According to a recent NBC News story, a new U.S. government report has identified corruption in at least 12 Iraqi ministries. Medical supplies and equipment designated for Iraqi hospitals are being stolen by corrupt officials in the Iraq Ministry of Health and sold on the black market while senior government officials sanction their activities. The report also states that the Ministry of Health is under the control of the Mahdi Army, an anti-American militia run by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The report also suggests that the corruption goes all the way to the top as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki often intervenes to thwart investigations.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20043428/
Similarly, corruption in the Iraqi oil industry is largely to blame for the long lines of Iraqi cars as the owners wait to fill up their tanks. A missing battalion of police, widespread corruption in the Iraqi army, and selective prosecutions were also cited as part of the overall problem of corruption in the Iraqi government. According to Judge Rahdi al Rahdi, Iraq’s lead anti-corruption investigator, the estimated amount of missing money involved in the government corruption is $11 Billion.
The parallels between the situation in Iraq and the U.S. bear pointing out here. An Iraqi Prime Minister who intervenes to stop investigations into corruption while our President defies Congressional subpoenas for the same purpose. Iraqi ministers invoke Article 136B to exempt corrupt government officials from prosecution which is similar to a Presidential pardon or commutation at the least. Billions of dollars being stolen from the Iraqi public by their government while Billions of U.S. dollars are being channeled into the hands of friends of the Bush Administration. In the meantime, an ineffectual Iraqi Parliament takes a thirty-day sabbatical while our do nothing Congress prepares to do the same.
The price of the Iraqi War in terms of American lives lost or injured and dollars spent has been well documented. The most recent estimate of nine-months ago list 655,000 Iraqi civilians killed. In addition, an estimated two-million Iraqi citizens have been displaced from their homes in Iraq while an estimated two and a half million more have gone into exile outside of the Country. The new Iraqi government continues to plunder its citizenry many of whom lack food, water, housing, and medical care. Violence and death remain the only constants in civilian life in Iraq while the World is left to find a silver-lining beyond this dark Iraqi cloud. This is progress how, Mr. President?