Brace yourselves- Kevin Drum and I agree. Kevin notes that this CPA report on the reconstruction in Iraq states that far less than what should have been spent and has been earmaked has been actually used (less than 5%):
That’s about a billion dollars, the bulk of which has gone to big ticket projects like the electric grid and getting the oil flowing.
The real shame of this is that we’ve insisted that all this money be spent through normal channels. Needless to say, there are good reasons for maintaining oversight over federal funds, but it’s hard not to think that loosening the normal requirements would have been a good idea for at least a piece of this funding.
Think about it: give or take a bit, we have about 200 battalions in Iraq. Each battalion has four to six companies. Give each company captain $20,000 a week to spend on local projects staffed by Iraqis. Total cost: around a billion dollars a year.
Assuming his math is right, I agree wholeheartedly. We trust these battalion commanders with massive combat strength, enough weaponry to level cities, and most of all, we trust them with our most precious asset- our young men and women.
I think we can trust these guys with some cash.
Dodd
Oh, right. Like Kevin Drum of all people wouldn’t be howling at the moon and tying the noose for Bush’s neck himself if President Bush made even the tiniest gesture toward “loosening” the oversight of federal funds being spent in Iraq.
Let’s not forget his never-ending devotion to finding something – *anything* – he could “interpret” – no matter his self-admitted ignorance – as “proof” Bush was AWOL. Given his track record of spinning tiny fragments of data he clearly doesn’t understand into an attack on Bush, if even US$1 ended up in the hands of some Halliburton subsidiary building a school at the discretion of some Company Commander, Drum would write 35 posts calling for the President’s head.
I’m not saying this is a bad idea, but it doesn’t surprise me it comes from Drum as he obviously doesn’t have the first clue about military budgeting, either. Back when I was in and Clinton was gutting defense spending, we ran out of maintenance funds with which to buy parts *halfway* through a fiscal quarter. We had gear piled up to the ceiling waiting for July to roll around so we could order spares. At the same time, the Chiefs all got new desks – because we had “Administrative” funds left in the budget.
The CO of my base – an 0-6, and former skipper of an aircraft carrier, in charge of a naval installation with 10,000 sailors and 40,000 civilian employees – didn’t have auhtority to move 60 grand from one fund into another. And Kevin Drum thinks they’d give a bunch of 0-3s five years out of West Point (or ROTC) a billion dollars to throw around?!? He really ought to desist from ever talking about the military at all; he’s utterly clueless.
You’re right, John, we oughta be able to trust these guys with some cash. But you know perfectly well that this is a pipe dream. Congress would have to approve it, I suspect, for one thing, which seems unlikely. We’re going to give Teddy Kennedy a free talking point about Bush wanting to undo fraud prevention rules in the appropriations process?!?