Everybody knows that the United States stiffed Iraq when the US was invaded, as far as businesses and contracts. Who got the lucrative contracts for work? Most of the time, not Iraqis, who were hired as subcontractors to companies like Halliburton, etc.

Today I saw an article that the US is making zones outside their military bases in order to throw work to Iraqis. Of course, it's posed as a good thing.

After years using outside contractors to tend to the needs of its Iraq bases, the US military is now building zones outside its army posts so Iraqi businesses can actually benefit from their presence.

.The plan, which has been several months in preparation, is part of a wider effort to stimulate local employment and end years of funnelling lucrative contracts to providers from outside the country.

."Let's get American and third country contractors out of that business and let's get Iraqis into that business," Brigadier Steven Anderson, a driving force behind the programme, told AFP

Since so many contractors working with multinational forces have been assassinated by insurgents, the zones will be enclosed within high walls and have disguised entrances.

"You are providing a secure area that the Iraqis can set up their business and operate their businesses in, but it's not part of the interior base itself," Anderson said, noting that normal defensive procedures would continue.

Construction began six weeks ago on the Camp Victory Iraqi zone which will hold around 35 businesses over 25 acres.

Also, doesn't that sound permanent?

For now, the project is in its infancy, with a two-year-old prototype near the southern city of Diwaniyah. The first 1 zone will open in August next to the massive Camp Victory base at Baghdad airport.

Over the next year, further zones will appear at Tikrit's Camp Speicher, at Camp Taji just north of Baghdad and at Talil Air Base, in the south near Nasiriyah.

"We are thinking big but starting small," Anderson said.

Yes, it does sound permanent.