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October 01, 2003
Iraq Reconstruction: Stunning Political Idiocy, Stunning Miserliness and Stupidity.
I have long been convinced that the US lacks the will, expertise and political savoir-faire to undertake the Iraq project. More proof that my thinking is correct (as usual):
RECONSTRUCTION
Senate Wants Iraq to Share Recovery Cost
By DAVID FIRESTONE
Published: October 1, 2003
http://nytimes.com/2003/10/01/politics/01COST.html
The fools in Congress, and here I blame above all the idiotic short-termist know-nothingism among the Democrats this time, partly enabled by the same sort of idiotic short-termist know-nothingism among the ultra-Con Republican backbenchers from little bullshit states.
From the article: "Senate Republicans, bowing to what appears to be a Senate majority, said Tuesday that they had begun exploring a compromise that would require Iraq to repay at least part of the $20.3 billion in reconstruction aid the Bush administration wants to spend.
A large loan to Iraq, though strongly opposed by the administration, reflects the growing objections to the White House plans from many Republican lawmakers and almost all Democrats, who do not want to use taxpayer money to rebuild a country sitting on billions of dollars in oil reserves."
This is a huge mistake on so many different levels it is almost mind boggling.
First, there is no way such a loan will be seen as politically legitimate in the rest of the world, let alone Iraq. The invading authority is under an obligation to restore war damage, first of all, but let us leave aside mere legal niceties of international law, which evidently America has little care for any more. Rather more importantly, what amounts to a forced loan to an occupied country with no independent authority stinks to high heaven of the worst abuses of the colonial era, and plugs directly into the real historical experiences in the Middle East. It is, in short, nothing more than a propaganda coup to the Jihadis and indeed to the opponents of American efforts. The richest nation in the world can't take it on itself to actually fund obligations but seeks to extort money from a prostrate and impoverished nation. What generosity, what foresight.
Further, to the economic issue, this mirage of oil wealth is extraordinary. First, of course, as I demonstrated in the past, the wealth is by no means as great as one thinks - and vast sums are required to repair the very infrastructure required to produce it. That idiots like Specter say things like: " "We're not asking for Iraqi oil to fund our military operations," said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania. "We are asking that this Iraqi asset, the second biggest oil field in the world, be used to pay for their obligations. We shouldn't be too fast to give away $20 billion if we can find some way not to." Good work Arlen, being a stupidly miserly fool for the sake of near term politics - I can think of few better ways to sink the reputation of the US ever deeper into the mire than this sort of reasoning.
Second, and this is partly political, partly financial-economic, there are already massive outstanding claims on Iraq, which while they will have to be written down, clearly have precedence over a forced loan - and should the US extend a forced loan there will be a serious international backlash.
The Bush Administration has it right when they say (via the CPA-I lobbyist):
" "We're against this whole thing," said Tom Korologos, a lobbyist for the American occupation authority in Iraq. "It will kill us at the donor conference in Madrid." At that meeting in late October, the administration will be asking other countries to give billions of dollars to the Iraq reconstruction effort, and Mr. Korologos said no other nations would contribute if the United States was only lending money to Iraq."
The Democrats deserve to be beaten with sticks for this idiocy, this utter idiocy which unfortunately indicates that the leadership in the party is either blinded by the search for partisan advantage, stupid or as entirely lacking in understanding as the Bush Administration has been heretofor in re Iraq.
This fundamental illogic: " Democrats, however, say the international community already is refusing to contribute, and their increasing public pressure on the administration — accusing the White House of draining education and Social Security money at home to rebuild Iraq — is starting to have an effect. Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, said all but one or two Democratic senators favored a loan, and with at least four or five Republican senators publicly in agreement, Republicans are beginning to backpedal."
This tells me that the Democratic Senators as a body are a bunch of idiotic ninnyhammered economic illiterates with no concern for finding a solution to this Iraq mess. What better way to ensure that yet more nations walk away from the Iraq deal than by amply illustrating that the United States fundamentally lacks a coherent vision for Iraq and is now so unprepared and obsessed with short termist penny-wise, pound-foolish self indulgence in re the project that it is considering a return to the very worst aspects of colonialism.
I find it painful to agree with Tom Delay, however:
" Struggling to keep the party's caucus together, Tom DeLay, the House Republican leader, said critics should remember that rebuilding Iraq would bring American troops home sooner. It is a mistake, he said, to think that Iraq is so awash in oil that it can pay for all its needs."
He has it right, but then the fools from the Majlis al-Hakim have this:
"Members of the Iraqi Governing Council, after meeting with Senate leaders on Tuesday, told reporters they strongly preferred that all the money be made as a grant to Iraq. But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic whip, said that in a private meeting, the council members said they believed Iraq's oil reserves were double the administration's estimates, capable of eventually producing six million barrels a day, or more than $30 billion a year."
More idiocy. Six million a year - when? With what money to get the infrastructure up? And then why do these fools think that Iraq is going to get such a huge chunk of the oil market without the Saudis punishing them? Or worse yet, without a price collapse. No, $30 billion a year is a pipe dream by those who either do not understand the market or are being willfully blind. Which is it?
For once I am rooting for DeLay et al. This loan nonesense needs to be stopped and right quick.
Posted by The Lounsbury at October 1, 2003 11:31 AM
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Jan-Dec 2003
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