New face - old problem

The Bushies may have finally realized that reconstruction in Iraq will never make real progress unless the Iraqi's can participate in it. Long employing a policy of giving fat rebuilding contracts to cronies, thugs, and Iraqi's on the take, they appear to have actually made a real plan by outlining a program calling for a progressive transfer of control for roughly $21B of development projects.

Of course, this effort has political smell all over it. As the Bushies continually lose support for the war and are increasingly seen as bunglers, they are now trying to trumpet "unheralded" economic and social progress. Desperate to show some real progress on something, this is the latest attempt.

Unfortunately, the program has huge obstacles that may be insurmountable: Billions of dollars have been wasted or lost to corruption , Iraqi contractors and workers face death threats for working on US projects, several hundred Iraqi contractors have been killed, and at least 1/5 of each contract has to go towards protection and security for workers.
Posted on the Human Stain