Insiders shape postwar Iraq, Republican ties often trumped experience

[never cry wolf]

Mods, I am breaking the 4 paragraph rule but this is a VERY long article, top headline in the tribune and then a full page and a half inside. Edit if you must.

Insiders shape postwar Iraq
Republican ties often trumped experience in coalition

By Andrew Zajac, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune foreign correspondent Christine Spolar contributed to this report
Published June 20, 2004

A little over a year ago, Stuart Bowen Jr. was lobbying for a company looking for work in the impending reconstruction of Iraq.

A former longtime aide to President Bush, Bowen tapped administration contacts on behalf of URS Group, a consulting firm, and the company eventually landed contracts worth up to $30 million for overseeing Iraqi construction projects.

Today, Bowen works for the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led bureaucracy running Iraq. In his new job as inspector general, Bowen is the corruption watchdog over more than $20 billion of rebuilding, including the activities of URS, the company he represented.

snip---------

Occupation planners often selected "ideologues without international experience who see the world through blinders," said Peter Galbraith, a senior career diplomat and an adviser to the Iraqi Kurdish leadership.

"I don't think the Iraq venture was doomed to fail," Galbraith said. "If we had had qualified people with time to plan and a coherent strategy, the situation . . . would certainly be better."

Defense Department officials in charge of reconstruction wanted leaders who shared their belief that a capitalist democracy could be quickly installed in the country, said Tim Carney, a retired diplomat who was the occupation's adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals in spring of 2003. Such a rosy outlook ruled out many seasoned State Department hands.

snip---------

and below is my favorite, highlights mine:

Competitive bidding "is a new world for the Iraqis," Fleischer said. Under Saddam Hussein, "it was all done by cronies. The only paradigm they know is cronyism. We are teaching them that there is an alternative system with built-in checks and built-in review."

The above quote comes from the CPA's top economic advisor, Michael Fleisher, brother of the formen presidential press secretary, who I am SURE got his job based purely on qualifications and not cronyism!:eyesroll:

more (free subscript. req'd.)--> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0406200283jun20,1,6574250.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

[EdGy]

1. this is a great piece!!!

And this part of the snip you posted above is really the most important point, so I'll repeat it:

Occupation planners often selected "ideologues without international experience who see the world through blinders," said Peter Galbraith, a senior career diplomat and an adviser to the Iraqi Kurdish leadership.

"I don't think the Iraq venture was doomed to fail," Galbraith said. "If we had had qualified people with time to plan and a coherent strategy, the situation . . . would certainly be better."

Defense Department officials in charge of reconstruction wanted leaders who shared their belief that a capitalist democracy could be quickly installed in the country, said Tim Carney, a retired diplomat who was the occupation's adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals in spring of 2003. Such a rosy outlook ruled out many seasoned State Department hands.

This kind of thing is what characterizes the entire Bush foreign policy.

There should be major campaign commercials made with these quotes!!!

[never cry wolf]

2. "This kind of thing is what characterizes the entire Bush foreign policy."

This kind of thing is what characterizes the entire Bush administration! If you don't fall in line with policy, you are gone. If the facts don't fall in line with policy, change or cover up the facts!

[EdGy]

5. very true, sadly

all we have to do is look at how Bush is ignoring science and making decisions based on ideological closed-mindedness and/or the interests of his cronies.

This is truly the path to destruction, unfortunately.

[DBoon]

3. Just wait

Until these ideologues come back, get domestic management positions in a Republican administration, and apply their "lessons learned" in controlling a hostile population (shudder).

The folks who ran the prison systems, law enforcement, etc. in Iraq will be doing the same things here.

[never cry wolf]

4. Self serving kick

It's an impportant article, IMHO. Nothing we here didn't already know but front page of the mainstream press may open some sheeples eyes.

[never cry wolf]

6. For the evening crowd, my last kick

After that it can die a slow death into the archives.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Cronyism. Oh joy.