[Bruce H]

People like this will be crawling out of the woodwork now that we have done the dirty work.

Iraqi Exile Criticizes US Contract Awards
Sat Apr 19, 5:39 PM ET Add Politics to My Yahoo!



KUWAIT (Reuters) - A prominent Iraqi exile said on Saturday only a democratically elected government should be allowed to sign the massive contracts needed to reconstruct the country.



Latest news:
· Iraq War Dominates U.K. Easter Sermons
AP - 12 minutes ago
· Baghdad airport to open in a week for humanitarian flights
AFP - 13 minutes ago
· Washington planning long-term military relationship with Iraq
AFP - 17 minutes ago
Special Coverage





Former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi criticized Washington over its plans for a U.S.-led civilian authority to hand out reconstruction contracts without the approval of an elected Iraqi government.


"No one has the right to commit Iraq (news - web sites) to obligations and costs," he told a news conference in Kuwait. "Only an Iraqi government can do that. A parliament should also endorse the agreements."


The U.S. government on Thursday awarded Bechtel Corp. a $680-million-contract to help rebuild Iraq's power, water and sewage systems as well as repair air and sea ports.


Pachachi, seen as a potential future policymaker, also said he wanted a U.N.-sponsored conference to select an interim Iraqi government over the civil authority headed by retired U.S. general Jay Garner.


"We believe that the involvement of the United Nations (news - web sites) will give (the government) legitimacy and greater acceptance worldwide and among Iraqis," Pachachi said.


Washington has said it intends to include a role for the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq, but has given few details and is pushing the Security Council to help restart the economy by ending the U.N. sanctions imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. Pachachi, who left Iraq in 1969 shortly after Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath Party toppled the government and took power, has been courted by Washington to play a key role in the country.


"We hope to have as soon as possible a broadly-based conference convened to elect a transitional government that will be entrusted with the task of preparing the country for elections under international supervision for a constituent assembly that will draft a constitution which will be submitted to the people in a referendum," he said.

[Waitone]

My take on those contracts is quite simpleminded.

Do you want to get basic infrastructure up and running or do you want to play bureaucracy and push paper and bribes around for a year or more.

Nothing has been done in Ashcanistan because we are following the bid procedures. We don't have that much time in Iraq. We either fix the immediate problems or it will fester and cause major trouble down the road.

I find it immoral that some want to dither with contracts while people are suffering and in some cases dying. Let bureaucrats play games on their own time but don't make someone suffer because of those games. Do the job then tiddy it up.

If we can get the oil flowing, water running, electricity volting, sewer flushing, and medicine healing people then one year from now no one will remember the flaps of today.

First things first. Bureaucrats ain't first, particularly those in the UN, Germany, France, and Russia.

[Standing Wolf]

Former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi criticized Washington over its plans for a U.S.-led civilian authority to hand out reconstruction contracts without the approval of an elected Iraqi government.

Hey, Adnan! Iraq lost, you nitwit!

[longeyes]

This is a problem that we can blame ourselves, at least in part, for creating. We have been overselling the Iraq war as primarily designed to liberate the Iraqi people. The war is designed to liberate our future and ensure the future security of this nation. That's the priority here, and we should be honest about it. If it's not the priority then we are being undone, yet again, by the spectre of Compassion. The U.S. needs to be unashamed about pursuing its own righteous self-interest. We still care too much about being loved by all the wrong people.