פורום ארץ הצבי

In 1970 during my army service, a young person in my room, an Orientalist, as we called middle eastern experts, wrote a report titled humorously ''The Iraqi Takhritism''. He noticed that all the major position in Iraq were manned by persons from the El-Takhrity Khamula (enlarged community related to the same family) from the Takhrit region: The director of the national bank, the ambassadors to Britain, USSR and most other major countries, the transportation minister and the railway system director, the head of the broadcasting authority (Radio and Television), major ministers, army generals, and the senior people in the Ba'ath (revival) ruling party etc.

This was long before Saddam Hussein, yet, I imagine the power highly-centralized stratifcation in this state is still very much the same.

So probably this is the meaning of the ruthless looting in the towns from big stores and government buildings, storagehouses and offices:
Significant goods like high-quality electrical appliances, cars and vehicles, had been accessible only to medium and high level functionaries of the Ba'ath Party (much like in USSR or the People's Democracies) where the majority of people were alienated from the space of economic and political power.