The President's Speech on Iraq Reconstruction
By Rep. Henry A. Waxman
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Wednesday 07 December 2005
The President's claims today are mindboggling. Either he doesn't understand the facts or simply doesn't want to face them. The reconstruction of Iraq has been an enormous boondoggle - not an example of "quiet, steady progress." Halliburton has repeatedly overcharged American taxpayers through fraud, waste, and abuse. The U.S. officials in charge of the reconstruction have been incompetent and, in some cases, corrupt. And billions of dollars have been squandered without increasing oil or electricity production.
Key Facts about the Reconstruction
Lack of Progress.
Massive spending on reconstruction has produced little or no progress in key sectors like electricity and oil. Despite a $2.2 billion investment in Iraq's oil infrastructure, production and export levels have actually dropped below pre-war levels. And despite the $4.4 billion the Bush Administration spent to boost Iraq's electricity production, it has fallen far short of its goal of 6000 megawatts of peak output capacity. In fact, the Administration has conceded, "We'll never meet demand." Iraqis living in Baghdad typically have just two hours of power followed by four hours without power throughout the day.
Rampant Overcharges and Lax Oversight.
Large government contractors like Halliburton have repeatedly overcharged the taxpayer. Auditors at the Defense Contract Audit Agency have identified over $1.4 billion in unreasonable and unsupported charges by Halliburton in Iraq. Whistleblowers have testified about $100 bags of laundry, $45 cases of soda, and brand new $85,000 trucks being abandoned because of a flat tire. Yet the Administration refuses to take action. Last month, the Defense Department paid Halliburton $130 million in reimbursements, profits, and bonuses for billings that the department's own auditors recommended against paying.
Incompetent Management.
The Bush Administration's management of the reconstruction of Iraq has been fundamentally incompetent. Billion-dollar contracts were awarded with little or no competition to favored contractors. Competition for discrete reconstruction projects was suppressed by dividing Iraq into a handful of fiefdoms and awarding lucrative monopoly contracts to companies that never had to compete against each other for specific reconstruction tasks.
Burgeoning Corruption.
Between May 2003 and June 2004, U.S. officials shipped nearly $12 billion in cash to Iraq. As government audits later found, the cash was spent and disbursed by U.S. officials with virtually no financial controls or reliable accounting. The Administration cannot account for over $8 billion that was transferred to Iraqi ministries. This unsupervised flood of cash into Iraq became an open invitation to corruption. A senior U.S. official already has been charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from a U.S. contractor in exchange for steering up to $3.5 million in fraudulent contracts his way. Government investigators have said that there are dozens of other criminal corruption cases being processed.
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Senator Russ Feingold Responds to President's Speech
By Senator Russ Feingold
t r u t h o u t | Statement
Wednesday 07 December 2005
"The President does not understand that his Iraq policies are preventing us from succeeding in our larger campaign against global terrorists - Iraq is not the be-all and end-all of our country's national security. The President also fails to understand the limited role the U.S. military should play in Iraq's long-term political and economic reconstruction efforts. Our brave servicemen and women won a resounding victory in the initial military operation, and their task is largely over. Maintaining the current U.S. military presence, without a clear plan and timetable to finish the military mission in Iraq, isn't a strategy for success in Iraq or for success in the fight against global terrorism.
Rather than continuing with a media blitz that tries to repackage a "stay the course" strategy that isn't working, the President and his administration should give the public a plan, with a timetable, to complete the military mission in Iraq. We need to get the focus back on the significant threats the United States faces that are currently being ignored or inadequately addressed."
Feingold voted against the Iraq resolution in October 2002. In June, he introduced a resolution that called on the President to provide a flexible, public timetable for concluding our mission in Iraq - one that is tied to clear and achievable benchmarks. In August, Feingold suggested December 31, 2006 as a target date to complete the military mission there.
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Bush Lauds Iraq Progress, Cites Challenges
By Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
Wednesday 07 December 2005
Trying to build support for Iraq war strategy, President Bush acknowledged Wednesday that reconstruction has proceeded with "fits and starts" but spreading economic progress is lifting people's hopes for a democratic future.
In particular, Bush cited Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, and Mosul in northern Iraq - once the sites of some of the bloodiest battles of the war - as two cities where headway is being made, giving Iraqis more of a stake in their country's future.
"In places like Mosul and Najaf, residents are seeing tangible progress in their lives," Bush said. "They're gaining a personal stake in a peaceful future and their confidence in Iraq's democracy is growing. The progress in these cities is being replicated across much of Iraq. And more of Iraq's people are seeing the real benefits that a democratic society can bring."
There's still plenty of work left to do in cities like Najaf and Mosul, he said.
"Like most of Iraq, the reconstruction in Najaf has proceeded with fits and starts since liberation," Bush said. "It's been uneven. Sustaining electric power remains a major challenge. ... Security in Najaf has improved substantially but threats remain. There are still kidnappings and militias and armed gangs are exerting more influence than they should in a free society."
Bush's speech was the second in a series of four to answer criticism and questions about the continuing U.S. presence in Iraq more two and a half years after the war started.
Bush is shouldering the lowest job approval rating of his presidency, and the latest series of speeches amount to a public relations campaign to respond to political pressure that has mounted as U.S. deaths have eclipsed 2,100. He and other administration officials are working to shore up slumping public support for the war in the run-up to the Dec. 15 vote in Iraq to create a democratically elected government that will run the country for the next four years.
While Bush talked about reconstruction projects and the reopening of schools, markets and hospitals, the upgrading of roads and the growth of construction jobs in the two cities, he also acknowledged that both cities still face challenges.
"Iraqis are beginning to see that a free life will be a better life," Bush said. "Reconstruction has not always gone as well as we had hoped, primarily because of the security challenges on the ground. Rebuilding a nation devastated by a dictator is a large undertaking."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that Bush was out of touch with reality in Iraq. "Just because he says thing are improving there, doesn't make it so," the California Democrat said.
"The president says the security situation on the ground is better. It is not," Pelosi said. "More of the same in Iraq is not making us safer."
After a caucus meeting on Iraq, she and other Democrats in leadership sought to project a unified front on the war, even though they disagree over just when U.S. troops should return home.
In his speech, Bush acknowledged that there's still plenty of work left to do in cities like Najaf and Mosul.
"Like most of Iraq, the reconstruction in Najaf has proceeded with fits and starts since liberation," he said. "It's been uneven. Sustaining electric power remains a major challenge."
"Security in Najaf has improved substantially but threats remain," Bush added. "There are still kidnappings and militias and armed gangs are exerting more influence than they should in a free society."
Critics of the administration's reconstruction strategy in Iraq say not enough has been done since the U.S.-led invasion to reduce unemployment, step up oil production and keep the lights on.
"There's no doubt there are a lot of good things happening economically, but to conclude, therefore, that the economy is fundamentally healthy or that it's improving fast enough to really help us with the war, I think goes too far," said Michael O'Hanlon, foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank in Washington.
The administration also is trumpeting progress on the economic front in a 35-page booklet titled "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" that it released a week ago when the president gave the first speech of the series at the U.S. Naval Academy. There, he highlighted progress in training Iraqi army and police forces. Democrats dismissed his remarks at the time as a stay-the-course speech with no real strategy for success
"This is quiet, steady progress," Bush said Wednesday. "It doesn't always make the headlines and the evening news. But it's real and it's important and it is unmistakable to those who see it close up."
Senate Democrats were issuing a report Wednesday saying the U.S. faces a reconstruction gap. While the administration cites the number of new schools built, roads paved and businesses created, "the simple fact is that basic needs - jobs, essential services, health care - remain unmet," according to the report obtained by The Associated Press.
"Iraq's economic progress has fallen significantly short of administration's goals," the Democratic report said. "Clearly, efforts to grow Iraq's economy have been challenging because Saddam Hussein left his nation's economic infrastructure in shambles. However, the Bush administration has exacerbated the challenge by its poor planning and policies."
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