LAT: Iraqis Look at Cuts in Govt. Jobs: Could Swell Insurgency

[DeepModem Mom]

Iraqis Look at Cuts in Payroll
Many fear that a plan to slash government jobs, which make up nearly half of the country's workforce, could swell ranks of the insurgency.

By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer


BAGHDAD — Iraqis, who are already dealing with food shortages, daily power blackouts and a deadly insurgency, on Sunday received another dose of bad news: Their newly elected leaders may slash budgets and government jobs.

Many fear that the move could cause impoverished Iraqis to sympathize with rebel forces. The new Iraqi government said it recently had deployed 40,000 troops in the capital to capture militants, who have killed more than 800 people in the last month in suicide bombings and other attacks.

In addition to the insurgency, the government said it must also grapple with a bloated bureaucracy. Government spokesman Laith Kubba said that ministries were overstaffed and that a new agency could soon try to cut budgets and subsidies....

***

As many as half of Iraq's 6.5 million-strong workforce is employed by the state, thanks in part to ousted President Saddam Hussein, who increased the public payroll to mask unemployment and shore up a faltering economy....

***

Observers worry that any attempt to dismantle the patronage networks could alienate more Sunni Arabs, believed to be leading the insurgency....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq6jun06,0,5312194.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Wright Patman]

1. What's ironic

is that most of the employment growth under the neocon administration since 2001 has also been in the public sector.

I suppose Saddam is not the only guy who ever tried to mask a country's problems in this manner.

Private industry is continuing to move offshore and outsource.

[Benhurst]

2. Sooner or later most will join the patriots. Nobody likes

being invaded and occupied.

The only liberation the Bush Crime Family is interested in is "liberating" Iraq's oil from the Iraqi people.

[Frederik]

3. What a brilliant plan

A "bloated bureaucracy" strikes me as having to be the smallest of all of Iraq's problems at the moment. I guess it's the Heritage Foundation ideology at work, sure the insurgency is bad but "big government" is the problem that requires the most immediate attention!

[DainBramaged]

4. I guess the "missing" funds from the contracts dried up

Mark the words of my wrinkled old ass, * will ask for money from Congress to shore up the Iraq government and "employ" all of those poor Iraq government workers, while we get the short end of a very big stick.

I can smell freedom coming to Iraq any day now.:sarcasm:

[cap]

5. well, the initial layoff of 500K people sparked the insuragency

so we'll see what this leads to, right?

[leftchick]

6. gee, it is almost as if they want more chaos.

That is one way to keep the US there. I also wonder if this means Chalabi will be cutting his staff and private security?

[killbotfactory]

7. Silly LA times. Poverty and unemployment doesn't cause crime/terror!!

Don't they listen to limbaugh?

This is a massive moral failing on the part of Iraqi's, and therefor are justified in slaughtering them wholesale for the good of humanity.

[krkaufman]

8. If you were wondering why such a stupid approach...

Given that expelling thousands more from government jobs, to a free-falling market, would be akin to Bremer's great error of disbanding the military... if you were wondering why such a stupid approach was being taken, look no further than the following excerpts from the article.

(Government spokesman Laith) Kubba, who last week had discussed slashing popular subsidies for electricity and oil products, said that shrinking the government and allowing the private sector to expand would solve many of Iraq's financial troubles.

He said the nation was obligated to reduce public spending under a debt-reduction scheme sponsored by the International Monetary Fund. The Jafari government, he added, was contemplating creating a ministry of administrative reform to cut subsidies and bureaucratic waste.

I knew this move had a familiar stench. Same story, different day; we've learned nothing, and continue to put free-market ideology ahead of all else.

Read Naomi Klein's 'Baghdad Year Zero' article for more on this misguided strategy.

http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

[Roland99]

9. Just kill them all and make Iraq one big-ass experiment in outsourcing

I'm sure there are some in the administration that wouldn't mind doing that.