Sunday, April 06, 2003
So now that we bombed the shit out of the place. We are going to have to start to rebuild it and set up a new Government. Last month, Bush had asked for $2.5 Billion in reconstruction assistance. There was only one small hitch in his request for the money. He wants Rumsfield to have primary control of all postwar aid and reconstruction.
Hummm, that is a little out of the norm. By law, the State Department has been given that role. Something stinks here and it ain't last week's fish.
The smell seems to have invaded both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The House of Representatives has insisted that the requested money and the control of the money, go through the traditional State Department aid agencies. "The Secretary of State is the appropriate manager of foreign assistance, and is so designated by law," said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz), a House Appropriations Committee member, expressing a view widely held by both the Republicans and the Democrats.
The Senate is barring the Pentagon from using the money as well.
The White House is making one of their now famous arm twisting, full-court press in a strong effort to reverse these actions. Cheney has been burning up the phone wires to the GOP leadership as well as every Democrat that they can. The present plan has a fair chance of surviving the latest White House effort at a House-Senate conference this week.
You can imagine the power battle going on between the State Department and the Defense Department. Powell vs Rumsfield. Let's put them in a ring. I would love to see Rumsfield beaten to a pulp.
There are other players in this game however.
Senior officials at the UN said there is virtually no chance that the Security Council will endorse a Pentagon-run reconstruction effort or a U.S.-installed Iraqi authority. Without new council resolutions, the European Union said last week that it will not participate in the postwar effort. So what Bush wrote them off quite a while ago.
Meanwhile back in the Castle, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has pushed for a much stronger U.N. role in the postwar process than the president envisions. So, Blair has not given up on the UN.
British and U.S. officials said that when the two leaders meet tomorrow in Belfast, Blair plans to remind the president of their joint pledge to seek U.N. endorsement of postwar reconstruction and political plans. This meeting will be a true test of just how tight a bond Blair has with Bush. My money is on Bush. I don't see Bush backing away from his so called "Destiny". Here is where Mr. Blair could be left high and dry. Tony went with Bush in the hopes of tempering Bush's ambitions in the Mideast, but I am afraid Tony is going to wind up with nothing but dead British soldiers and the anger of his European allies to show for his efforts. It could be the end of his political career as well. That man has Balls, but he may get them cut off here.
The Bush Administration has been setting this up for quit a while. The foundation of the administration's postwar plan for Iraq is the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid, a Pentagon-based agency established by National Security Directive 24, a document Bush signed several months ago. Its head, chosen by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, is retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner. He plans to install American "civilian advisers" at the top of Iraqi government ministries and agencies.
Garner reports to Rumsfeld through Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command. Although the State Department's Agency for International Development and disaster relief organizations will handle much of the actual humanitarian and reconstruction work, the plan calls for them to answer to Garner, who will control their funding.
There have been repeated requests for more information and for a meeting with Garner, by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) but the Pentagon has refused requests by the staff of the Appropriations Committee to brief them, Even Republicans are getting a cold shoulder from the Pentagon on this one.
So, to sum it up. Bush wants lots of money to be controlled by Rumsfield. Congress says that the law says that the State Department should control the funds. Congress doesn't like it. Colin Powell doesn't like it The House doesn't like it. The Senate doesn't like it. The UN doesn't like it. Britain doesn't like it, So that makes it official, Bush will do it.
I can only wonder why Bush wants Rummy to run this effort in Iraq so badly?
Let's see what happens in Ireland tomorrow.
Hummm, that is a little out of the norm. By law, the State Department has been given that role. Something stinks here and it ain't last week's fish.
The smell seems to have invaded both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The House of Representatives has insisted that the requested money and the control of the money, go through the traditional State Department aid agencies. "The Secretary of State is the appropriate manager of foreign assistance, and is so designated by law," said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz), a House Appropriations Committee member, expressing a view widely held by both the Republicans and the Democrats.
The Senate is barring the Pentagon from using the money as well.
The White House is making one of their now famous arm twisting, full-court press in a strong effort to reverse these actions. Cheney has been burning up the phone wires to the GOP leadership as well as every Democrat that they can. The present plan has a fair chance of surviving the latest White House effort at a House-Senate conference this week.
You can imagine the power battle going on between the State Department and the Defense Department. Powell vs Rumsfield. Let's put them in a ring. I would love to see Rumsfield beaten to a pulp.
There are other players in this game however.
Senior officials at the UN said there is virtually no chance that the Security Council will endorse a Pentagon-run reconstruction effort or a U.S.-installed Iraqi authority. Without new council resolutions, the European Union said last week that it will not participate in the postwar effort. So what Bush wrote them off quite a while ago.
Meanwhile back in the Castle, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has pushed for a much stronger U.N. role in the postwar process than the president envisions. So, Blair has not given up on the UN.
British and U.S. officials said that when the two leaders meet tomorrow in Belfast, Blair plans to remind the president of their joint pledge to seek U.N. endorsement of postwar reconstruction and political plans. This meeting will be a true test of just how tight a bond Blair has with Bush. My money is on Bush. I don't see Bush backing away from his so called "Destiny". Here is where Mr. Blair could be left high and dry. Tony went with Bush in the hopes of tempering Bush's ambitions in the Mideast, but I am afraid Tony is going to wind up with nothing but dead British soldiers and the anger of his European allies to show for his efforts. It could be the end of his political career as well. That man has Balls, but he may get them cut off here.
The Bush Administration has been setting this up for quit a while. The foundation of the administration's postwar plan for Iraq is the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid, a Pentagon-based agency established by National Security Directive 24, a document Bush signed several months ago. Its head, chosen by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, is retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner. He plans to install American "civilian advisers" at the top of Iraqi government ministries and agencies.
Garner reports to Rumsfeld through Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command. Although the State Department's Agency for International Development and disaster relief organizations will handle much of the actual humanitarian and reconstruction work, the plan calls for them to answer to Garner, who will control their funding.
There have been repeated requests for more information and for a meeting with Garner, by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) but the Pentagon has refused requests by the staff of the Appropriations Committee to brief them, Even Republicans are getting a cold shoulder from the Pentagon on this one.
So, to sum it up. Bush wants lots of money to be controlled by Rumsfield. Congress says that the law says that the State Department should control the funds. Congress doesn't like it. Colin Powell doesn't like it The House doesn't like it. The Senate doesn't like it. The UN doesn't like it. Britain doesn't like it, So that makes it official, Bush will do it.
I can only wonder why Bush wants Rummy to run this effort in Iraq so badly?
Let's see what happens in Ireland tomorrow.
# posted by Thomas @ 3:36 AM 
