I want to pontificate here for a moment, so bear with me, because this might come off a little rambling, but that's what GLP is for, right? OK, here we go...

So, I was reading, just a little while ago, that the US and Iraq wants to implement a sort of Chamber of Commerce [link to www.mubasher.info] and I also read that we had the third meeting about the Strategic Framework Agreement where free market reforms must be implemented. [link to translate.google.com]

This is something that's been bugging the hell out of me since I got into this and started hearing that Iraq needs to implement free market reforms in order for the economy to grow, and for us to get paid. We all know a socialist economy like Iraq has is doomed to, at best, stagnation (Argentina), and at worst, utter long-term, poverty-stricken megafail (Cuba). I really started thinking about this when I heard about the death of Hugo Chavez, because he's got a system that it seems Maliki is trying to emulate, where the government owns or controls everything, private enterprise is marginalized, and the people who vote for the dictator get thrown a bone to keep them in line. The Kurds are the only folks in Iraq who seem to care about much other than their 7th century religion and death to the infidels, other than Sadr, who, other than his 7th century religion and death to the infidels, really only cares that his people get their share of the government largesse. Here's President Jalal Talabani addressing his "comrades" at the 23rd annual Socialist International. [link to www.socialistinternational.org]

I guess my biggest problem with this is, why the hell did we not FORCE a free market on these fools from the get go? We could have rammed it down their backwards government's throat way back in 2005, and there ain't a damn thing they could have done about it. Why do we see business interests begging this government, in 2013, just to free up the economy a little bit, so that industry can move in and farmers can get to work on the Garden of Eden between the Tigris and Euphrates? I wasn't around back then, so I don't have the whole story, but it just makes no sense at all that we would invade, overthrow one dictator, and put another one in with exactly the same policies. I even see references from time to time where some Iraqi politician will say something like, "Well, there's nothing we can do about that business. It's governed by the Law of Industry of 1979." Why are there still laws on the books from 1979 and why is anybody paying attention to them?!?!?!?!?!?

All that said, it looks like Iraq is going to be dragged into a free market kicking and screaming and will, ultimately have a thriving economy, but all this could have been prevented by imposing it on them years ago. I guess I should be thanking them for their lack of progress because they would have revalued the money years ago, and I never would have heard about it, but, damn, these people confound me. It's like they enjoy the infighting and stagnation.