Powell: USA to CREATE JOBS FOR IRAQ!

[Bluebear]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Secretary of State Colin Powell promised Iraqi leaders Friday that the United States will speed up spending to rebuild the country's infrastructure and create jobs, and said doing so will help make Iraq safer.

Powell didn't announce specific figures. But Iraq's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, who joined Powell at a news conference, said $9 billion in U.S. reconstruction money will be disbursed by December.
Powell said the he believes a faster-paced reconstruction effort will enhance public support for the interim government.
"We want to rebuild the infrastructure. We want to create jobs," he said. "We want to show the Iraqi people that this money is being used for their benefit and do it as quickly as we can!"

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040730/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_powell_14

[DaveSZ]

What a joke

We should be creating good jobs here at home.

[DaveSZ]

1. What a joke

We should be creating good jobs here at home.

[shraby]

2. Pssst.....Hey Powell,

We need a few of those jobs here. How about spending some of that reconstruction money on our country???????????????

[jean]

3. The Fund for Peace report is titled 'Iraq as a Failed State' - Iraq is in

such a state of chaos how can Powell believe that he can fast track anything?

http://www.fundforpeace.org/publications/reports/iraq-rep02.php

'In the six months reviewed in this report, Iraq descended into what may be described as a failed state syndrome, a condition in which a number of trends reinforced each other to produce spiraling conflict that the country has little or no independent capacity to stop. A year after the invasion, Iraq is as shattered as it was the day that Saddam Hussein was overthrown, the main difference being that organized militias and terrorist groups have gained a foothold they did not have before.

Can sustainable security be achieved in Iraq? There may be a way forward to get through the next few months. But this does not necessarily mean that Iraq would be able to exercise full sovereignty and solve its own problems peacefully without an outside military or administrative presence over time. For that to occur, the state must be rebuilt. This requires, at a minimum, internal cooperation and cohesion among Iraqis themselves. The tipping point that will determine whether the country will move toward constitutionalism or chaos will be evident over the next six months. If the trends we are tracking improve over that period, then Iraq may have a chance of recovery.

For that chance to be fully realized, however, the U.S. and its allies will need to work urgently with the U.N. on a comprehensive and long-term international approach - not focused merely on the current political transition leading to elections and eventual international withdrawal - but on the entire spectrum of social, political, economic and security issues that must be addressed to nurture a transition. It must be a transition in which state institutions are capable of functioning on their own under the rule of law, the economy revives, and a civil society emerges. This approach will require more of everything - more money, more troops, more time, and more multilateral cooperation. That is the only path forward for sustainable security and there are no shortcuts.

The report lays out five possible scenarios for the future and states that several months leading up to Iraqi elections will be a "make-or-break time" for that country.'

[Momof1]

4. They need jobs. That way they are not shooting at our troops.

We are totally responsible for their health care, and Economic situation.

That is what the invading country does. We liberated them, so now we have to take care of them.

That is what * did. Now we have to foot the bill.

And if they are not working they are shooting at us. Give them a job.

And fire Halliburton.

[WindRavenX]

5. I know, I know

But it's just so freakin' frustrating to hear about this administration's drive to create jobs in Iraq (which is needed) and have then ignore the economy here. I want a job goddammit!!