President Obama thanked ''civilians'' for their "sacrifices" and ''service'' in Iraq.

[Octafish]

3. In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime

D'oh. Forgot to include the thing about Simone and all the puke suck-ups wot got the primo jobs helping out in the Green Zone and such:

[font size="1"]Simone Ledeen greets John Hanley at Dulles International Airport on Monday upon his return from Iraq.
Ledeen came home in March. (Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)[/font size]



In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime

Managing a $13 Billion Budget With No Experience

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- It was after nightfall when they finally found their offices at Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace -- 11 jet-lagged, sweaty, idealistic volunteers who had come to help Iraq along the road to democracy.

When the U.S. government went looking for people to help rebuild Iraq, they had responded to the call. They supported the war effort and President Bush. Many had strong Republican credentials. They were in their twenties or early thirties and had no foreign service experience. On that first day, Oct. 1, they knew so little about how things worked that they waited hours at the airport for a ride that was never coming. They finally discovered the shuttle bus out of the airport but got off at the wrong stop.

Occupied Iraq was just as Simone Ledeen had imagined -- ornate mosques, soldiers in formation, sand blowing everywhere, "just like on TV." The 28-year-old daughter of neoconservative pundit Michael Ledeen and a recently minted MBA, she had arrived on a military transport plane with the others and was eager to get to work.

They had been hired to perform a low-level task: collecting and organizing statistics, surveys and wish lists from the Iraqi ministries for a report that would be presented to potential donors at the end of the month. But as suicide bombs and rocket attacks became almost daily occurrences, more and more senior staffers defected. In short order, six of the new young hires found themselves managing the country's $13 billion budget, making decisions affecting millions of Iraqis.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48543-2004May22?language=printer

PS: Thank you for the kind reminder, Grawss-san! Remember that confab where only those nations committed to the cause would get contracts in New Iraq?

U.S. Bars Iraq Contracts for Nations That Opposed War http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/09/international/middleeast/09CND-DIPL.html

Such a lovely war. I mean "opportunity."