U.S. General: "The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Bush won't seek additional funds for Iraq reconstruction

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Bush_wont_seek_additional_funds_for_0101.html

The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials tell the WASHINGTON POST in Monday's editions, RAW STORY has learned... Excerpts...

The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein.Just under 20 percent of the reconstruction package remains unallocated.

When the last of the $18.4 billion is spent, U.S. officials in Baghdad have made clear, other foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government will have to take up what authorities say is tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq's 26 million people.

"The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing the work, told reporters in a recent news conference. In an interview this past week, McCoy said: "This was just supposed to be a jump-start."

Originally published on Sunday January 1, 2006

[madaboutharry]

1. We have become a disgrace of a nation.

I am so ashamed of this country.

[NativeTexan]

10. I can't say that....

I am ashamed of the country. I AM ashamed, however, that as a people, more of us couldn't see what a criminal sham it was that Bush and his facist henchmen were throwing at us.
And I am ashamed of a government that cares not for its poor; its hurricane victims in black areas; its standing throughout the world; its own rule of laws, and so on. What DO they care about? Seems like the military industrial complex that Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address to the nation in 1960; the large corporations that care even less for their employees than the government does...aka Walmart; the oil companies that are really the ONLY major interested represented by a government that has TWO OILMEN in the White House; cornering the oil market by invading oil producing nations that our government can spread fear to the public about, and so on.

THE ONLY WAY THAT WE HAVE OF OVERTHROWING A GOVERNMENT IN THIS COUNTRY IS VOTING AND SPREADING THE WORD!! WINNING THE CONGRESS BACK, ALONG WITH AS MANY GOVERNORS MANSIONS AND STATE HOUSES AS POSSIBLE IS THE FIRST STEP!! AFTER THAT WE CAN LOOK AT IMPEACHMENT OF THE OIL MEN IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!!

[amitten]

2. Then we shouldn't have intended to completely destroy it.

Shock and Awe = Long-term Halliburton profits = Can we impeach this sick bastard now? Please?

[bvar22]

3. The Republican "Culture of Corruption" in DC

knows that the "Party is Over" for the Republican transfer of Wealth to Halliburton and Bush* friends. The Abramoff scam has exploded, and American taxpayers are wise to the scam. They will foldup their Dummy Storefronts and leave the people of Iraq to starve while counting their $400Billion in stolen loot.

I hope these black hearted thieves all choke to death on pretzels.

[tatertop]

4. Bush has played that scam out.

Lots and lots of US taxpayer dollars have been paid and
almost no work has, or will be, done.
Result: PROFIT for his buddies!
To continue would displease American Dummies a little too
much for no good reason (not that he gives a fuck about that,
it's just easier to move on).

Anyway, Bush is already working at least three new scams.

God Bless 'Murca!

[Maggie_May]

5. What this

running out of money for your buddies Cheney. I have a feeling with the troop levels we are trying to keep over there plus the reconstruction money being pissed away we are going broke folks they just haven't let you know. This administration has pissed away just about everything.

[Auntie Bush]

6. Doesn't the international law say if you invade/destroy a country you

are responsible to rebuild it or words to that effect? You can't blow the place up and just walk out and leave it in ruins...and hand other countries the bill and responsibility...or can you? But I guess that doesn't matter to a fascist Dictator. He'll do as he damn well pleases.

[radio4progressives]

12. huh? Haven't you noticed, we don't need no stink'n Intl law tellin' us

what we have to do! we can blow out the first '10 stories of the United Nations building and it would not be missed' - says fuck face Bolton.

[TayTay]

7. Well, they have no intention of rebuilding this country so

why should they hold to any promises to rebuild another country. Accountability is not these people's long suit after all. They don't give a shit about anyone or anything unless it can make money for them or a their friends. Money is the only thing they pay attention to and Iraq is starting to look like a money-loser to them. So they will cut it off.

[gratuitous]

8. Oh, just a lil ol' jump-start

That cost half a trillion dollars, 2,000 soldiers, uncounted tens of thousands of Iraqis, and every last scrap of American credibility. Just a jump-start, folks.

And that's why your son, daughter, father, mother, brother or sister died in Iraq.

[Donna Zen]

9. They Don't Do Nation Building

In Assassins' Gate Parker talks quite a bit about this aspect of the Iraqi invasion. One of the reasons the work of the Iraq Reconstruction Team was scraped was because ideological the junta doesn't believe in Nation Building. Thus, in order to hold this gang of thieves together, they made a decision not to rebuild Iraq. At first, they only allocated 2.4 billion. It was only when things started to completely deteriorate that Bremer rushed home for money.

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Well that's a gimme

Look at how they went into Iraq. Look at their lack of concern for the "missing" money. Go to http://www.gregpalast.com and watch his BBC segment on Iraq's oil. This will tell you all.

[newspeak]

13. well, maybe we should also look at our country

because their robbing the till also. Just the biggest con job in the history of the world--now that's an escalation from the Savings and Loan rip off.

[OneBlueSky]

14. seems "you break it, you bought it" doesn't apply to . . .

imperialism . . . at least not to BushCo's brand of imperialism . . .

[Disturbed]

15. Blood for oil is a fair exchange in Bush World

"The terrorists want to control the oil. Our way of life will be at risk". George W. Bush (Nov. 2005)

The US will be in Iraq for as long as the Dems in Congress keep funding the Occupation. I am guessing that around 60K troops will be pulled out before the '06 Elections, 100K will stay on the outskirts of the Sunni Triangle and the US Air Force will kill many non-combatents. There will never be a full withdrawl of US Forces from Iraq.

Bush Regime Iraq Successes (Pase 1)

1. Saddam will no longer sell Iraqi oil via the Euro.

2, A military foothold in the ME. Other than Saudi Arabia.

3, No countries will be able to buy Iraqi oil that the U.S. disapproves of.

4. The Multi-Intl. Oil Corps are reaping great profits.

5. The Military Industrial Complex is a booming Industry.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

16. "Americans are the best in destroying things but the worst in rebuilding"

From the WA PO article, now available:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/01/AR2006010101072_pf.html

But the insurgency has set back efforts across the board. In two of the most crucial areas, electricity and oil production, relentless sabotage has kept output at or below prewar levels despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of American dollars and countless man-hours. Oil production stands at roughly 2 billion barrels a day, compared with 2.6 billion before U.S. troops entered Iraq in March 2003, according to U.S. government statistics.

The national electrical grid has an average daily output of 4,000 megawatts, about 400 megawatts less than its prewar level.

Iraqis nationwide receive on average less than 12 hours of power a day. For residents of Baghdad, it was six hours a day last month, according to a U.S. count, though many residents say that figure is high.

The Americans, said Zaid Saleem, 26, who works at a market in Baghdad, "are the best in destroying things but they are the worst in rebuilding."