The Controlled Bleed
The reserve burn went public and Baghdad did not deny it. It sped up every file that puts the books in order. A bleed you publish is a bleed you control.
On Tuesday, Iraq's Finance Committee stood at the state's own microphone and told the country there are 109 trillion dinars behind its salaries. Enough, it said, for 10 months. On Thursday, an independent economist read the central bank's books out loud and added the line the committee left off: the cost. Roughly $7.9 billion left the reserves in July alone.
Most governments would spend the next week denying that number. Baghdad spent the same 24 hours doing something else. A weapons law ordered. Border books unified with Kurdistan. Trade files finished for Geneva. The budget that has to name a rate, on the table.
There is a name for a wound that is measured, published, and worked around rather than hidden. Surgeons call it a controlled bleed. You accept the cost because the operation is not finished yet.