That’s the way ya do it
I’ve been skeptical of the arguments (put forth, ironically, by both Iraq-forever Bushites and some stoutly anti-occupation progressive bloggers) that the increasingly frequent remarks by Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and his political allies in favor of a U.S. troop withdrawal timeline are merely posturing in advance of Iraq’s provincial elections — in part because those elections keep getting delayed, which would seek to make posturing beside the point.
But via the excellent, unsung blog Musings on Iraq, I can see that some other activities of Maliki’s can’t be interpreted any other way. Here’s an Associated Press story I missed a couple of weeks ago:
It is a politician’s dream: Handing out cold, hard cash to people on the street as they plead for help. Iraq’s prime minister has been doing just that in recent weeks, doling out Iraqi dinars as an aide trails behind, keeping a tally.
The handouts by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a handful of other top officials are authorized — as long as each goes no higher than about $8,000, and the same people don’t get them twice. Aides say they are meant merely to ease the pain a bit, and are motivated by a belief that better conditions will lead to more security.
The cash handouts are just one small — if eye-catching — part of a major investment push this summer by Iraq’s government. The aim is to rebuild basic services and jumpstart Iraq’s damaged economy by quickly distributing as much of the country’s glut of oil revenue as possible.
. . . “Money is not a problem,” al-Maliki told a recent gathering of tribal chiefs in the southern city of Basra, after government forces had defeated Shiite extremists there. “But we must put it in honest hands to spend.”
. . . Most of the grants the prime minister gives out are only $200 to $400 to help those needing medical care, widows or people without jobs. On one recent visit to the riverside Abu Nawas park in Baghdad, he gave a group of boys each the equivalent of $40 in dinars to buy soccer balls. The biggest grants require documentation like letters from a hospital, his aides say.
Nice to see that the powers-that-be in Iraq are finding ways to put that huge budget surplus to good (political) use, I suppose.
Stumble it!
