Why has the "post-war" Iraq been a shambles?

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There are many reasons. Here is one:

Best-Connected Were Sent to Rebuild Iraq

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 17, 2006; Page A01

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 they needed to be was a member of the Republican Party.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions 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 that sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people.

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.

Interviews with scores of former CPA personnel over the past two years depict an organization that was dominated -- and ultimately hobbled -- by administration ideologues.

"We didn't tap -- and it should have started from the White House on down -- just didn't tap the right people to do this job," said Frederick Smith, who served as the deputy director of the CPA's Washington office. "It was a tough, tough job. Instead we got people who went out there because of their political leanings."

Endowed with $18 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds and a comparatively quiescent environment in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. invasion, the CPA was the U.S. government's first and best hope to resuscitate Iraq -- to establish order, promote rebuilding and assemble a viable government, all of which, experts believe, would have constricted the insurgency and mitigated the chances of civil war. Many of the basic tasks Americans struggle to accomplish today in Iraq -- training the army, vetting the police, increasing electricity generation -- could have been performed far more effectively in 2003 by the CPA.

But many CPA staff members were more interested in other things: in instituting a flat tax, in selling off government assets, in ending food rations and otherwise fashioning a new nation that looked a lot like the United States. Many of them spent their days cloistered in the Green Zone, a walled-off enclave in central Baghdad with towering palms, posh villas, well-stocked bars and resort-size swimming pools.

By the time Bremer departed, Iraq was in a precarious state. The Iraqi army, which had been dissolved and reconstituted by the CPA, was one-third the size he had pledged it would be. Seventy percent of police officers had not been screened or trained. Electricity generation was far below what Bremer had promised to achieve. And Iraq's interim government had been selected not by elections but by Americans. Divisive issues were to be resolved later on, increasing the chances that tension over those matters would fuel civil strife.

To recruit the people he wanted, O'Beirne sought résumés from the offices of Republican congressmen, conservative think tanks and GOP activists. He discarded applications from those his staff deemed ideologically suspect, even if the applicants possessed Arabic language skills or postwar rebuilding experience.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6091600193.html

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The mentality of this administration has been adapt to mediocracy. The only winners in war are the profiteers, and the fantom enemy has beaten the superpower of the credit card wars.

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The mentality of this administration has been adapt to mediocracy. The only winners in war are the profiteers, and the fantom enemy has beaten the superpower of the credit card wars.

That you don't care about America anymore isn't all that much a shocker to me. But that you have nothing to base your view on ANYTHING you say anymore is all I need to put your pathetic ass on ignore from now on. You're nothing more than a gawd damn troll. F-U, BF.

There!

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The mentality of this administration has been adapt to mediocracy. The only winners in war are the profiteers, and the fantom enemy has beaten the superpower of the credit card wars.

That you don't care about America anymore isn't all that much a shocker to me. But that you have nothing to base your view on ANYTHING you say anymore is all I need to put your pathetic ass on ignore from now on. You're nothing more than a gawd damn troll. F-U, BF.

There!

LOL! That is funny. I guess when there is no one to debate you guys can claim victory amongst yourselves. Same goes with that stooge in office. What a failure of mankind to kill each other, unless it's a Bush, then that would be okay with me. And, I called it, Cheney and the CIA are behind 911, Dubya is clueless. Another thing is "why should I care?" I have no representation in DC. They don't represent me, they represent companies & corporations, especially defense contractors.

I could give a $#!!, the Republican party is imploding to say the least. Bush is a colossal failure and there are no comebacks this time around for the Neo-Nixonian good ole boy party. Everyone is on to your little game of enriching the rich, even college students have had enough of the useless amd ineffective wars, so don't look for any pity from me. Conservatives? What a joke. You guys spend too much money on credit for my taste. We'll be luck to pay off their credit cards in 50 or less. Jeez, what an embarrassment. I'm embarrassed to be an American. Everyone outside of Faux news and CONUS is laughin' their @$$ off at America. Real conservatives aren't laughing, and neither is Colin Powell. I'm not laughing. republicans run deficits and the int'l. bankers have to insert Dems to pay the bills of those careless Republicans everytime. Just look at history. Republicans can no longer call themselves the conservative party, so maybe try the Christian Party or something, because you sure ain't no conservative.