LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Iraq: Regimes
built 628 days ago
Despite its abundant land and water resources, Iraq is a net food importer. Under the UN Oil-For-Food program, Iraq imported large quantities of grains, meat, poultry, and dairy products. Obstacles to agricultural development during the previous regime included labor shortages, inadequate management and maintenance, salinization, urban migration, and dislocations resulting from previous land reform and collectivization programs. A Ba'ath regime policy to destroy the "Marsh Arab" culture by draining the southern marshes and introducing irrigated farming to this region destroyed a natural food-producing area, while concentration of salts and minerals in the soil due to the draining left the land unsuitable for agriculture. Through assistance from USAID and USDA, targeted efforts have begun to overcome the damage done by the Ba'ath regime in ways that will rehabilitate the agricultural sector and confront environmental degradation. These efforts include infrastructure development, private sector development, veterinary clinic restoration, increased wheat production, and training and technical assistance in developing policies on sustainable water resources management and building Iraqi natural resources management.
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The Iraqi intifada of 1991 showed the extent of anger in Iraq when the regime is weak; people rebel immediately. When it is strong, they do their best to survive its iron fist. Yet resistance by people in the north and the south has not stopped.
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Iraq is currently recovering from three decades of oppression and upheaval. The policies of the former Iraqi regime weakened Iraq's international trade relations and infrastructure, impacting Iraq's ability to attract foreign investment. International sanctions ... affected legitimate economic activity and international exchange of goods and services. The consequences of these policies can be seen through economic data. Between 1980 and 2003 per capital GDP fell from USD 3600 to around USD 700. Unemployment during this same period increased from 15 percent to as much as 30-50 percent.
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The Arab summit in March 2001 revealed two key aspects of Iraq's policy. First, Iraq's undermining of the Arab position during the summit to ask the U.N. Security Council to lift the sanctions shows that Baghdad does not in fact want the sanctions lifted. Sanctions benefit the regime in several ways, winning it sympathy in Arab circles and allowing it to control the Iraqi people. Lifting the sanctions that hurt the people of Iraq while keeping the military sanctions and the U.N.-controlled escrow account would open a dynamic the regime could not control. Second, Iraq continues to harbor negative intentions towards Kuwait.
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A Soldier provides security with a 50 caliber machine gun in Mosul, Iraq. He is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division�s Company C, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Photo by Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson.
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