Pentagon loses responsibility for rebuilding Iraq

[deminks]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/4f826e9e-6d0f-11da-90c2-0000779e2340.html

President George W. Bush yesterday announced that the State Department would lead all US post-conflict reconstruction, a move that supercedes the controversial decision to give that task to the Pentagon in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.

The announcement came as Mr Bush delivered the last of four speeches intended to rebuild public support for the war on the eve of today's election for Iraq's first official parliament.

The presidential directive, issued this month but announced yesterday, will also reinforce the political power of the State Department's office of reconstruction and stabilisation, with a mission to anticipate state failures, prevent conflict and co-ordinate post-war efforts.

The 2003 decision to hand control of the reconstruction to the Pentagon has been widely criticised and led to a degree of inter-agency friction. State Department experts who had planned for the post-war period were pushed aside by Pentagon officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, who strongly resisted the notion of nation-building.


Rummy, you did a heckofajob. It's not so much that Rice is now in charge, but that Rummy has lost it.

[madmark]

1. A job that the US should have never been involved in goes from

one fuck up to another.

[stepnw1f]

2. Heckuva Job Rummy!

You Right Wing lurking nut bags!

[Canuckistanian]

3. "lurking nut bags"

That's so funny and I don't know why...

[stepnw1f]

4. I Do Lol! (nt)