Iraq

THE ISSUE OF POVERTY in Iraq has become an intensely contested and controversial one. The controversy is rendered more opaque by a lack of credible data in many cases, and the intensity of the political debate concerning the invasion and occupation of the country by U.S. military forces. The invasion was backed by a small number of allies, ostensibly in the search for weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. In the aftermath of the invasion, significant loss of life continued with bombings and shootings on an almost daily basis. This was created by opposition to the occupation and by internecine religious and ethnic conflict. The long, porous borders of the country meant that many extremists had been able to enter Iraq to participate in and stimulate further violence. Much of the infrastructure, destroyed by the invasion, had yet to be repaired by 2006 and suffering, hunger, and lack of medical services and sanitation was prevalent across the country. Deposed dictator Saddam Hussein presided over a brutal, murderous regime that benefited various sections of society, while oil incomes sustained a subsidized lifestyle for preferred elites.

Historically, Iraq has been one of the most civilized and prosperous parts of the world. The invasion of the Mongols led to the destruction of the Middle East and its agricultural and social systems to the extent that the population of the region today is, according to some estimates, even lower than it was then. The geographic area of Iraq was always integrated into larger or at least different territorial units and did not exist as an independent, separate nation until the division of the Ottoman Empire by the Western powers following the end of World War I.

The Ottoman Empire had long run out of the vigor that had characterized it as one of the most vibrant cultures of the Western world and, by the 20th century, Baghdad was no longer one of the great shining beacons of world civilization but had become something of a backwater. As a separate, autonomous country, Iraq was created under British influence and set in a context of other, neighboring states with the same genesis. It is bordered by Iran to the east, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan and Syria to the west, and Turkey to the north.

Much of the northern region is dominated by the Kurdish people, who are part of the most numerous people in the world not to have a home state of their own. To the southeast there is a narrow entrance to the Persian Gulf, which is the principal route by which Iraq has been able to export oil extracted from its significant amount of reserves. Iraq has a population of just over 26 million. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita has been estimated at around $2,100 in 2004, although unemployment is very high and may exceed 30 percent in some areas. Excess deaths caused by the invasion have been estimated at 100,000, and are still rising by some sources. This may be added to the number of people who died or who suffered extensively as a result of the sanctions enforced on Iraq in the wake of the first Gulf War. These are estimated as including the preventable deaths of 170,000 children under the age of 5, the creation of nearly two million refugees, and the reduction of GDP to 0.5 percent of its prewar level.

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