NEWS & VIEWS:

News&Views:
Through Feb 1, 06

Published irregularly and contentiously by
THE UBIQUITOUS FLYING BLUE BLOG:

Bush’s Impossible Legacy:
You really need a sardonic sense of humor to listen to Bush talk about Tocqueville as a guide in thinking about his legacy, especially when Tocqueville in his book about America and democracy warned us about how such a person could transform a democracy, as fragile as it is, into a tyranny!

As an aside, Tocqueville wrote about America from his own uniquely French perspective where the forces of revolution-- spurred on by support for America’s own revolution!--caused them to overthrow their own monarchy. Ironically, Tocqueville’s own family faced the executioner. A lesson here indeed!

America’s Environmental Grades Slip Again!
Davos conference begins this week. A newly formed environmental group assembled by Yale and Columbia University will report that based on 16 separate parameters, America will rank down at the bottom of the rankings of the industrialized nations. In the survey, New Zealand ranked first followed by 6 Northern European nations… Ranking ahead of the US was most of industrialized Northern Europe, Japan, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Chile. The yardsticks ranged from clean water to the state of the country’s hatcheries and air quality standards based on emissions… Countries were grouped according to those having similar conditions and unlike earlier studies, this one was based on the results of policy and less on trends.


Bremmer’s “Tell-All” Does Not Dispel Misgivings of Many…
Paul Bremmer published his explanation as to why he didn’t resolve the challenges he faced in Iraq. Most think, the effort was to dispel the charges of his critics and place the blame where he felt it belonged; others see it as attempting to absolve himself of anything that went wrong. Some are less inclined to let Bremmer off the hook. Insiders claim that some of the set-backs in Fallujah could have been avoided if Bremer had his act together. Case in point, Bremmer had called out the Army to eliminate the incipient terrorist movement there, only to change his mind when presented with new data indicating that it might be harmful to his future plans. Switching gears provoked a reaction from the then commander who thought it would not only be bad for morale, it could encourage further intransigence later on from such insurgent movements. Invariably, it became a clash between Bremmer and the Pentagon with Bremmer prevailing. Today, many are inclined to believe that the existing problems have their origin in Bremmer’s earlier decision.



Whether We Leave Iraq Now or Ten Years From Now,
What is the Real Question?
How long we should stay in Iraq seems to the question that rankles most politicians and others; but it may turn out to be the wrong question.

The real question is what is the trade off if we stay longer vs. leaving expeditiously.
Based upon the inevitable tensions between the three major factions, Shiite, Kurd, Sunni, some realistic prognosticators see no equitable outcome that will satisfy each party. The outcome is clearly the kind of Civil War that could involve neighbors and dissolve borders. If that is true, if we are going to sustain a Civil War no matter what we do in the country, then we need to ask ourselves whether the additional cost in human lives is worth it? Is even the death of one additional person worth prolonging what is going to happen anyway? This seems a fair corollary. However, the entire argument has become so bogged down in politics, it seems that the people will never peel away enough of the subtext to get to the heart of the problem… Democrats have to get away from time prognostications and switch to the real issues here: Will anything we do now make a difference? And if that’s the case, why prolong the agony?

Eighteen Billion Dollars In Aid Vanishes in Puff of Smoke…
It was reported in the past week in several government journals that 18 billion dollars, earmarked for Iraqi restoration, has been used up. That seems for all intents and purposes rather incredulous given that we haven’t fixed anything. If anything, things have gotten worse since US forces have taken over. So, it is a very fair question to ask what happened to such a large sum of money earmarked for such a specific purpose?—especially tax payer monies that were to be used to prove that Democracy works!...

Government overseers claim that most of it was used for security reasons. Say again? Think about it; that seems like an awful large amount of money to go down the black hole, when compared to the huge sums already pumped into the country to cover security…

Are we talking about security for the no-bid contract holders, Cheney’s old employees? Or something else?

We already know that Kellogg and Brown and Root have already inflated prices and submitted invoices for services not delivered and in some cases just lost paperwork on another one billion plus of tax payer monies unaccounted for…

We also know that the man responsible for making consulting and other contract assignments in Iraq is the former campaign manager for Bush and that most of his work was executed sub rosa without public scrutiny or government oversight.…

So, what does that all have to do with the 18 billion for reconstruction that seems to have disappeared into some kind of black hole?

Something seems dreadfully wrong here… And where is the outrage? We are talking about taxpayer monies used to fund projects that more than anything would demonstrate our commitment to the people of Iraq. But these monies have not found their ways to the projects where they are needed. If for no other reason, the GAO has to step in here and make these invisible agencies and others who share responsibility come forward to explain their actions and provide an explanation for what happened to $18 billion.


IRAQ…Most of the Projects Scheduled
for Reconstruction Face Severe Cut-Backs!
Of the 136 projects scheduled to improve infrastructure and provide essential services, only 49 of them will be completed according to the latest reports.

Blame on it poor planning, as the government is wont to do, planning that failed to recognize that such projects require financing beyond the start-up to assure their viability over the long term. In any event, most Iraqi projects are doomed to failure or serious cut-backs!

For example, only 300 of the 425 projects to produce electricity are slated for completion. And most other projects reflect the same kind of ratios.

What emerges is what is being referred to as the reconstruction gap that contrasts ambitious plans and what can realistically be accomplished given the available resources. Stuart Bowen, Jr, the Inspector General, places a good of the blame on security regulations which changed when John Negroponte, then Ambassador to Iraq, shifted $3.46 billion from reconstruction to training of the Iraqi security forces. Prior to that, $400 million was shifted to cover administrative costs. $2.12 billion in additional funding shifts were tracked through Oct 2005. What emerges is another boondoggle that warrants the appointment of Federal investigators to probe what went wrong and why, a task for those charged with Congressional oversight.

At present, most of Iraq gets only between two and five hours of electricity a day; water and other services have also been cut back to the bare minimums making life for the average Iraqi especially hard—even harder than it was under Saddam.. Streets, too, are so unsafe that parents are afraid to send their children to school. If America cannot provide basic services and a safe environment, it seems that we have failed in our loftier intentions of bringing democracy to Iraq.

Les Aaron, Hubmaster
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