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Wed. Jun 23, 2004

Can't Purchase Anything

Much concern has been expressed over the past couple of months about the UN Oil-For-Food program. The early indications are that about $10 billion didn’t make it to the Iraqi people in the form of food or humanitarian aid, it got siphoned off along the way. There are now at least two investigations into that, as people want to know where that money went, instead of going to help the Iraqi people.

I’m one of those people. But I’m also very interested in another large chunk of change that was meant to improve life for the Iraqi people. Another large chunk that somehow didn’t make it down to them. In this case, it’s $15 billion, and it’s your tax dollars:

Several CPA officials said the Bush administration has long underestimated reconstruction costs. In its war planning, the administration devoted $900 million to reconstruction despite reporting by the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations that depicted a far greater need. In the first months of the occupation, an additional $1.1 billion was committed by the White House. It was not until September that the administration asked Congress for billions more.

Although the $18.6 billion reconstruction aid package was approved by Congress in November, the Pentagon office charged with spending it has moved slowly. About $3.7 billion of this package had been spent by June 1, according to the CPA. Many projects that have received funding have slowed or stopped entirely because Western firms have withdrawn employees from Iraq in response to attacks on civilian contractors.

CPA officials contend the money should have been earmarked and spent far sooner. Had that happened, they argue, the CPA could have retained much of the goodwill that existed among Iraqis after the U.S. invasion and possibly weakened the insurgency.

“The failure to get the reconstruction effort launched early will be regarded as the most important critical failure,” said one of Bremer’s senior advisers.

Washington Post: “Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears”

It would appear that “CPA” stands for “Can’t Purchase Anything.”

But it goes deeper than an acronym joke. For the first five months after toppling Saddam’s regime, a critical time to establish security and good will, the Bush administration said a couple billion for reconstruction was plenty. Lick and a promise. Only after five months did they go to Congress for the $18.6 billion, as part of a larger $80 billion appropriation for all the costs of maintaining 100,000+ troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And in the seven months since that appropriation, a mere week before the CPA completely dissolves, they’ve only spent 20% of it. Add that to pre-September, 2003, expenditures, and we have spent as much on rebuilding Iraq as we do for one year of operation of the rapidly diminishing Space Shuttle program (according to budget projections). About $5 billion.

Very impressive, for the World’s Sole Remaining Superpower and Economic Giant.

So, when the CPA dissolves, what happens to that “missing” $14.9 billion? What about those incomplete contracts … contracts where one party is dissolving in 7 days? Will we have to pay contract cancellation fees to those Western companies for whom we never created a secure enough environment for them to complete their jobs? Will the funds simply be transferred to the as yet unelected Iraqi government to do with as they please, or does it go back to the US Treasury, since it was never spent based on the terms of the appropriation?

Do you think we’ll ever hear answers to any of these questions?

Have you heard one member of the media even ask these questions?

You know, $10 billion here, $15 billion there … before you know it, you’re talking about some real money (to paraphrase some old Senator). Think about it. $10 billion from UNscam, plus $15 billion unspent by CPA, and 25 million Iraqis.

That’s $1,000 per Iraqi citizen, infant to senior citizen.

Each and every one of them has been robbed. The culprits are spread out across Europe, Russia, the UN headquarters in New York, and Washington, DC.

And that $1,000 per Iraqi? $600 of it came out of our collective pockets, fellow taxpayer, passed on to CPA. They managed to spend about $120 of it. Somebody is sitting on the other $480. Times 25,000,000.

Wouldn’t you like to know who, and WTF they intend to do with it?