Hear About

The Sunday Times ^ | June 20, 2004 | Amir Taheri

[quidnunc]

In London the other day the Iraqi national football team met a team made up of MPs, mostly opponents of the war, for a friendly match.

The Iraqis won 15-0.

Six months ago the team did not even exist. But in August, after defeating several opponents, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, the men will stand to attention as Iraq's new flag is raised at the Olympic games in Athens.

Iraq today is no bed of roses, I know. I have just come back from a tour of the country. But I don't recognise the place I have just visited as the war zone depicted by the Arab and western media.

It is true that Saddamite leftovers and their allies have stolen enough money and arms to continue their campaign of terror and disruption for some time yet. But they have no popular following and have failed to develop a coherent national strategy. The Iraqi civil defence corps has gone on the offensive, hunting down terrorists, often with some success. At the same time attacks on the Iraqi police force have dropped 50% in the past month.

There is also good news on the economic front. In the last quarter the dinar, Iraq's currency, has increased by almost 15% against the dollar and the two most traded local currencies, the Kuwaiti dinar and the Iranian rial.

Thanks to rising oil prices, Iraq is earning a record Pounds 41m to Pounds 44m a day. This has led to greater economic activity, including private reconstruction schemes. That money goes into a fund controlled by the United Nations but Iraqi leaders want control transferred to the new interim government, when sovereignty is transferred at the end of this month.

Despite the continuing terrorist violence Iraq has attracted more than 7m foreign visitors, mostly Shi'ites making the pilgrimage to Najaf and Karbala where (despite sporadic fighting) a building boom is under way. This year Iraq has had a bumper harvest with record crops, notably in wheat. It could become agriculturally self-sufficient for the first time in 30 years.

"Iraq has always had everything that is needed to build a successful economy," says Heydar al-Ayyari, an Iraqi politician. "We have water and fertile land. We have oil and a hardworking people. What we lacked was freedom. Now that we have freedom we can surge ahead."

-snip-

[Cheetah1]

Bump Bump de Bump :)

Good stuff

[cake_crumb]

BUMP!! Forwarding to the network of interested parties!

[nuconvert]

PonG

[F14 Pilot]

They defeated Iranian Olympic Team not the national team. It is different as I know.