Editor’s Note: This is an edited version of an article posted by an anonymous blogger, a contractor in Iraq, on antiprotester.blogspot.com.

If the Iran nuclear crisis seems like “deja vu all over again" it's because it is.

The United States, along with most of the world, stood in awe during the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, as Saddam Hussein seemed to make and break a dizzying array of promises with frightening speed, right up until the moment we unleashed our tanks and his vaunted armies unleashed their white flags. The UN, Europe, and the Clinton Administration jumped for joy at every promise the talented Mr. Arafat spewed forth until his unbroken streak of broken promises finally ended -- but only because he finally died.

Now we have a similar scenario with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (let's just call him "Uncle Mah", shall we?) who makes more promises about "peaceful future intentions" than a convicted child molester up for parole. The only difference is, the child molester has a much better chance of keeping his promises to reform and rehabilitate -- and we all know how likely that is!

So what is it about these followers of the "Religion of Peace" that enables them to -- not bend, not spin, not obfuscate -- but flat-out lie? I'm no anthropologist, but the time I've spent in Iraq over the last couple of years has provided me with a big clue….They have internalized and mastered what Sun Tzu's considered the most valuable tactic in warfare: deception. To them it's not really lying. To them, lying is simply the most effective means at their disposal for saving face, being clever, getting ahead, and trying to appear superior. Deception is not a matter of shame, it's a matter of pride.

I never had cause to think about what a powerful concept "Agreement" is until I came to Iraq. Agreements provide us simple human creatures with the amazing ability to come together and create a shared vision about a future point in time. Then, together as agreed, we can organize and accomplish something towards that point in an otherwise chaotic world fraught with unpredictability.

But in the Middle East, there is no such thing as an Agreement. Whether a verbal commitment or a look straight in the eye or firm handshake or even a written contract, these things are worth next to nothing. Rather than organizing or finalizing anything, these acts merely serve as a continuation of the struggle. The Agreement, that poor casualty of the desert sands, is considered to be “a first step."

A few days ago, I was called point blank and to my face a "thief" and a "liar" by an 85-year-old Iraqi from whom we are leasing a house. I wrote the lease agreement, including clearly stating the price for the first 6 months, and then a discount price for the second 6 months. These prices were based on verbal (read: painful) negotiations that had lasted for days. Once completed, I gave the lease contract to the gentleman, and he had it for two days. He contacted me a couple times to change a few minor details, which I did. He then signed it, and I signed it, and then I sent it off to our offices in the U.S. for payment processing.

The day after we signed, the gentleman was beside himself and putting on all sorts of theatrics. With full-blown indignation, he said the price was too low, and "the person" who wrote that wretched lease was trying to trick him and was a thief and a liar! (He knew that "the person" was me, he just wouldn't say so to my face -- more on that below).

Only in the Middle East can one be called a thief and a liar for conniving to make the terms of a contract clear, and then expecting those terms to be met after the contract is signed.

In addition to trying to screw each other, there ondition of trying to avoid embarrassment -- to "save face" or keep one's "honor" in front of each other. Under this cultural imperative the lies fly, efforts die, but the Muslim, forever, keeps his head held high.

So, for example, when you are talking to a company president about delivery progress of a critical item by his company to a location, he's getting his information from his assistant, who is getting it from the field supervisor, who is getting it from the guy who is related to the guy who is friends with the guy who owns the trucking company, who gets it from the dispatcher, who gets it from the truck driver (who also happens to be the company president’s nephew, but that's another story).

Each and every one of these guys, all the way through the chain, will lie to the guy above him when asked about the delay in shipment (and there IS a delay -- always). In order to save face, each will say whatever they think is good news, no matter how false and misleading it actually is. By the time you talk to the boss, who is also trying to save face with you, there is no relationship between what you are being told and what is really happening -- none.

I had steel prefabricated buildings to construct at project sites throughout Iraq. They were to be ordered from a factory in Kuwait, fabricated, loaded, and trucked to sites in Iraq in 11 weeks. I inquired as to progress at least weekly. I was told when they were ordered, when manufacturing began, when they were completed, when the buildings were staged, when they were loaded on to trucks, and when the trucks were waiting at the Iraq border. Everything was communicated with exact details every step of the way.

The trucks were held up at the border for several days, then a week, then two weeks. Excuses abounded. I finally sent a Westerner down to the factory in Kuwait, only to find that the first step -- the order -- had not yet been placed.

I have the same story for drawings development, materials delivery, work crew subcontracting and mobilizations, security incidents, equipment delivery and basically every single step that involved only Arabs when no Western direct oversight was possible.

Why not just do it yourself?

Direct oversight is the key, of course. But if I need to verify that the doorknobs are actually at the warehouse like I'm told, it costs me thousands of dollars in security services to go see for myself, and me and my team are all risking our lives in the process. I have projects out on the Syrian border in the Anbar province—a tough area. The area was deemed by the Government too dangerous to allow Westerners to stay at the sites, so the work was to be done by Iraqi subcontractors. I was beside myself after two months of good progress reports, but not one photo. Naturally, I had to go see it for myself what was going on -- such is life when the Government is asking you every day where millions of dollars of taxpayer money has been going for months and you have not one verifiable answer.

So I got out there under heavy escort, and naturally the work was way off schedule compared to the reports. But to find that out, the cost to the project (your tax dollars at work) was about $35,000 in security escort costs, just for me to get to the truth beyond the giant force field of lies. I finally got the roughly 200 photos I needed. That's about $175.00 per digi-photo, for those keeping score at home. Of course, any of the Iraqi engineers on site could have taken the photos I had repeatedly requested and simply e-mailed them to me. But that would have caused his boss to lose some of his "honor" -- simply unacceptable. Good news means honor, bad news means dishonor, and accurate news is never seriously considered.

Think about this the next time Uncle Mah starts talking about using his nukes to provide electricity for starving farmers and poor school children. He's not lying; he's just trying to tell the PC West (our collective jugular) what it really wants to hear. He's a pleaser, and he's out to please you!

After being in this snake pit for some time, I find it absolutely hilarious that anyone can think that "diplomacy" or "negotiations" or "agreements" with any Middle Eastern leader during a crisis can possibly result in anything productive. They have no reservations -- none -- about lying about anything and everything. Their words and agreements mean absolutely nothing. How far can negotiations take you under such conditions?

Let's take a quiz:
Q: Why are there no democracies in the Muslim Middle East?
A: Democracies are based on the possibility of mutually held Agreements between people. Democracy is unsustainable in cultures where lying is acceptable and constant.
Q: Why is every Muslim Middle Eastern country characterized by either rigid oppression or chaotic violence?
A: The coercive use of violence is the only way to ensure Muslims in the Middle East will live up to any obligations, including basic social order and function. Middle East countries where chaos currently reigns are merely examples of what Muslims are like without coercion.
Q: How is it that intelligence gathering by Western powers, whether it is about the weapons capabilities of an entire nation, or the simple location of a lone thug, is so constantly stymied and duped in the Middle East?
A: The job of intelligence gatherers is to determine the truth. I wouldn't take that job in the Middle East for all the money in Michael Moore's Halliburton stocks.
Q: Have you ever seen anything that says "Made in Saudi Arabia"? What was the last thing invented or produced by Middle Eastern Muslims that helped advance humankind? Why are they so incompetent at virtually everything?
A: Although some individuals with quality talents certainly exist here, it would be impossible to gather enough in one place to agree to cooperate in any sort of complex or significant effort. The only time Muslims can stick together long enough to produce anything en masse, like nuclear missiles for Uncle Mah, is under the threat of force.
Q: Why is it that Muslim leaders can stare the world in the eye and lie without flinching?
A: They're not lying, they are "negotiating" with people they assume to be complete suckers.
Q: Are they right?
A: Good question.