EPILOGUE 287simultaneously. More shoaling than schooling. Like switching to soy milk,
Baghdad traffic takes some getting used to. There really is a certain sweet-
ness and civility to ordinary Iraqis, and I believe this explains the anger-
free controlled chaos that reigns on the streets of Baghdad.
Although I am now cautiously optimistic about Iraq’s future, I also
recognize that ISIS and AQI can and likely will rear their very ugly heads
again at any time. As of April 2019, ISIS has lost all of its territory in both
Iraq and Syria, but there are thousands of radicalized ISIS fighters, wives,
and children with no place to go and an overabundance of hatred, igno-
rance, and bloodlust in their souls. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is
still out there. All of this makes it highly likely (in my estimation) that these
craven murderers will again resort to suicide bombings and other attacks
in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, in order to again incite fear, hatred,
and violence among the country’s Shi’ite and Sunni populations. We can
probably expect the same in Western Europe and the United States. Like
smoldering embers in a seemingly doused campfire, tribalism remains a
dangerous threat until fully extinguished.
In addition to the lingering menace posed by Islamic extremists,
endemic corruption persists in Iraq, at every level of the government. Cor-
ruption may actually pose a greater threat to Iraq’s future than ISIS or
tribalism. It is clear to me that virtually every government employee in Iraq
views his job as an opportunity if not an obligation to crassly extort money
out of fellow Iraqis and foreigners alike. My Iraqi colleagues deal with this
scourge on a daily basis, whether seeking government permission to run a
generator (because the government fails to provide electricity) or a business
license that will result in a boost to the Iraqi economy. These shameless
Iraqi officials quite simply do not care that their greedy, corrupt behavior is
doing possibly irreparable harm to their country.
To cite but one recent example, I was prevented from leaving Baghdad
this week by an airport immigration official who decided on a whim that I
needed an “exit visa.” What’s an exit visa, you may ask? It’s an unnecessary
bureaucratic nuisance required in a small handful of backward totalitarian
countries, like Russia and Saudi Arabia, to control and harass foreign visi-
tors and workers. Even Cuba, hardly a paragon of freedom of movement,
did away with this vile practice, but it persists in Iraq. Saddam Hussein
may be dead and gone, but his authoritarian practices live on.