In a country where the infrastructure was already in bad need of repair under Saddam Hussein due to the Iran-Iraq War, the Persian Gulf War of 1991, 12 years of U.S. Imposed Sanctions, and further devastated by the invasion of American-led forces and the resultant insurgency, Iraq may be beyond repairs badly needed to stabilize the area for any further advancement of Democracy.
Yet we are told that unless we act now, spending quickly and massively on needed infrastructure projects, Iraq will become unstable.
Unstable?
What, Iraq is a garden party now?
"Iraq urged the international community on Tuesday to deliver immediately on its aid pledges and warned more delays would further destabilise the country and threaten global security.
"Unless we move fast and effectively in the next few months we will have very serious problems on our hands," Planning Minister Barham Salih told Reuters.
"Failure is not an option because it will have dire consequences for the Iraqi people and for the region and for world security."
I think it is about time we consider failure as an option. Why? Because the money ain't coming, more troops ain't coming, and the insurgents are not going away.
Salih was speaking on the second day of a meeting of 60 countries and international organizations, following up on conferences in Madrid and Tokyo over the last two years at which aid worth $14 billion was pledged. Salih's problem is that the pledged money is not finding its way to Iraq.
The problem is two-fold. Once the insurgency finds out that any reconstruction in Iraq was funded by "the infidels" they sabotage those programs or destroy the completed or under construction projects.
This continuing violence scares away construction teams and crews and investors, who not only do not want to be killed, but more importantly, don't want their own money wasted in the insurgency.
With each successful attack admist the formidable U.S. military, who are powerless to stop the insurgency, the insurgents become more emboldened, and their recruiting skyrockets.
Further, investors and governments are scared away from Iraq due to corruption that is still rampant in the fledging new government. Funds ear-marked for Iraqi reconstruction are detained to insure that what is given will go to legitimate resources.
But Barham Salih added at the recent UN conference, "It is now clear that that these mega projects, though essential, have not succeeded in providing quickly enough for Iraqis' basic needs like electricity, water and sanitation." The NY Times article on this story also pointed out another disturbing fact. "[W]hile 59 countries registered for the meeting by an official count, actual attendance seemed sparse, and a number of those countries did not send representatives."
So let me get this straight: 1) 14 billion is pledged, 2) the money is not being delivered to Iraq due to security and corruption concerns, 3) the lack of reconstruction fuels the insurgency, 4) reconstructed projects are targets for the insurgency, 5) and now the Iraqi Planning Minister who is begging for this money says these mega projects are not working.
In what was supposed to be a "cake walk," Rumsfield confidant and cohort Ken Adelman reported in 2002, has turned out to be anything but. Adelman concluded that "Measured by any cost-benefit analysis, such an operation would constitute the greatest victory in America's war on terrorism." Indeed we were told that the reconstruction would be paid for by Iraq's oil profits. The Bush White House pushed this illusion onto a naive American public still reeling from the tragedies of 9/11. We have since become painfully aware that this administration had no post war strategy or exit plan. Its belief that the world would follow America led the Bush White house to wreak havoc on a nation and a world that was ill-prepared for its after affects. This irrational rush to "insure our security" has done anything but and it now seems apparent that if democracy succeeds at all in Iraq it will be at a more deadly and monetary costs than the wide-eyed dreamers of economic expansion conceived of.
Colin Powell's clay pot illustration of what we have effected in Iraq is painfully true. But, while we broke Iraq, and while we own Iraq now, Iraq will always be a failure in our hands. Nothing we can do, nothing we can spend, will fix it.
The old axiom is true: "One man's trash is another's treasure." If Iraq has no hope of recovery under American occuption, it is time we withdraw our forces and capital and send Iraq on its way. Iraq will always be trash to us so long as we are there. Let Iraq be free. That is why we invaded and removed Saddam, right? To set the Iraqi people free? They are free now, right? Mission Accomplished. Let's bring the boys (and girls) home, and let the free Iraqi people fend for themselves.
