Saturday, July 28, 2007

Iraq Reconstruction Projects Fail Without Iraq Government Participation

What do you do with a rebuilt power plant that is badly needed to supply energy to a war torn city? Well, if you are the US in Iraq, you hand it over to some local folks and say, “run it”. Seems the Iraq government is refusing to take charge of the reconstruction projects the US is completing, so the projects are being tossed to locals who may or may not have the expertise needed to run them.

That power plant, a $90 million project was turned over to locals who didn’t know what fuel to use and the brand new plant is now out of commission again. Nice work, eh! The al-Maliki government can’t seem to get it together and won’t accept the projects to manage. Heck, they can’t even manage to sit down together and get a few minor bills passed, much less run the infrastructure of a country.

Seems the de-baathification of Iraq was one of the most amazing blunders ever. It would be like restoring Germany after WW2 but not allowing anyone who had ever been a member of the Nazi Party to participate. Well since almost every part of German society was required to be Nazi members that would be a failure. Guess what? Same thing in Iraq, but apparently nobody bothered to watch the History channel or even crack open a book.

Very sad indeed, and costing us a fortune as well!

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