CAPITALISM IN IRAQ

Gaylan King is Director of Security & Business Development for Gulfconsultec, Ltd., a business consulting firm based in Kuwait. I think you’ll his description of doing business in Iraq fascinating -JW

It is Wednesday, August 11, 2004, 2:34pm. We have just returned from a week of traveling in Iraq. We exited just as the current troubles were starting last Friday by actually driving through a small firefight in Basra before we realized what was happening.

I looked to my right just in time to see someone wrapped in the red and white checkered headscarf, with only his eyes showing, let loose a full AK-47 clip at a target in front of us. There were small boys quite near to him, hiding behind a wall watching all of this. I called out the shots just in time to see two Brit soldiers to my front left, up on a bank, return his fire right over our heads as we passed by. Then we were through it and heard later that evening that 3 extremists were killed in that fight.

It was ironic to end the trip on that note because my partner, Al (Dr. Alaa Saem Dahr), and I had just been discussing how “normal” things seemed in Iraq. We’d been traveling in a new, black Ford Expedition, accompanied by two of our Iraqi business partners. We’d been very careful and were armed with AK 47s and 9 MM pistols, but we didn’t brandish them and had good Intel on every destination we visited.

Our first indication that something was going on was a tip not to make an intended stop at the city of Hilla on the way home, so we re-routed to Basra and then to Kuwait. Moqtada Al Sadr, the source of this current fighting, is a 29 year-old Shii’a extremist cleric with suspect credentials. He is also a surly thug. His father, a legitimate Shii’a leader and cleric, was murdered while praying a few years ago. The son claimed his father’s power and portion of the Shii’a “Temple Money” and there’s been fighting ever since.

“Mookie” is also an agent for Iranian interests. In my estimation, he’s an outright crook who hates Americans. He’s broken several agreements and the new government needs to neutralize him. We left Kuwait last Sunday, 1 August, and spent the first day in Basra looking at office-space and furnished apartments. Our plans will eventually require us to establish quarters and offices in several Iraqi locations.

We slept at the luxurious home of one of the Iraqi friends and were only disturbed by three power outages during the night. He had backup generators set up to immediately pick up the load, a common practice in Iraq. The next morning we drove to a very large sugar factory in Amarra which was intact but not producing any refined sugar (they don’t grow enough in Iraq). We met with the plant manager and told him we’d bring him raw sugar ($60.00 per ton into our port, from Viet Nam and India) and pay him $100 per ton to refine it. That money goes to the manager who then distributes it along tribal lines, maintaining his leadership and their work-social structure without the Ministers in Baghdad getting involved.

They were very pleased with that price and will give us about 10,000 tons a month. We will then resell it on the world market for about $220-230 per ton. They said, “Bring us the raw materials and let us work!” This is how the economy will be rebuilt in Iraq. We’ve been offered another large sugar refinery in Mosul by the Ministry of Industry, but that area is not yet safe and is for later.

We drove on to reach Baghdad by dusk. In late afternoon we stopped at a regular truck stop to eat a late lunch; our Iraqi passengers recommended it. The single room was large, clean and filled with 100-150 young Iraqi truck drivers. I was the only obvious Western in the room (I doubt they see many of us at this place). The room quieted and then someone gave me the, “thumbs up”, signal, which I returned. Then everyone started smiling and saying, “Welcome!” and so on.

That is really a gratifying experience; no one was frowning in the corner and whispering. The food was delicious. Iraq has the best-tasting vegetables and fruit and meat; this is an accepted fact. The waiters immediately cover the whole table with every kind of salad, pasta, vegetable and fruit imaginable, plus several kinds of Arab bread, which is simply delicious! After enough time this is removed and the main course is served. Mine happened to be a large chicken leg on a bowl of really delicious rice. It was the perfect size for a perfect meal.

Just then, our waiter, a good-looking 25 year-old man with crew cut hair, no beard or mustache, and a great smile, leaned down to me, gave the “thumbs up” sign and said, “George Bush good!” He then flipped the thumb to the down position and said, “Kerry bad!” We both laughed hysterically! All of his buddies were watching and agreeing it was a great moment.

I shook every one of their hands before we left; it was great fun and this kind of humor is one of the reasons I enjoy the Iraqis so much; they are educated, intelligent people and their land is the probable location for the very beginning of everything human. They were never wandering nomadic herdsmen as were the Gulf Arabs.

We arrived at the famous Palestine hotel in Baghdad by dusk and were looking forward to showers and air conditioning and, perhaps, a cold beer, but that was not to be. We’d just checked into the hotel when our Marine contact phoned to say that we were flying to TQ [Tequba, TQ for short, a Marine base 10 miles west of Fallujah -JW] in 3 hours and were to be at the Presidential Palace in the infamous “Green Zone” in an hour. Given the security checks on that route, we repacked and left immediately for the “Zone”.

At 9:00pm we donned flak vests and Kevlar helmets and boarded a completely blacked-out CH-46. We departed almost immediately and flew across Baghdad headed for Fallujah and then to TQ. It was probably 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit on the chopper. The back ramp-bottom was closed but remained open at the top; there were two very intense young men in low-light goggles manning 50 Cal. machine guns looking out to either side. The goggles give back a faint green circle of light around their eyes, producing an eerie effect.

We were the second of a two-ship formation and the most light I ever saw on the other bird was a green one on it’s very stern about the size of a quarter. We jinked pretty smartly every few minutes and flew low and fast through the dark night; a beautiful full moon would rise later. This experience brought back vivid memories of other distant wars and times and, despite the heat and the noise, touched some forgotten and undefined yearning within me. There were many more lights on the ground that one might imagine for this war-torn country; we could have been flying over L.A. and its suburbs.

We landed suddenly at Fallujah. It was pitch black with only 2 pale blue lights marking our landing spot. Two trim, strong-looking young Marines shouldered their packs and stepped off into the darkness; we were airborne again almost instantly. The Marines give the enemy very little opportunity to zero in or “walk” rounds up to a target and fly only at night.

The next stop was our destination, Tequba, or the inevitable TQ. We were quickly off of the chopper and walking through the darkness to Base Ops, about a quarter of a mile away. A car met us there (we were escorted by a Marine friend of mine, Col. Dos Hettrick) and were informed that we were to be billeted in the Marine VIP Compound. We were dying from the heat; it was still well over 110 degrees F; you get thirsty every other step.

The VIP Quarters were pure Marine. It was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit in there (you could hang meat!) and we were immediately freezing. It would have been great to just crawl under the covers and get warm, but the bunks were bare, no pillow, sheets or blankets! The driver hurried left to seek sleeping bags but returned with only four sets of brand new sheets for the three of us and it was off to bed. We all slept in our clothes and out hats that night it was so cold!

After a really great breakfast we were off to brief a selected group of Marines about our proposed projects for their Area of Operation (AO). The Marines understand that people who are working and have a good life are less likely to be insurgents, so they wish to bring in projects that will create economic development in their AO and we’d offered them such a package.

Our first goal was to start flying freight to TQ with our new airline utilizing the long-body 727, a perfect bird for that environment. TQ offers 13,000 feet of excellent runway and plenty of ramp space. They showed us the whole facility, located space for our operations, offered us free jet fuel for this operation and any required cooperation. To give you some idea of their current costs for everything from mail to spare helicopter parts, DHL currently charges them $100 USD for a 2- pound package delivered there. We can give them a better rate and grow our airline to be ready for both freight and passenger service throughout Iraq when things quiet down, as they will.

I’ll go back soon to do the requirements survey and my partner is going to the states to buy the aircraft. We’ll be operational within 2-3 months. Our second goal was to evaluate a cement factory west on the Syrian border but still within the Marine AO. They’re flying us out there in a few days. This project has a couple of facets. They’re rebuilding the whole country of Iraq which has plenty of limestone and the other ingredients for cement, but there is a critical shortage of it in Iraq because all of the plants were destroyed or looted during and after the war. (Cement is the gray stuff in bags; Concrete is cement with aggregate and chemicals added, then mixed with water and put in trucks with the rotating cylinders. That’s mixed concrete and you’ve got to pour it at that point.)

Here’s how this project will bring economic development to Iraq. We know the manager and the tribal people from that plant we’ve targeted near Syria. They’ve carefully removed and stored the equipment and will return it intact if we put them back to work for fair pay. We can, through them, also truck the cement produced across that part of Iraq with no trouble or hostage problem. We’ll pay a fair price for the work to the manager who will then distribute it along their traditional tribal work and social lines; this maintains his position of authority which the people accept, the workers get fairly paid and everyone is happy.

Our next goal is to dedicate some of that cement for use in a pre-cast concrete plant near Fallujah. Pre-cast concrete is cool, an insulator from heat; it’s virtually bullet-proof and it is produced in some 30 different sized and shaped tongue-in-groove panels that allow you to build almost any shape or size with real structural rigidity. (You can build up 12 levels without re-enforcing it.)

Currently, modular housing is being shipped into Iraq from one large factory on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia; the transportation cost is some $4000.00 USD per unit and, since they’re pre-constructed, you’re shipping a lot of “air”. We can offer a better, much more versatile locally-produced product at half the price and employ Iraqis at the same time.

We also will be the Marines main supplier of concrete. They’re considering allowing us to locate a concrete batching plant (that’s where you mix the cement with the ingredients to make it into concrete) on TQ and the base commander has requested to buy as much concrete as we’ll sell to them to further fortify TQ, a base that will probably be in operation for some time. We’ll put some serious money into both factories and the batching plant and be a significant supplier of both cement and concrete in the huge Iraqi market.

The last project concerns the development of a secret resort of Saddam’s built about 5 kilometers from TQ on an absolutely beautiful, large (you can’t quite see across it) blue-green lake. There is currently no really safe place in which contractors may stay or base operations. We’ll be flying passengers into TQ before passengers are allowed into Baghdad International Airport and this development will give them a secure place from which to set up their operations. We’ll make this a 5-Star, turn-key resort with catering, recreation, high-speed internet and other business services, security, secure transportation to and from Baghdad or anywhere else in Iraq, weapons and clothing, etc.

There is a large palace there with a number of marble chalets located right on the lake. We can lease this property from the Iraqi government to operate a first-class resort for contractors, VIPs and others who wish to visit and work in Iraq. The Marines gave staff approval to our projects and all that remains is to get the Commander’s blessing from Lt. Gen. Conway.

I was very impressed with the quality of the Marines that we met and worked with. TQ is not a comfortable place and regularly takes isolated mortar rounds or rockets. There wasn’t a soldier there who hadn’t volunteered for this type of duty; I met several on their second tour at TQ. We should be proud of these kids and their Officers and NCOs. The Marines are a different breed of cat!

We flew back to Baghdad that evening, landing in the Green Zone around midnight. Al and I were staying downtown at the Palestine, so we got on out helmets and vests, “cocked and clocked” our weapons, openly displaying them, and sped through the darkened streets of down-town Baghdad much to the dismay of several Iraqis who’ve probably never seen Westerners out at that hour!

The following morning we did some pretty mundane things in a very normal-looking, bustling downtown Baghdad. We opened a bank account in a crowded, busy bank. The General Manager, who was as fair-complexioned as I am, with blue-green eyes, snow-white hair and perfect English, had been there for many years and was probably the Gnome of Baghdad. I suspect that he knew many secrets.

We then met with the Minister of Industry and his Deputy about our various projects. This went very well because these men are delighted when companies bring them well-conceived plans that will put Iraqis to work in the basic industries. Both men were well-educated technocrats who had trained in various countries, spoke perfect English, were very glad to meet and to help us and will ably represent the economic future of Iraq.

The night before we left on this trip I read a piece in Newsweek about the “mean streets” of Baghdad and how terrible things were in the city. This was probably written by some 25-year-old who never left the hotel bar until something tragic was going on, if then. His “mean streets”, when I saw them, were filled with refrigerators, TVs and electronic equipment, clothing and shoes, generators and every other imaginable kind of consumer goods. These things are both inside the many shops and out on the sidewalks; someone is buying them or they wouldn’t be there. The women and children are out on the streets; my favorite restaurant was full at 3 in the afternoon and the owner was busy doubling its size (La Takia in the Carrada area if any of you are going to Baghdad!)

A couple of things can happen now as the country seems ready to return to some form of normalcy. A civil war among the Shii’a might even be a positive event (even the U.S. lived through one) if it would give the country a clear path to a non-despotic solution to the violence and chaos. Then, Mr. Sadr, a puppet for the Iranian interest in Cleric-ruled states, might have a bad day and he and his lawless followers be soundly defeated by Iraqi government forces backed up by Coalition Forces.

In either case, I feel that the next few months will see Iraq settle down a lot. I saw a bunch of pretty normal people trying to get back to the average things in life that give it peace and value. The Bad Guys are there but their numbers continue to dwindle as they choose to confront the government interests head-on and find the Martyrdom they claim that they seek.