Should soldiers treat non-combatants with respect?
This was one of several questions recently put to 1767 US troops recently interviewed by the Pentagon’s mental-health advisory team last September (The Economist, 12/05, p36). In response, only 47% of soldiers agreed with the Geneva Convention requirement.
Thankfully, those who disagreed did not always act on their belief. One third (33%) of the questioned soldiers acknowledged insulting or swearing at civilians, 10% admitted unnecessarily damaging or destroying property and only 4% of soldiers confessed to hitting or kicking non-combatants “when it was not necessary”.
Property rights in Iraq.
I can’t be certain of the accuracy of the following claims but if true they do seem to represent in public policy terms some low hanging fruit ripe for the picking.
Schafer supplied some fascinating evidence. According to him, less than 5 percent of Iraq’s cultivatable agricultural land is “freehold” (owned with clear title). Ninety-five percent of the cultivatable land in Iraq is therefore “dead” (illiquid) and cannot be used as security for a bank loan. “Iraqi farmers who lack clear title can’t get (bank) loans,” Schaefer said. That limits economic creativity, particularly in a population demonstrably successful at small business operations. Schafer believes that 95 percent of family homes in Iraq also lack clear, secure title.
“Prime Minister Maliki needs to go on television,” Schaefer advised, “and say: ‘Citizens of Iraq, 95 percent of the property in this country is not legally in your name. You don’t have title to your own land or your own houses. We’re going to change that right now.’”
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