Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Giordano Bruno who wrote (250948)	7/18/2003 6:54:32 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Pentagon Consultants Warn U.S. Must Act Fast on Iraq Report Says 'Window of Opportunity' To Avoid Chaos Is Rapidly Closing By NEIL KING JR. Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- A team of private experts invited to Iraq by the Pentagon concluded that the U.S. faces "the potential for chaos" there unless it rapidly boosts security and gets wider international support for the rebuilding effort. The team of five, led by former Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre, said after an 11-day trip this month that the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad must "deliver in short order" or risk the consequences of "rising anti-Americanism." In an often highly critical report, released Thursday, the group warned that "the window of opportunity ... to turn things around in Iraq is rapidly closing." The report says the next year will determine the success or failure of the Iraq effort, but that Americans should be prepared to be fully engaged there at least three years. The evaluation team stressed that the coalition is far from meeting the high expectations among many Iraqis and that it now faces serious security breaches and "the expansion of guerilla-like warfare." Gen. John Abizaid, who heads the U.S. Central Command responsible for Iraqi operations, conceded Wednesday that coalition troops now are engaged in a guerilla conflict -- an assessment Bush administration officials had dismissed just a few weeks ago. Even so, team member Frederick Barton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said it would be counterproductive to send more U.S. troops. The coalition instead must convince other countries to send troops and police units, the report says. The delegation traveled extensively in Iraq at the invitation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush's Iraq administrator, L. Paul Bremer. The group met twice in Baghdad with Mr. Bremer and visited half of Iraq's 18 provinces. Since returning to the U.S., the group has briefed senior Pentagon and State Department officials. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Defense Department agrees "enormous challenges lie ahead" in Iraq. The administration, he said, is studying the report to determine which of its findings to put into practice. The report says Mr. Bremer has managed to set up a "skeleton infrastructure" in Baghdad, but concludes the authority lacks "the resources, personnel and flexibility to move into the next stage of the mission." It also recommended that he add large field offices throughout the country to increase interaction with Iraqi citizens. It said immediate action is needed to: • Establish security across Iraq, in part with the use of private security firms and an international police force to augment troops now on the ground. • Mobilize a "new reconstruction coalition" to raise much-needed money and to combat "rising anti-Americanism." • Expand Iraqi "ownership" of the rebuilding process by funding governing councils at all levels. • Launch public-works projects to employ the millions now out of work. The report says Iraqi oil revenue and seized assets won't be enough to cover mounting costs and that Congress almost certainly will have to appropriate funds to fill the gap next year. Some in the administration have advocated the idea of borrowing against future Iraqi oil revenue to pay for reconstruction -- a proposal the report explicitly says should be avoided. Write to Neil King Jr. at neil.king@wsj.com Updated July 18, 2003