seattletimes.nwsource.com
GOP loyalty dictated who would rebuild Iraq
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
The Washington Post
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JEROME DELAY / AP, 2003
Traders work the floor at Baghdad's stock exchange in February 2003, one month before the Iraq war began. Trades were noted on large boards. The system was boisterous, but it worked.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's Pentagon office before going to Baghdad.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in postconflict reconstruction. They did need, however, to be a member of the Republican Party.
O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade.
Many of those chosen to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who never had worked in finance was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they had no accounting background.
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