Too much money spent in Iraq for too few results

[hue]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=173586903

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten years and $60 billion in American taxpayer funds later, Iraq is still so unstable and broken that even its leaders question whether U.S. efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation were worth the cost.

In his final report to Congress, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen's conclusion was all too clear: Since the invasion a decade ago this month, the U.S. has spent too much money in Iraq for too few results.

The reconstruction effort "grew to a size much larger than was ever anticipated," Bowen told The Associated Press in a preview of his last audit of U.S. funds spent in Iraq, to be released Wednesday. "Not enough was accomplished for the size of the funds expended."

In interviews with Bowen, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the U.S. funding "could have brought great change in Iraq" but fell short too often. "There was misspending of money," said al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim whose sect makes up about 60 percent of Iraq's population.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, the country's top Sunni Muslim official, told auditors that the rebuilding efforts "had unfavorable outcomes in general."

"You think if you throw money at a problem, you can fix it," Kurdish government official Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, told auditors. "It was just not strategic thinking."

The abysmal Iraq results forecast what could happen in Afghanistan, where U.S. taxpayers have so far spent $90 billion in reconstruction projects during a 12-year military campaign that, for the most part, ends in 2014.

[Sherman A1]

1. Well,

knock me over with a feather.......

Like everyone really didn't know this was an ongoing problem.

[bemildred]

2. This is much too kind. It's a disaster. nt

[reteachinwi]

3. Shocked! Well...

[Snake Plissken]

4. Did we really need to fund a study to state the obvious? n/t

[OnyxCollie]

5. Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Report

http://www.sigir.mil/files/HardLessons/Hard_Lessons_Report.pdf

[underpants]

6. Incompetence

Thinkprogress has this too

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/03/06/1679601/sigir-final-lessons-learned-iraq/

[Bill USA]

7. an adventure predicated on lies and fantasy intelligence. What else would it be but a disaster ..

the cost in lives is incalculable - as is the cost to our credibility through-out the world. (well, fortunately, many people don't blame America. They blame Bush and the Republican cowboys. IT's pretty much known throughout the World that Bush was not elected but selected.)

[raccoon]

8. Pouring money down a rathole. Rec'd. nt

[Brigid]

9. Ya think?