Lugar criticizes Bush administration's planning for postwar Iraq
KEN GUGGENHEIM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A leading Republican senator accused the Bush administration Thursday of moving too slowly in developing plans to rebuild Iraq, saying, "We may be coming close to the moment of truth."
Sen. Richard Lugar, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's comments that costs to the United States may be limited "runs contrary to almost all we are hearing."
Lugar, of Indiana, spoke after his committee held a closed-door meeting with Assistant Secretary of State William Burns to discuss Iraqi reconstruction plans.
"It appears to me that the work on what happens after hostilities is well behind the military planning," Lugar said. He said the committee has been urging the administration to move faster.
"We may be coming close to a moment of truth in which performance will have to occur," he said. "It's beyond that which is hypothetical."
In hearings by Lugar's committee on a post-Saddam Iraq, senators have heard concerns about possible ethnic conflicts, fears of massive hunger and uncertainty about how Iraq's government and economy will be rebuilt.
Chaos in postwar Iraq could mean a longer and costlier commitment of U.S. troops, analysts have said. It could also create the kind of lawlessness that terrorist groups thrive on.
At a news conference Monday, Rumsfeld said money to administer Iraq after a war could come not only from the United States but also from seized Iraqi assets, oil revenues and donations from other countries.
"Leaving aside whether this has any basis in probability or not," Lugar said the administration needs to discuss these scenarios with Congress. "It runs contrary to almost all we are hearing from other witnesses coming before our committee who are saying it will take a long while for democracy to grow and flourish," he said.
The administration's top postwar planner, retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, was to testify before the committee Monday, but the administration canceled his appearance.
"This is not a hypothetical," Lugar said. "The administration really has to come forward with plans that are credible to the American people."
Pentagon officials, speaking on condition they not be identified, have briefed reporters on postwar plans. They said Iraqi soldiers would be used to rebuild the country and Iraq's civilian bureaucracy would be kept in operation.
Lugar specifically called for estimates on the costs of rebuilding - something Democratic lawmakers have also pressed for. The administration said it can't project costs because no one knows how long a war would last or how much damage it would cause.
Saying only that costs can't be known "is to wreak havoc" with the budget process now under way in Congress, Lugar said.
Lugar said one of several hypothetical scenarios Burns mentioned at the hearing was seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution to create an entity responsible for Iraq's oil industry and government.
Asked if the Security Council might be reluctant to pass a resolution if the United States goes to war without its backing, Lugar said, "Might be," noting the "fractious relationships that are being created sort of day by day in the current debate." |
