Al-Monitor’s numerous failed attempts to interview officers shows the difficulty of getting into corruption issues in Iraq.
However, writer and political analyst Jasim al-Mousway told Al-Monitor that corruption has spread in Iraq and that the reasons behind it were “the haste to form a military institution after 2003, in addition to the financial motives of certain leaders, which led to this dangerous state of corruption.”
According to some deputies, many corruption accusations have emerged within the Ministry of Defense in Iraq since 2003, including the arms deals with Russia.
Mousway also blames “unemployment, as corruption has become a source of easy money.”
Mousway, who is well informed of the plans of decision-making officials in the government and the military, said, “A campaign is underway to solve this phenomenon, and the upcoming years will witness a decrease in corruption, particularly within the military institution.”
Qasim Mozan, a writer and journalist in the Iraqi journal Al-Sabah, acknowledged the presence of this phenomenon to Al-Monitor, but said he also called it “an attempted exaggeration by media and satellite channels, for political interests.
Former head of the parliamentary committee and member of parliament for the Liberal bloc Hakim al-Zamli was even drawn into promoting this phenomenon, given his bloc’s position toward former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and knowing that this issue was raised during the latter’s rule.”
Mozan said, “The ghosts existed in all state facilities even before 2003, when the regime of late President Saddam Hussein was overthrown, and still exist today.”
As a journalist, Mozan said he thinks that "the phenomenon is limited and on a small scale, as there are soldiers fighting right now.”
He believes that the phenomenon is most probably exaggerated due to it being “part of the psychological war against the army, in an attempt to affect its morale. There are some people who actually believe it.”
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