INDCJournal: Don't Go Wobbly On Me, George

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January 10, 2006

Don't Go Wobbly On Me, George

Posted by Dorkafork

We shall pay nearly any price, bear a bit of a burden...

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."

McCoy has a point, but is this enough of a jump-start? Are we trying to win this war on the cheap now?

Posted by Dorkafork at January 10, 2006 06:08 PM | TrackBack (1)

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Comments

I did think it was a little odd they didn't revisit that.

On the other hand, that $20B was allocated before $65/oil. AFAIK Iraq's government isn't hurting for money. In fact, that's really why the insurgency exists in the first place: to seize all that oil money and live the Saddam Pimpin' Lifestyle.

Also, from what I'm hearing the infrastructure issue isn't reconstruction funds. It's that the idiots blowing things up are preventing the improvements from having much effect, esp. in regards to electricity.

Posted by: TallDave at January 10, 2006 08:11 PM

The article discusses that quite a bit. I assumed that our financial assistance would continue slightly past our military commitment. Maybe decreasing as time went by, but to go from $18.4 billion to... nothing?

Here's more on Iraq's oil income.

Posted by: dorkafork at January 10, 2006 09:40 PM

The problem is not money. If half of the funds have not been allocated then there should be enough to cover the next year.

Posted by: davod at January 11, 2006 07:38 AM

It really seems like Iraq needs security and gov't transparency more than they need another American handout. They are getting more oil money than was predicted, even with output below what was predicted.

OTOH, given the importance of sucess and the fact that 25% of reconstruction money was shifted to security, maybe a proportional increase of $5 billion would be appropriate, contingent on Iraq's new gov't showing a firm commitment to transparency.

Posted by: TallDave at January 11, 2006 10:00 AM

davod, it says that only 20 percent remains. So reconstruction funds are basically going from about $15 billion last year to about $3.5 billion to cover this year.

If there's one thing America can do, it's spend a lot of money. If Iraq really is the front lines on the war against terror, we should be willing to put our money where our mouth is.

Posted by: dorkafork at January 11, 2006 01:11 PM

We've only got one shot to get this right.

Posted by: dorkafork at January 11, 2006 01:12 PM

Well, I think the plan is that international donors and Iraq oil money make up that difference going forward.

I agree it's very important, I'm just not sure it's a question of money at this point. It's not like every Iraqi needs his own personal $10M water treatment plant.

But I would be very interested to see a detailed breakdown of precisely how the money allocated and disbursed to date has been spent, and what's been accomplished relative to what Iraq's needs are.

Posted by: TallDave at January 11, 2006 03:21 PM