Iraq is a Third World Country

Sorry the internet has been out.

This is not an idea original to me, but actually a very legitimate point, brought up by a soldier I work with, and added upon with my own ideas. There seems to be a standard that we need to make Iraq better than it was. We are trying to reverse some of the damage done by years of dictatorial reign and warfare. But there is one thing that we cannot reverse and that is likely the root of all the problems in the first place. Iraq is a third world country.

This may seem “American-“ or “Euro-centric,” but third world is as much of a mindset as it is a state of being. The reason that the U.S., (or Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, etc.) went from being a backwater country, to industrial powerhouses was that as a culture they decided that they would. This meant hard work for everyone, and fundamental honesty, if not perfect honesty. Those are the only things that can change a nation and it has to happen at the basic level.

Iraq, however, never had that. Sloth and corruption pre-date Saddam, although he exacerbated it greatly. Even though there are many honest and hard working people they are undercut by the rampant corruption and sloth of their fellows. Can you imagine having to run, lets say a road construction business, where you had to monitor everything? Even the simplest task would become nearly impossible. You could not accept that a truck of gravel was full, or would even be delivered if you did not inspect it yourself.

These are the obstacles Iraq faces everyday. They get through them somehow, but I have no idea how. They will always be a third world country, until they decide to be otherwise. We can’t help them with that, but we have made them a decent, mostly free, third world country. It is really up to them to climb onto the top rung themselves.