Through American and British insistence, the comprehensive UN embargo against that country, along with periodical bombings in civilian areas, has driven the common people into a desperate state. None will hold a brief for Iraq's dictator nor for his government, but American policy-makers have expressed the most callous attitude toward the pathetic plight of the Iraqi people. This all comes at a time when economies everywhere in the Middle East are very unsure. Global pressures have widened the gap between rich and poor, and the middle class of skilled professionals and entrepreneurs is declining rapidly. It just makes for a less complicated business environment.
Middle classes tend, by contrast, to sprawl and spawn ideas like democracy.
Democracy along with ideas of human rights and simple justice impede profit because they tend to diversify economies, spread wealth, and insert human factors that slow down decision-making and annoy major investors. Throughout the developing world, therefore, the middle class is being cut out of the loop, and the Middle East is no exception. If members of this class don't manage to squeeze into the tiny up-going elevator, they find themselves stuffed into the much more commodious one going down. Poverty deepens and broadens. And one of the ways that people of the middle class solve their problem is to take their skills, talents, and ambitions and emigrate to countries where institutions of folk-participation are better protected.