White House to withdraw funding for rebuilding Iraq

Independant

The US government is not planning to continue funding reconstruction projects in Iraq, in what appears to be a major climbdown from the White House's one-time pledge to build the best infrastructure in the region.

According to officials cited in yesterday's Washington Post, the Bush administration will not be adding construction funds to the $18.4bn (£10.7bn) it has allocated since the 2003 invasion.

It is a badly kept secret that reconstruction has gone badly. Essential services have been very slow in coming back on line and roughly half the money earmarked for reconstruction has been diverted into the military effort against the insurgency. The newspaper quoted Brigadier General William McCoy, the commander overseeing construction projects, saying the US funding was never meant to be more than a "jump-start ... The US never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," he said.

Corpwatch: Hallliburton Wins New $4.9Billion Iraq Contract

The new 12-month task order valued at as much as $4.972 billion for the U.S. military’s logistical needs includes camp maintenance, new construction and the serving of four meals a day for as many as 120,000 troops at 62 primary camps and a dozen satellite camps, according to a April 3 draft of the agreement, Task Order 89.

Awarded under the sweeping, 10-year Logistics Civil Augmentation Program contract, known as LOGCAP III, this new task order now brings Halliburton’s potential billings in Iraq and Afghanistan within a year to nearly $20 billion -- and perhaps more.

As of May 5, the total money for Halliburton's logistical services now performed registered at nearly $10.5 billion for Operation Iraqi Freedom, $813 million for Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and $56.6 million for other LOGCAP related tasks, according to a spreadsheet prepared by the U.S. Army Field Support Command based at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, the military command that manages the LOGCAP.

Times Online

In language mirroring the planned reduction of troops, US officials in Baghdad have begun talking of “drawdown”, “transition” and the “wind-down” of American reconstruction projects. Instead they plan to focus on building up the Iraqi Government’s capacity to manage its own affairs.

Outlining what he called the “drawdown”, one American official said: “US reconstruction is basically aiming for completion (this) year. No one ever intended for outside assistance to continue indefinitely, but rather to create conditions where the Iraqi economy can use reconstruction of essential services to get going on its own.”

But Iraqis complain that nearly three years after the war Iraq still produces only 4,800 megawatts of power, little more than the 4,000 before the war, and far short of its needs. Baghdad remains a special problem, receiving only three hours of electricity a day because of sabotage to oil and electricity lines.