Krugman: Who Lost Iraq? (This is a Must Read)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/opinion/29KRUG.html?pagewanted=print&position=

The formal occupation of Iraq came to an ignominious end yesterday with a furtive ceremony, held two days early to foil insurgent attacks, and a swift airborne exit for the chief administrator. In reality, the occupation will continue under another name, most likely until a hostile Iraqi populace demands that we leave. But it's already worth asking why things went so wrong.

The Iraq venture may have been doomed from the start — but we'll never know for sure because the Bush administration made such a mess of the occupation. Future historians will view it as a case study of how not to run a country.

Up to a point, the numbers in the Brookings Institution's invaluable Iraq Index tell the tale. Figures on the electricity supply and oil production show a pattern of fitful recovery and frequent reversals; figures on insurgent attacks and civilian casualties show a security situation that got progressively worse, not better; public opinion polls show an occupation that squandered the initial good will.

What the figures don't describe is the toxic mix of ideological obsession and cronyism that lie behind that dismal performance.

<snip>

If the occupiers often seemed oblivious to reality, one reason was that many jobs at the C.P.A. went to people whose qualifications seemed to lie mainly in their personal and political connections — people like Simone Ledeen, whose father, Michael Ledeen, a prominent neoconservative, told a forum that "the level of casualties is secondary" because "we are a warlike people" and "we love war."

[whistle]

1. Bush and the neo-cons, but they never really had Iraq....

...so I think the correct term is "Who blew our chances with Iraq?"

[elf]

2. Scandal over scandel

snip

If the occupiers often seemed oblivious to reality, one reason was that many jobs at the C.P.A. went to people whose qualifications seemed to lie mainly in their personal and political connections — people like Simone Ledeen, whose father, Michael Ledeen, a prominent neoconservative, told a forum that "the level of casualties is secondary" because "we are a warlike people" and "we love war."

[elf]

3. Where are the missing $20 bill???

snip

Checks and review? Yesterday a leading British charity, Christian Aid, released a scathing report, "Fueling Suspicion," on the use of Iraqi oil revenue. It points out that the May 2003 U.N. resolution giving the C.P.A. the right to spend that revenue required the creation of an international oversight board, which would appoint an auditor to ensure that the funds were spent to benefit the Iraqi people


Instead, the U.S. stalled, and the auditor didn't begin work until April 2004. Even then, according to an interim report, it faced "resistance from C.P.A. staff." And now, with the audit still unpublished, the C.P.A. has been dissolved.

Defenders of the administration will no doubt say that Christian Aid and other critics have no proof that the unaccounted-for billions were ill spent. But think of it this way: given the Arab world's suspicion that we came to steal Iraq's oil, the occupation authorities had every incentive to expedite an independent audit that would clear Halliburton and other U.S. corporations of charges that they were profiteering at Iraq's expense. Unless, that is, the charges are true.

Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor

[elf]

4. Now we know, why Ari Fleischer left...........

snip


Still, given Mr. Bremer's economic focus, you might at least have expected his top aide for private-sector development to be an expert on privatization and liberalization in such countries as Russia or Argentina. But the job initially went to Thomas Foley, a Connecticut businessman and Republican fund-raiser with no obviously relevant expertise. In March, Michael Fleischer, a New Jersey businessman, took over. Yes, he's Ari Fleischer's brother. Mr. Fleischer told The Chicago Tribune that part of his job was educating Iraqi businessmen: "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."

[necso]

5. Wow, this is a masterpiece. nt

[dand]

6. The stench from this gang of war criminals is overwhelming

and Krugman describes it better than anyone, thanks for the article rmpalmer :toast:

[ixion]

7. 'we are a war like people'

That really hits the heart of it, no? Not the religion. Not the ideology. Not the politics. It's about the war.




It's all war, all the time. :-(

[teryang]

8. "He would have to do everything else right."

Geoffrey Perret, author of Lincoln's War, the Untold Story of America's Greatest Commander in Chief, said the Lincoln's greatest blunder was in pursuing the wrong military strategy against the South during the civil war. Perret says that the war could have been won in two years with the right strategy. But because the great leader did everything else right, he nevertheless saved the Union, albeit at a greater cost.

Perret said that in his opinion, Bush's response to 911 was strategically incorrect. Therefore in order to avoid military and political failure, "he would have to do everything else right" in order to succeed.

Has Bush done everything right since? It seems as if he can't do anything right, except convert taxpayer funds and iraqi resources for his cronies.