Rizgar Khoshnaw |

In the past few months I have written about Iraq’s pitiful economy and the rampant corruption, but I did not discuss ways to resolve this problem. Now, I am going to share my thoughts of how Iraq can recover and stop begging foreign countries, especially the Americans, for money.

Between 1980-1987 (an eight-year span) the Iraqi government had generated a total of $96 Billion (Ninety six) in oil revenue and that amount of money was enough to provide all of Iraq with free healthcare, paid full civil servant’s salaries, free education, 24 hours a day of electricity, security and so on. And, lets not forget that during these years, Iraq was at devastating war with Iran and still managed to provide Iraqis with a very comfortable and respectable life.

Contrast that with the same amount of time (period between 2004-2012) the Iraqi “government” generated a total of $800 Billion (Eight Hundred) and the Iraqi citizens do not have the very basic life necessities such as clean water and electricity. After generating $800 Billion in a short eight-year time period, Iraq has nothing to show for it and audaciously begging the International Banks to lend them a measly $2 Billion! This is absolutely disgusting to me and I do not understand how Iraqis have become so shameless and beggars.

During the 1980’s, Iraq had one leader that was evil and a thieve, Saddam Hussein, but since 2003, Iraq had managed to attract 1,000’s of thieves and corrupt “leaders” that the majority came from England!

Where did all of the money go to? From what I am reading on daily basis is that the majority of this stolen money found its way to London banks. In the past year, I have written the British embassy in Washington, DC numerous times asking them to stop the Iraqis from depositing the stolen Billions in their banks, but they never answer a single mail, phone call or e-mail. The British government/banks are turning a “blind eye” to the billions of Iraqi stolen money that is finding its way to their banks and such deliberate silence must be questioned and investigated.

What has made this money embezzlement so easy is the fact that about 80% of Iraqi “politicians” are actually British citizens and have come from England to rule/control Iraq! From the Iraqi president, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, Oil Minister and many other ministers down to advisers are all British citizens. I no longer see Iraq as “Iraq” but I see it as part of England as it controlled/managed by highly corrupt British citizens!

The only way to restore Iraq and help the Iraqis is by having an international body (hopefully lead by Americans) accompanied by some honest Iraqis, investigate and bring back ALL of the stolen billions that is now outside of Iraq. This is not a difficult mission to accomplish, but such action must start immediately before the stolen money finds its way out of England!

Rizgar Xoshnaw, a senior Kurdish writer based in Washington, a longtime contributing writer and columnist for Ekurd.net.

Source: Special to Ekurd.net