Falling Revenues Threaten Rebuilding in Iraq | NYT article by Campbell Robertson and James Glanz

Flikr photo by Army.mil used under a Creative Commons license. The New York Times today published a piece on how the global financial crisis will affect security and stability in Iraq.  Since oil revenues have declined drastically since the summer, the government faces a shortfall of money to pay government salaries, including the security forces.  Even with the constraints of the economic crisis, the national army and police are increasingly being asked to provide security on their own, as American troops redeploy to Afghanistan.  As Iraq struggles to re-build and take responsibility for its own security forces, the need to maintain professional salaries for Iraqis fighting on the front lines is a priority. Rick Barton was quoted in the NY Times article:

There are some critical expenditures, like paying the military and the police, and making sure that’s being done very, very well. You can’t afford any slippage at this time.

Salaries account for 35 percent of the Iraqi government budget, and some sectors received wage increases last year before the downturn of the global economy.  Paying better salaries for soldiers and police is an important first step to counter a culture of bribes and corruption, but security forces cannot provide security in isolation of progress.  The provision of electricity and clean water are top priorities for Iraqi civilians and also require substantial investments.  As one Iraqi Minister in the article explains:

It’s a mathematical issue. We are staying up all night trying to ensure that there are required funds for projects currently under way. The issue comes with the future projects.