US wasted billions in Iraq, few results    

    From: AAP
    March 07, 2013

 

AFTER invading Iraq 10 years ago, the United States spent $US60 billion ($A58.84 billion) on a vast reconstruction effort that left behind few successes and a litany of failures, an auditor's report says.    

The ambitious plan to transform the country after the fall of Saddam Hussein has been marked by half-finished projects and crushed expectations, according to the final report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen.

The aid effort was plagued by in-fighting among US agencies and an improvised "adhocracy" approach, with no one clearly in charge of a massive investment that was supposed to put Iraq on a stable footing, said the report to Congress.    

"Management and funding gaps caused hundreds of projects to fall short of promised results, leaving a legacy of bitter dissatisfaction among many Iraqis," it said.

Some of the reconstruction money was stolen, with a number of US military officers and contractors now imprisoned for fraud, while other funds remain unaccounted for to this day, it said.


Of $US2.8 billion in Iraqi oil revenues handled by the US Defense Department, officials could not produce documents accounting for the use of about $US1.7 billion, including $US1.3 billion in fuel purchases, it said.

The lengthy report highlighted some of the worst examples of mismanagement and graft and included interviews with senior Iraqi and US officials who mostly regretted the outcome of the reconstruction program.

"The level of fraud, waste, and abuse in Iraq was appalling," Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, was quoted as saying.    

She was "especially angry when she learned that some reconstruction money found its way into the hands of insurgent groups," the report said.

Both Iraqi and US officials agreed the Americans ignored the advice of Iraqis or never bothered to consult them before launching costly projects, with sometimes disastrous results.

The litany of failures included a new police academy with raw sewage leaking through ceilings, a subcontractor charging $US900 for a control switch valued at seven dollars and a project to build a large prison in Diyala province that was eventually abandoned, despite an investment of $US40 million.

How is this news? This stuff was common knowledge five years ago.!

It's called Oil!!!

That was & is THE result required!

Chard wrote on Mar 7^th, 2013 at 8:48am:



I often wonder how many of those that say it was all about oil.... would be happy to go without oil???? I bet they still queue up on pay day to fill it up.

My favorite result from the illegal invasion of Iraq -

A U.S. vet. suicides every eighty minutes.  That's 22 per day on 2012 figures.  Up from 18 per day in 2010.   May it go on climbing.

Chard wrote on Mar 7^th, 2013 at 8:48am:


I don't think anyone understood the game plan of the neocons when they decided to march into Iraq - least of all the neocons themselves. Its common knowledge that they literally had no reconstruction plan - outside of a vague notion of getting the oil industry back up and thinking that it will pay for itself. And then simply sit back and watch liberal democracy spread across the middle east.

The fact that the oil industry - even to this day - never got back on its feet to provide the necessary reconstruction revenue doesn't mean that wasn't the intention at the outset. The billions upon billions wasted in the aftermath is tribute to the complete absense of any reconstruction strategy - and the implementation of what the article termed "adhocracy".

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Mar 7^th, 2013 at 9:16am:



Shale oil is the last highly polluting dregs that will be gleaned.
It's 3 x more polluting than oil to produce & use.

Andrei doesn't care about the environment.

"A Democracy"??

No, no, no.  The invasion was pure blood lust on the premise that Iraq had chemical weapons & a missle delivery system that could strike within 45mins of launch.

In 2002/3 an over-whelming 87% of the sheeple were in favor of invasion because they were led to believe Iraq did 911.  They just wanted to see muslim blood flow like oil.  And so did australia.  The democracy crap was a later on red herring to cover the lies for the invasion.

And me, I'm looking forward to seeing the U.S. Iraqi vets attain a suicide rate of more than one an hour every hour.  Nearly there too.   24 per hour.  Yi-ha.