Iraq takes delivery of C-130J Super Hercules

[indushek]

Truth is the US would not even get 1/10 of what it spent in Iraq from the contracts. This money goes to the military industry not to the US government, other than taxes of course.

Iraq has to build its forces regardless whether its American or Russian planes.

How is the ground situation in Iraq right now, is there peace and people are doing fine??

 

[Alshawi1234]

Security wise most of the provinces are safe. South and central Euphrates as well as the Kurdish region are safe. The security is still not perfect in the Sunni and mixed areas, but it is much better than before. The Army and police control all the cities and towns unlike before. But the problem is terrorists use distrust tactics such as car bomb or IED's and usually target civilian areas, so it's really hard to prevent all the terrorist attacks.

The north Kurdish region or "kurdistan" is pretty much a country, they have their own government and army.

The economy is much better, construction is starting to boom, but not as quick as it should be.

But there are major problems regarding the development. Corruption and bureaucracy are halting real development. This is mainly because the government is run manually.

Electricity is still not available 24/7. Most of the government associations work manually (all paperwork rather than electronic), also no proper banking system. The vast majority of the people don't have bank accounts.

Hopefully once these problems are solved in the couple years to come the "real" boom in iraq will begin.

So it's far from perfect, but going the right way.
After all, Iraq has just gotten out of 30 years of constant destruction. No real construction has been going on since 1980's.

 

[indushek]

Security wise most of the provinces are safe. South and central Euphrates as well as the Kurdish region are safe. The security is still not perfect in the Sunni and mixed areas, but it is much better than before. The Army and police control all the cities and towns unlike before. But the problem is terrorists use distrust tactics such as car bomb or IED's and usually target civilian areas, so it's really hard to prevent all the terrorist attacks.

The north Kurdish region or "kurdistan" is pretty much a country, they have their own government and army.

The economy is much better, construction is starting to boom, but not as quick as it should be.

But there are major problems regarding the development. Corruption and bureaucracy are halting real development. This is mainly because the government is run manually.

Electricity is still not available 24/7. Most of the government associations work manually (all paperwork rather than electronic), also no proper banking system. The vast majority of the people don't have bank accounts.

Hopefully once these problems are solved in the couple years to come the "real" boom in iraq will begin.

So it's far from perfect, but going the right way.
After all, Iraq has just gotten out of 30 years of constant destruction. No real construction has been going on since 1980's.

No doubt it will take you more than decade or two to get your bearings right. The above highlighted things are as prevalent in my country as yours despite being a democracy for a long time. What you have mentioned plague every developing nation. Just keep at it. Nice to hear that atleast some areas are doing fine.

Regarding the kurds, they seem to be discussed by Turks too. Is it a common problem between you and Turkey??

 

[Alshawi1234]

The area where te Kurds lived was split between 3 different countries when the British drew the borders for the modem day states of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Ever since they have been fighting for the country. Most Iraqis don't care about if they take their three provinces in the north and split for Iraq. Te Kurds are a cash drainage and contribute to nothing of the federal budget, yet they get 15% of the budget from Baghdad to run their region. Most of them hate Iraq and prefer to say their kurds rather than Iraqis.

During the past 100 years they have settles some Iraqi land and as a result have Become a slight majority of the areas they settled (mainly Kirkuk, which was originally settled by Iraqi Turkmen. Today it is a mixed city of Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds, but the Kurds want it because it has oil, the Kirkuk oil wells are currently under Iraqi controll.
There are also other areas in the province of Nineveh, known as the "Nineveh plains" east of Mosul city. This area has undeveloped oil wells as well. But it is "disputed" because it was originally under Iraqi control, but when the Americans invaded, the Kurds took the advantage to loot the old Iraqi army weapons and push towards iraqi territory in order to included into their region.

They have recently sign production sharing contracts giving 50% of the oil to the forgien companies in order to gain external support against Iraq, just in cast iraq decides to attack the Kurds (the oil companies will Lobby their governments to support the Kurds in order to get 50% of the oil. Iraq refused the contracts; the contracts iraq signed are service coin tracts giving less than 3%.

This caused caused large oil companies to head to Kurdistan instead. Southern Iraq has about 10x more oil than Kurdistan, but the 50% makes it more profitable. The Turks right now have great relations with Iraq Kurds, and are working together to weaken the Iraqi government. This in exchange for oil that the Kurds are offering to Turkey.

So for us it's all the gulf states, Turkey, and the Kurds all working against Iraq.

The Kurds want to make their own country. But they want to include all the "disputed" territory as well. Iraq refused to Give the disputed territory to the Kurds. If the Kurds declare independence without solving the disputed territories, this will lead to Iraq attacking the Kurdish region.

The situation is really complex because the iraqi army is still not fully developed especially the Air Force. That would cause heavy casualties for both sides.

If the Iraqi air forces is strong enough, the Kurds will be forced to give ul the disputed territories without risking a war.