Iraq: October 6, 2003

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The Iraqi Governing Council and the coalition forces are increasingly arguing over how reconstruction money is spent. The Iraqis want more control over the money, but the coalition forces know that the corruption problem will cause most of the money to disappear if Iraqis get their hands on it. The corruption is a major problem that no one has a good solution for. Once Iraq has a constitution and an elected government in the next two years, the corruption is likely to lead to internal unrest and, possibly, civil war. While there are many uncorrupt Iraqis, there is a "culture of corruption" that requires some leadership from the top to clamp down on. So far, few of the current leading Iraqi politicians seem eager to push for a corruption free government. It's so much easier to get things done with bribes.