That's true--that sort of rebellion happens in a lot of places. I didn't know about the comparison to Haiti and Calcutta--was it always that way, or just worsened by the sanctions over the last decade? I'd heard that before Gulf War I broke out a decade ago, the Iraqis were modernizing and on the path to breaking out of Third World status.
One of the things that surprised me watching these news reports from Iraq was how many of the Iraqis speak English, and someone told me when I asked about it that Saddam had invested a lot of money in education for the Iraqis (free college, etc.). Again, that probably changed after the sanctions started and services started dropping off in quality over the years.
If you were an Arab Sunni Muslim and supported the Ba'ath socialist party, you did well in Saddam's regime and had acces to education. The slums are composed mostly of Shiite Muslims.
Most of the money went into Saddam's pocket, hence 43 palaces around the country. The elaborate ones with 15-ft chandeliers, marble floors, and gold toilets. He stashed billions outside the country in foreign bank accounts. I have seen estimates of $30 billion. Anyway, there is an attempt to track down this money and return it to Iraq to rebuild the country.