From The Houson Chronicle, 1/1/06:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3559530.html
Jan. 1, 2006, 11:52PM
U.S. winding down Iraq reconstruction
Half of the $18 billion is used for unexpected security costs
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Washington Post
BAGHDAD, IRAQ -
The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new money 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
trial of Saddam Hussein.
About 20 percent of the reconstruction package remains unallocated.
When the last of the money 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 in a recent news conference. In an interview this
past week, McCoy said:
"This was just supposed to be a jump-start."
Since the reconstruction effort began in 2003, midcourse changes by
U.S. officials have shifted at least $2.5 billion from the rebuilding
of Iraq's decrepit electrical, education, water, sewage, sanitation
and oil networks to build new security forces for Iraq and to
construct a nationwide system of medium- and maximum-security prisons
and detention centers that meet international standards, according to
reconstruction officials and documents.
Many of the changes were forced by an insurgency fiercer than the
United States had expected when its troops entered Iraq.
In addition, from 14 percent to 22 percent of the cost of every
nonmilitary reconstruction project goes toward security against
insurgent attacks, according to reconstruction officials in Baghdad;
in Washington, the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq
Reconstruction puts the security costs of each project at 25 percent.
The shifts in allocations have led Stuart Bowen, the inspector general
in charge of tracking the $18.4 billion, to talk of a "reconstruction
gap," or the difference between what Iraqis and Americans expected
from the U.S. reconstruction effort at first, and what they are
seeing.
The inspector general's office is conducting an audit to quantify the
shortfall between expectations and performance, spokesman Jim Mitchell
said.
"It is easy for the Americans to say, 'We are doing reconstruction in
Iraq,' and we hear that. But to make us believe it, they should show
us where this reconstruction is," said Mustafa Sidqi Murthada, a men's
clothing store owner in Baghdad.
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Bush broke it and now wants everyone else to fix it. Hey, at least
Halliburton got its cut.
Harry
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