On this morning's C-SPAN Washington Journal show, an Iraqi women's movement activist, Ms. Mishkat Mounmin, pointed out several practical strategies that would have useful effects in Iraq. They are much too reality-based to gain traction with Bush&Co:
--The use of neighborhood-level generators in place of rebuilding the national electrical grid. (Her argument: In an environment where the daily temps routinely reach 105-110 degrees, a/c is essential. Mosques have small generators and provide a/c. Homes and workplaces often don't. Hence, people congregate at mosques out of survival -- and now political organization. Small, local generators would not be so vulnerable to sabotage but would allow people to work and stay at home.)
--U.S. company contractors are unable to fix the infrastructure because of lack of security. Hire Iraqi contractors. (I was in Iraq in 2003; it is clear to me that they have fine engineers, architects, and other infrastructure experts. Baghdad has (had?) straight roads, solid buildings, attractive architecture, and neat, organized cabling for electrical and communication services -- well beyond any 3rd world standard.)
--Provide adequate amount of potable water.
--More generally, provide security and services at the local level, not the national level.
One could ascribe the Bush Administration's failure to adopt such sensible policies to their clownish incompetence, and that may be part of the explanation for their behavior. But I think there has been an underlying reason that gets little discussion -- that the rightwing radicals who now control much of the government actually had real motives and objectives, and that they have been quite successful in reaching their goals. In short, I propose that characterizing the last 5 years as an effort where "mistakes have been made" is pablum that could be replaced more accurately by the phrase, "plans have been carried out."
Since my time in Iraq, have been considering the evidence that, from its inception, the entire war may have been constructed to transfer money from the U.S. Treasury, which enjoyed a surplus, into private (piratical) hands. To me, John Murtha's point that the level of electricity and potable water is no better now than it was immediately after the invasion and occupation in 2003 is a very telling one. I am no accountant, so I cannot be precisely certain about how the Bush&Co thieves achieved such a massive transfer of taxpayer monies -- I'm sure in innumerable ways, but three possibilities come to mind: 1) directing funds to projects that were ostensibly carried out by favored companies -- but they did not actually do the work; 2) keeping levels of chaos high to provide cover for the massive theft; 3) obscuring the actual make up of "fighting units" and siphoning off monies to anonymous, expensive mercenaries -- again provided by favored private companies.
(By the way, we see the same pattern in the Katrina relief funding -- huge amounts of monies expended with little or no proof of work done -- and worse, little evidence of progress.)
I don't believe Bush&Co feel anything but proud of themselves for wresting taxpayers money from the (socialist, confiscatory) government to the private sector. And this, I do believe, explains why this administration so clearly acts in ways that are characterized as "stupid." People are willing to tolerate incompetence, but they would be less likely to stand for Grand Theft.
The Iraq I saw in 2003 did not seem so difficult to rehabilitate and reconstruct as it does today. Its citizens appeared to be suspended between fear (in the wake of 30 years of capricious and arbitrary cruelty) and hope (that things could actually get better.) Sometimes I would see a look of trust warring with wariness that moved me more than I had anticipated.
Now, as it turns out, their wariness was all too right and the trustfulness of the American people has been utterly betrayed. I fear that American blood (to say nothing of rivers of Iraqi blood)has been spilled to grab American treasure.
Roadette