WaPo: Bush loyalists sent to Iraq completely fucked up reconstruction

[Cruzan]

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade.

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2 -year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush administration's gravest errors. Many of those selected because of their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a conservative agenda on the postwar occupation, which sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people, according to many people who participated in the reconstruction effort.

The CPA had the power to enact laws, print currency, collect taxes, deploy police and spend Iraq's oil revenue. It had more than 1,500 employees in Baghdad at its height, working under America's viceroy in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, but never released a public roster of its entire staff.

Much more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193.html?nav=rss_world
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[Justice]

1. this article is devastating for Bush

It shows the HOW of why the reconstruction failed so badly. It was just that people didn't think about it - it was that they thought about it from purely a political angle.

[Hugin]

18. "Political Angle"

Thanks for bringing this up.

Everything... and I do mean EVERYTHING this MisAdministration does or says
is on a 'Political Angle'.

Every press release.
Every appointment or hiring.
Every war.
Every diplomatic effort.
Every foreign and domestic policy.
Every law passed.
Every disaster ignored.
Every oil price fluctuation.

It's astounding.

They claim Democrats are partisan!

Way back, my Brother was always going on and on about... Bush and his Cronies.
I'd just roll my eyes, but, he was and is correct.

[acmejack]

2. Kate O'Beirne's husband

The ultimate crony administration, everyone is a relative, in law, brother, sister, niece, son, daughter...

edit I just can't spell until I have some coffee! I don't know if I can ever spell O'Beirne, or if I want to.

[Skidmore]

8. Explains why Kate is so busy trying to sell the war agenda...

and now she's all gungho to go to Iran. Gotta keep the family tills filled.

[wakeme2008]

3. Besides loving Bush.. I wonder how many of these ppl "borrowed" some

of that 18 BILLION.....I would bet most hide some away for a "raining day"

[opihimoimoi]

4. Somehow, this must be part of the DEMs approach to victory in 7 weeks.

Very devastating to the GOP.

[lonestarnot]

5. Still waiting for names of these O'Beirne hirees. I want the names

of the incompetent theives.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Now this is an article that can wake the braindead..... shout it

from the rooftops. How sad that this is what ppl do when they float to power. (heh heh.... I said float).

[whirlygigspin]

9. Must read--Bagdad Year Zero

She was right then and she's right now, read it again, and weep.


http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia
Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004. Originally from Harper's Magazine, September 2004. By Naomi Klein

"...Eight days after George Bush landed on that aircraft carrier under a banner that said MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, the President publicly signed on to the neocons' vision for Iraq to become a model corporate state that would open up the entire region. On May 9, Bush proposed the “establishment of a U.S.-Middle East free trade area within a decade”; three days later, Bush sent Paul Bremer to Baghdad to replace Jay Garner, who had been on the job for only three weeks. The message was unequivocal: the pragmatists had lost; Iraq would belong to the believers.

A Reagan-era diplomat turned entrepreneur, Bremer had recently proven his ability to transform rubble into gold by waiting exactly one month after the September 11 attacks to launch Crisis Consulting Practice, a security company selling “terrorism risk insurance” to multinationals. Bremer had two lieutenants on the economic front: Thomas Foley and Michael Fleischer, the heads of “private sector development” for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Foley is a Greenwich, Connecticut, multimillionaire, a longtime friend of the Bush family and a Bush-Cheney campaign “pioneer” who has described Iraq as a modern California “gold rush.” Fleischer, a venture capitalist, is the brother of former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Neither man had any high-level diplomatic experience and both use the term corporate “turnaround” specialist to describe what they do. According to Foley, this uniquely qualified them to manage Iraq's economy because it was “the mother of all turnarounds.”

Many of the other CPA postings were equally ideological. The Green Zone, the city within a city that houses the occupation headquarters in Saddam's former palace, was filled with Young Republicans straight out of the Heritage Foundation, all of them given responsibility they could never have dreamed of receiving at home. Jay Hallen, a twenty-four-year-old who had applied for a job at the White House, was put in charge of launching Baghdad's new stock exchange. Scott Erwin, a twenty-one-year-old former intern to Dick Cheney, reported in an email home that “I am assisting Iraqis in the management of finances and budgeting for the domestic security forces.” The college senior's favorite job before this one? “My time as an ice-cream truck driver.” In those early days, the Green Zone felt a bit like the Peace Corps, for people who think the Peace Corps is a communist plot...."

[brentspeak]

7. The incompetence, arrogrance, and corruption of the Bush cronies

is almost unreal. I commend the U.S. troops who have to coexist with these degenerates for having the self-restraint not to beat them to a bloody pulp.

[Tin Man]

10. dupe thread

37 recs http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2151770&mesg_id=2151770

[whistle]

11. Also a lot of corruption and bribs has been the norm for the reconstructio

[kenny blankenship]

12. Since Republicans are "party of ideas", America will look like Iraq

If these fine people are able to have their way completely unhindered here as they were there. Iraq was a tabula rasa for their ideology: they'd turn their policy wonks and ideologues loose on Iraq and a thousand flowers would blossom in the desert. Yet somehow with news of power blackouts, sectarian fighting, rampant crime, murder, mayhem, and billions of dollars in missing aid coming in daily from Iraq, that realization makes me wonder if all is really going to turn out for the best. Still it's comforting to know that the reconstruction effort was ideologically pure and run in strict accordance with right wing ideas of government and society. The Republicans as the "party of ideas" can take all the credit!

The "President's vision for Iraq" is in fact the same as his vision and the Republicans' vision for America. Democrats should maybe make a point of this?

[Mel]

15. ding ding ding

So true! So true! You hit the nail on the head!
The "President's vision for Iraq" is in fact the same as his vision and the Republicans' vision for America. Democrats should maybe make a point of this?


Until 'Justice' is done, America will not ever recover for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Those responsible must pay for their arrogant criminal behavior I am beyond sick of it they are Evil and I don't give a tinkers damn if they 'really believe' to freaking bad for them! What they've done is beyond forgiveness.

[DemonFighterLives]

13. Brain dead sycophants and bushbots with stickers

do not a society make.
You knew it had to be true otherwise why are the mindless 23% all gaga for the war. They are profitting.
:freak:

[ovidsen]

14. This is disgraceful

It should be required reading for every American. Recommended.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Duplicate thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2153985

[The Count]

17. "I'm not here for the Iraquis, I'm here for george Bush" - sums up

the whole war.

[acmavm]

19. I don't think they screwed up anything. I think they did exactly what they

set out to do, bankrupt the American treasury. Give the money to thier supporters, and then scoot.

A lot would be made more clear if people only know where the money these conniving lying bastards stole was invested. It is not in this country and it is not in the American dollar.

[glitch]

22. bingo (although some may be empty headed stooges as well) nt

[FloridaPat]

20. Greg Palast: we invaded Iraq to keep Iraq's oil off the market.

What a better way to do it than to make sure nothing worked, and to shoot as many civilians as possible to start a civil war.

[rodeodance]

21. "Bush-Cheney 2004" T-shirts were among the most common pieces of clothing.

.......As more and more of O'Beirne's hires arrived in the Green Zone, the CPA's headquarters in Hussein's marble-walled former Republican Palace felt like a campaign war room. Bumper stickers and mouse pads praising President Bush were standard desk decorations. Other than military uniforms and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" garb, "Bush-Cheney 2004" T-shirts were among the most common pieces of clothing.