As I recall, the State Department prepared a lengthy proposal on how to handle a post invasion Iraq. That report was based on extensive experience, including Kosovo, etc. But was rejected by the Pentagon, which had control over the occupation.
I am in the middle of reading Peter Galbraith's The End of Iraq right now. He says that State prepared a 15 volume report on how the occupation should be handled. It wasn't exactly "rejected" by Rumsfeld et al, it was simply ignored. Galbraith goes over a lot of the now familiar facts about what went on, and adds many details about the Kurds, who he has dealt with a great deal over the past 2 decades or so and with whom he clearly has a special affinity.
Among other tales, he says that Michael Fleisher (yes, Ari's brother) got a job with the CPA for which he had zero experience, and outlined at a press conference, I think it was, the plans to privatize many government functions, end subsidies, sell off the oil fields, and generally follow the IMF-WB prescription for countries that has worked so woefully wherever it has been tried. He said, without any apparent irony, that it would mark "the end of cronyism in Iraq."
A remarkable comment coming from a guy who got his job due to nepotism and worked for a group that hired people based on who they voted for in the previous election and their political convictions with no apparent regard for relevant experience. |
