Posted on 01/02/2006 5:20:12 PM PST by blam
Bush cuts off cash for rebuilding Iraq
By Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 03/01/2006)
The Bush administration has made clear that there will be no more money for rebuilding Iraq when the £10.7 billion originally allocated has been spent.
Although many projects have been disappointments, the decision not to ask Congress for more cash in next month's draft budget underlines the consensus that it is time to start winding down the costly commitment to the country.
It also highlights how, since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the focus of the reconstruction effort has shifted from electricity, roads and water to security.
In January 2004 American officials planned to spend £1.9 billion to refashion the police and army. But as the rebellion has gathered momentum at least £1.5 billion has been transferred from other projects, including £600 million earmarked for electricity, to training soldiers and judges, creating special forces and building courts and prisons.
American officials deny that they will be leaving the job half-finished. "The US never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," Brig William McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing reconstruction, told journalists in Iraq recently.
Later he told the Washington Post: "This was just supposed to be the springboard."
Officials point to the 3,600 projects they have completed or intend to finish by the end of this year, when the money is expected to run out.
A survey in the Washington Post counts among the successes the building of 160 hospitals and clinics, the rebuilding of 800 miles of roads and work on 900 schools.
But sabotage has kept the output of electricity and oil at or below pre-war levels despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds.
US officials say that when the money runs out it will be up to foreign donors and the new Iraqi government to carry out the work that still needs to be done.
George W Bush sketched out a grandiose future for Iraq's infrastructure in a speech in August 2003, a few months after Saddam was ousted.
He said: "In a lot of places the infrastructure is as good as it was at pre-war levels, which is satisfactory, but it is not the ultimate aim. The ultimate aim is for the infrastructure to be the best in the region."
Since then the cost of countering the insurgency has all but overwhelmed the reconstruction effort.
Seven people were killed and 13 wounded yesterday when a suicide car bomber rammed a bus carrying police recruits north of Baghdad. Gunmen in two cars shot dead five people in the capital.
Indeed. They just flew out of my butt and sprouted wings.
LOL! I posted just about the same thing in another thread a minute ago but you put it better than I did. What we're watching is a fantasy world under construction. I don't feel sorry for the inhabitants - it's a self-inflicted wound.
This seems to be a pretty well-kept secret.
Leni
The oil that Iraq is selling can pay for the upgrading of Iraq as well as repay the US for their liberation. But that's just me.
It's Victory no matter how you look at it, idiot.
Heck, what happened -- did the U.S Treasury printing presses run out of ink??
Oh yes, why not waste even more tax dollars? What the heck, it's just a printing machine up there in Washington right?
As for our guys who died or wounded there; there is no dollar amount that can replace their lives, or soothe the hurt, felt sorrow, and despair, from their families...
When Chalibi was in Washington, he said their budget showed a $5b surplus from their oil sales.
The above was posted on the front page of KOS. Pretty close.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.