Powell defends US plans to shift billions in Iraq aid to security

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON (AFP)

US Secretary of State Colin Powell defended a proposal to shift billions of dollars in US assistance to Iraq away from medium- and long-range reconstruction programs to short-term security projects, saying the restoration of stability is "priority one."

Powell said he believed US lawmakers could be convinced to support a recommendation from US ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte to reprogram 3.37 billion of an 18.4-billion-dollar aid package to meet security needs. ..

"It doesn't mean that there won't be reconstruction, but it might mean that some of the reconstruction activities that we were planning at a particicular rate ... might have to be slowed down, or some of the programs scaled back," he said. ..

Earlier this week, US officials said Negroponte had recommended the shift of funds from water, sewage and electrical infrastructure projects to training and equipping more than 75,000 Iraqi national guard, police and border patrol officers.

The proposal, aimed at boosting security amid continued unrest that planners had not expected, would also pump some 225 million dollars into Iraq's much sabotaged oil sector to enhance revenue to make up for the diverted US assistance by raising output from 2.2 million barrels per day to three million. ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[Ducks In A Row]

1. He's still alive? I thought Powell had died.

[MichiganVote]

2. Go screw yourself Powell. All credibility lost and gone forever

[acmavm]

3. Dumb ass, the reason there is so much resistance and killing is Iraq

(other than the fact that they bombed the shit out of innocent civilians and destroyed the place) is because they haven't done damn thing one in the way of reconstruction.

[Disturbed]

4. Priority #1

"Heart and minds" is shitcanned.

Put down the Insurgency with as much brutal force as possible.Follow the Nazi/Israeli model.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. kick

[JSJ]

6. it's easier to divert (and loot) money pegged for security than...

...for humanitarian assistance. Historically so.