Monday, February 27, 2006

No kidding

This is the kind of study that makes your tax dollars groan since you could have simply paid the kid at the lemonade stand to come up with this conclusion.

Poor prewar planning left the United States without enough skilled workers to efficiently rebuild Iraq's economy and public works, according to a report issued Monday.

The study by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction provided a new explanation for the lagging reconstruction effort. Surveys by the Bush administration and congressional auditors have blamed insurgent attacks and the high cost of security.

But then note this:
It recommended the government establish a "civilian reserve corps" to deploy around the world for postwar rebuilding.
What? First, don't we have embassy staff for this kind of thing? Second, is the US planning on invading the planet? This sounds to me like another Halliburton recipe.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The State Department has been on the short end of the budget stick for a long time. The money is all going to the Defense Department.

Now AID, which is the agency that might be responsible for this kind of thing, is to be incorporated into the State Department, as were the US Information Service and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In both cases, their capabilities, staffing, and budget went down.

Any bets on what will happen to AID?

CKR

helmut said...

I had heard that about USAID. A friend who works for them says things are getting tight, budgets cut, etc. It even affected me indirectly a couple of weeks ago re some consulting stuff.

I'm not sure what to think. AID has always had a strong political element to it. State just might make it more legit.