Saturday, July 03, 2004
Nothing but freedom---and maybe not even that
WaPo is reporting that the half-hearted reconstruction of Iraq has so far been financed by $20,000 million in Iraqi funds, but only $366 million in American funds.
Of course, very little of this spending seems to be going to benefit Iraqis:
Of course, it didn't help that the US was so slow to get started with reconstruction, due to a total lack of planning for the post-war, no consideration of the obvious security problems that would arise, and the most incompetent staffing in the history of the American nation. And now the insurgency makes standing still quite a challenge.
We owe Iraq, big time, for a decade of sanctions and bombing, for invading under false pretenses and occupying their country, and for allowing that country to sink into lawlessness and violence. It wasn't a paradise before the first Gulf War---Saddam was a brutal dictator, and the war with Iran was a catastrophe worse than anything we're seeing today---but we've been involved in Iraq longer than that, and never to help the Iraqi people (we were helping Saddam back in the 1980s, when he committed all his worst atrocities).
Let's hope the $20 billion earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction really goes to help the Iraqi people, and not to enrich Halliburton or produce photo-ops for the Bush campaign.
Of course, very little of this spending seems to be going to benefit Iraqis:
Of $3.2 billion earmarked for security and law enforcement, a key U.S. goal in Iraq, only $194 million has been spent. Another central objective of the aid program was to reduce the 30 percent unemployment rate, but money has been spent to hire only about 15,000 Iraqis, despite U.S. promises that 250,000 jobs would be created by now, U.S. officials familiar with the aid program said.
...
Fewer than 140 of the 2,300 reconstruction projects that were to be funded with the U.S. aid package are underway, the officials said.
Of course, it didn't help that the US was so slow to get started with reconstruction, due to a total lack of planning for the post-war, no consideration of the obvious security problems that would arise, and the most incompetent staffing in the history of the American nation. And now the insurgency makes standing still quite a challenge.
We owe Iraq, big time, for a decade of sanctions and bombing, for invading under false pretenses and occupying their country, and for allowing that country to sink into lawlessness and violence. It wasn't a paradise before the first Gulf War---Saddam was a brutal dictator, and the war with Iran was a catastrophe worse than anything we're seeing today---but we've been involved in Iraq longer than that, and never to help the Iraqi people (we were helping Saddam back in the 1980s, when he committed all his worst atrocities).
Let's hope the $20 billion earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction really goes to help the Iraqi people, and not to enrich Halliburton or produce photo-ops for the Bush campaign.
