Iraq Journal: Taxing situation for common soldier
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq–Iraqis now have something in common with Americans: They hate taxes.
Earlier this month, the Iraqi government started withholding taxes from the paychecks of Iraqi soldiers, according to Iraqi and American military officers. Most Iraqi soldiers make 670,000 Iraqi dinars a month, the equivalent of $457. The government has started withholding 60,000 dinars, or $41, a month in income taxes.
Iraqi soldiers are hopping mad. With the zeal of antitax politicians, they refuse to call the withholding a tax. To them, it is a pay cut pure and simple. "In Saddam's time, we could not say anything," says Qasim Aswad, a 32-year-old soldier, jabbing the air with his cigarette. "Now, we have democracy and we can say anything. So I say we need our salary raised, not cut!"
Alas, the flat Iraqi tax does not include exemptions for dependents. If it did, Aswad, a father of eight, might not be complaining so much. As it is, after the tax increase and a cut in the monthly government food ration, he says he is broke. "Before, the government was giving us flour every month; now they cut the flour, so I spend all my salary for food," he says. "We are a rich country. Why do they give us this salary cut?"
Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was a quasi-socialist dictatorship. Iraqis did not have to pay for many of the basics, or, if they did, the state-set prices were artificially low. The government provided a basic food ration. Electricity was free. Although there were local taxes in some cities, there was no countrywide income tax. Now, in addition to helping establish a democracy, America has prodded the new Iraqi government to move away from food rations and free utilities.
The nascent tax rebellion could become a significant problem, American advisers say. That's because many Iraqis do not join the army out of a sense of pride in serving their country, says Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Tom McCarty. "Seventy percent of the guys are here for the money," McCarty says. "They are here because we pay more than the muj." Muj, short for mujahideen, is how the marines refer to the Iraqi insurgency, which is said to pay $150 for each roadside bomb planted.
In Fallujah, many Iraqis quit the army after the tax was imposed–and others are threatening to follow suit. "It is not fair," says Sayeed Jwed Salmen, an Iraqi private. "We are worth the money because we are risking our lives."
It is not clear, though, how real the threat to quit is. In McCarty's company, of the six Iraqi soldiers who quit in protest, four have already returned, asking for their old jobs.
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