U.S. blunders in reconstructing Iraq are staggering

[fencesitter]

Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, Trudy Rubin: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/columnists/trudy_rubin/15873213.htm


.....Hamid spoke with anger at seeing U.S. officials on the bases pay cash to fly-by-night Iraqi agents to cart away new vehicles and spare parts - along with generators - that had been left behind by Saddam's army. The Iraqis then sold the valuable equipment in Syria and Jordan and paid kickbacks to the U.S. officials. "You are helping criminals," he complained, "and wasting your money and ours."

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To understand what these Pentagon civilians wrought, read Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City about the Bush team's decision to send "the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest" to rebuild Iraq

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More typical was James K. Haveman Jr., a 60-year-old Republican social worker and Christian antiabortion activist, who was picked to head the Health Ministry over a physician with degrees in public health and experience in third-world disaster relief.

Haveman treated Baghdad as if it were an extension of his home state of Michigan: He pushed for more maternity hospitals instead of refurbishing Baghdad's ill-equipped emergency rooms. He pressed for an anti-smoking campaign - and tried to limit the number of drugs distributed to hospitals, ensuring that essential medicines stayed out of stock. He was in over his head.

[MichiganVote]

1. Haveman was an asshole in Michigan...nobody in mental health liked him

[madrchsod]

2. the us government sucked all the concrete production in iraq

into the wall around the green zone making it impossible for the iraqi`s to get concrete to rebuild their homes. america has a lot to be proud of by voting bush into office

[Marrak]

3. What's unreal...

the unrelenting drumbeat and need to get into Iraq - in the absence of any post-war planning...the same B*shshit cronyism...