Posted on 01/02/2006 5:20:12 PM PST by blam
Bush cuts off cash for rebuilding Iraq
By Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 03/01/2006)
The Bush administration has made clear that there will be no more money for rebuilding Iraq when the £10.7 billion originally allocated has been spent.
Although many projects have been disappointments, the decision not to ask Congress for more cash in next month's draft budget underlines the consensus that it is time to start winding down the costly commitment to the country.
It also highlights how, since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the focus of the reconstruction effort has shifted from electricity, roads and water to security.
In January 2004 American officials planned to spend £1.9 billion to refashion the police and army. But as the rebellion has gathered momentum at least £1.5 billion has been transferred from other projects, including £600 million earmarked for electricity, to training soldiers and judges, creating special forces and building courts and prisons.
American officials deny that they will be leaving the job half-finished. "The US never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," Brig William McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing reconstruction, told journalists in Iraq recently.
Later he told the Washington Post: "This was just supposed to be the springboard."
Officials point to the 3,600 projects they have completed or intend to finish by the end of this year, when the money is expected to run out.
A survey in the Washington Post counts among the successes the building of 160 hospitals and clinics, the rebuilding of 800 miles of roads and work on 900 schools.
But sabotage has kept the output of electricity and oil at or below pre-war levels despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds.
US officials say that when the money runs out it will be up to foreign donors and the new Iraqi government to carry out the work that still needs to be done.
George W Bush sketched out a grandiose future for Iraq's infrastructure in a speech in August 2003, a few months after Saddam was ousted.
He said: "In a lot of places the infrastructure is as good as it was at pre-war levels, which is satisfactory, but it is not the ultimate aim. The ultimate aim is for the infrastructure to be the best in the region."
Since then the cost of countering the insurgency has all but overwhelmed the reconstruction effort.
Seven people were killed and 13 wounded yesterday when a suicide car bomber rammed a bus carrying police recruits north of Baghdad. Gunmen in two cars shot dead five people in the capital.
A lot of speculation here
this cannot be true
there are costs the military incurs every single day - you can't just stop incurring costs
It's a MESS no matter how you look at it.
Agree with your responses.
Even being the Bushbot I am, I know this cannot be true. GWB has yet to cut off funding to anything!
Bush is cutting funding for something? So that's why I saw a flock of pigs flying on my way home this evening.
Its time they started selling their oil and using their own money.
Its time they started selling their oil and using their own money.
Wasn't that the plan from the beginning?....I seem to remember Bush saying this early on..
A draft budget is just that - a draft. If anything ultimately gets cut (which I hope it does) remains to be seen. But one way to force some unity among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds would be to put out just this sort of info. "Sink or swim, we're not gonna support your sorry asses forever!"
Headlines used to read: Bush is spending too much money rebuilding Iraq! Next generation Americans and the poor suffer the most
Headlines from MSM will now read: Bush destroyed Iraq and wont pay to rebuild the mess we made! Bush doesnt care about poor Iraqis
I'd bet a lot of money the MSM and Dems would spin this that way....
We're spending so much for the prosperity of Iraq but unfortunately the Iraqi's themselves in some way seem to be so passive about it... well as most muslims are... they are very dependent.. they always love "easy money" stuff.. it's time for them to do their part... it's their country not ours... we've given much to help! No spoonfeeding this time.
bingo
It'll look like this;
Bush Concedes Defeat In Iraq
Like I said.." It's a Mess no matter how you look at it. "
Can't forget to provide the American/Iraqi casualties--in this instance, just the Iraqis. Ever notice how the press never provides any data (or even speculation) of enemy casualties?
Well, the neoconservatives said the whole thing would pay for itself; they're only off by about $500 billion in US tax dollars but letting the Iraqis pay for their own reconstruction is a start.
This is just the kick in the pants the fledgling Iraqi Gov needs to get off The US Teet
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