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January 02, 2006
Walking Away: "We never intended to completely rebuild Iraq"
A fine article in The Washington Post mildly amused me, although also saddened (more for the personal reasons):
U.S. Has End in Sight on Iraq Rebuilding
Documents Show Much of the Funding Diverted to Security, Justice System and Hussein Inquiry
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 2, 2006; Page A01
The core observations:
The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein.
Just under 20 percent of the reconstruction package remains unallocated. When the last of the $18.4 billion is spent, U.S. officials in Baghdad have made clear, other foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government will have to take up what authorities say is tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq's 26 million people.
"The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing the work, told reporters at a recent news conference. In an interview this past week, McCoy said: "This was just supposed to be a jump-start."
Well let us be realistic here. If the US is not putting in money, other mythical "foreign donors" are not either.
Glad to see things are cueing up for a run-away to failed state program.
Odd, that not intending to completely rebuild Iraq spin, why I personally recall a distinctly different talk in the briefings post-war that I attended. Marshall plan, a bright shiney new Iraq....
Bloody whanking dilettantes. Broke the china and now figuring out it's expensive.
Posted by The Lounsbury at January 2, 2006 11:57 AM
Filed Under: Iraq War
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Comments
That is quite sad. After the importance of stability-before-departure was so strongly emphasized, leaving gaping economic and social wounds just feels contemptuous. I'm sure it comes more from resignation than malice, but it's still depressing.
Posted by: Ilan at January 2, 2006 02:59 PM
Worse than that, it might cost me money. I find that quite upsetting.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at January 2, 2006 03:11 PM
"Worse than that, it might cost me money. I find that quite upsetting."
Don't worry, check your incoming emails, you can recoup it by careful speculation in the Iraqi dinar!:-)
Posted by: matthew hogan at January 2, 2006 03:35 PM
Bloody whanking dilettantes. Broke the china and now figuring out it's expensive.
That's the most charitable view, but I'm not so inclined to be charitable toward the Administration as you apparently are. Hell, anyone with two firing synapses could see that they had no idea what they were doing, much less a viable plan for getting it accomplished; as much of a pacifist/idealist as I tend to be, even I could realize that if the one guy with the most actual military experience on your decisionmaking team is telling you there is no way you are going to accomplish your goals without devoting significantly greater resources upfront, you might consider, you know, paying attention to him.
Sigh...so now what?
Posted by: Eva Luna at January 2, 2006 05:04 PM
if the iraqi dinar won't cut it, maybe all of those nigerian oil heiresses can help L's pocketbook out.
Posted by: drdougfir at January 2, 2006 05:37 PM
Well, as I had a front seat on this, I don't believe I am being 'charitable' - rather simply this was a case of the incompetent self-deluding fools actually believing their own hype.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at January 2, 2006 05:53 PM
Does this mean we won?
Posted by: praktike at January 2, 2006 10:55 PM
I wonder if they've thought of getting the troops out before the money runs out & the real Hell begins.
Posted by: pantom at January 3, 2006 01:31 PM
pantom:
more importantly, before midterm elections!
Posted by: drdougfir at January 3, 2006 01:34 PM
Well, that's the real driver of this whole thing anyway. Tim Russert nailed it when he was interviewing Murtha (a formerly pro-war Democrat) and basically got him to say that the 2006 midterm concentrated his mind wonderfully on the idea that maybe this war wasn't such a hot idea after all.
Seriously, though, this is going to be such a disaster if they actually do abandon it. Big power vacuum sitting between Iran & Saudi Arabia & Turkey & the Kurds & Syria. I can't think of a better formula for all-around mayhem.
Posted by: pantom at January 3, 2006 11:54 PM
