Pentagon, State Department feuding in Iraq.
“Paul Brinkley, a deputy undersecretary of defense, has been called a Stalinist by U.S. diplomats in Iraq. One has accused him of helping insurgents build better bombs. The State Department has even taken the unusual step of enlisting the CIA to dispute the validity of Brinkley’s work. His transgression? To begin reopening dozens of government-owned factories in Iraq.”
Brinkley and his colleagues at the Pentagon believe that rehabilitating shuttered, state-run enterprises could reduce violence by employing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Officials at State counter that the initiative is antithetical to free-market reforms the United States should promote in Iraq.
The bureaucratic knife fight over the best way to revive Iraq’s moribund economy illustrates how the two principal players in the reconstruction of Iraq — the departments of Defense and State — remain at odds over basic economic and political measures. The bickering has hamstrung initiatives to promote stability four years after Saddam Hussein’s fall.
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Bureaucracy marches on….
May 14th, 2007 at 10:24 amGeees, in fighting by the handler’s of this madness….It would seem to me job’s, food, water and power might be important in the Iraqi rebuilding and stoping the war….Come to think of it that might work right here at home in reducing gang violence and unrest…..Streight forward, simple logic doesn’t work with these war-monging basterd’s….Impeach them all..Let’s start over..Blessings
May 14th, 2007 at 10:30 amLet’s employ a simple solution, put War Secretary Gates and Secretary of State Rice in the ring together, and the winner gets to determine reconstruction policy.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:30 am“No rules, no referee, no appeal, no parole. Two (men) enter, one leaves”
(And I’m not placing any bets on this one.)
#2 - Sharon, you’re making way too much sense. :)
May 14th, 2007 at 10:33 amSo, to what end are we pursuing in Iraq? Purely economic it would seem. The administration wants the oil and enterprise of the Iraqis. The people mean nothing.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:34 amIt’s sort of the way that the administration looks at our country as well. The spoils of industry for them, nothing for the people who actually do the work and pay the bills.
Interesting that The DoD is supporting rehab & rebuilding, while the State Dept. whines about it & spouts typical Rightard BS.
Isn’t this somewhat backasswards?
May 14th, 2007 at 10:37 amZimzone, Yep! Or to be totaly accurate, everything this administration touches get’s blown up or turned to shit…It has to do with replacement funding forever….Blessings
May 14th, 2007 at 10:42 amIs this really feuding between State and Defense? It seems more like personal issues - I’d bet there are plenty of political appointees in the Defense department that agree with State’s free market position. Rather than dueling agencies, it seems more like the standard “No one agrees with anyone.”
May 14th, 2007 at 10:43 amwow that’s weird stuff. No wonder they can’t even do something as basic as, say, find Osama or Zawahiri. They’re morons.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:44 amPentagon, State Department fueding in Iraq.
I believe the word you are searching for is “feuding”…
May 14th, 2007 at 10:44 amSo now we’re outsourcing our civil wars as well?
What do they say… when in Rome…
Ho hum, what a clusterf*ck.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:45 amSounds more and more like there really was NO plan. Heck of a job Team Bush
May 14th, 2007 at 10:46 amThe hell with the Iraqi economy the 4 million refugees ,the 3/4 of a million dead sectarian violence of a religious and civil war ,,the ruined inastructure and clean water for the average citizen to drink ,just get the damn puppet government to okay the oil agreements before summer!!!!
May 14th, 2007 at 10:49 amYou guys need to fire up the spell checker: the word is feuding, NOT fueding. Don’t wait till Rush gets a load of this… fix the headline!
May 14th, 2007 at 10:52 amThe bush administration has brought transparency back to the federal government .
May 14th, 2007 at 10:54 amZimzone (6),
I found that interesting too. I remember that it used to be the State Department that was pushing for better coordinated reconstruction plan. I guess that was when Powell was in charge. It looks like Condi has done her magic and ruined another governmental bureaucracy. Yet another “Mission Accomplished”, I guess.
I also thought it pretty pathetic that our ‘diplomats’ would call another US government official “a Stalinist”. Not very diplomatic, that.
UG! It is so galling that these despicable people are acting in my name. Impeach them NOW!
May 14th, 2007 at 10:56 amFudding is what I do! hahahahahahaha
May 14th, 2007 at 10:56 amThe inmates are running the asylum.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:59 amThis is feuding between the pragmatics in the Pentagon and the whacked out free market neo-con theists that inhabit the State Dept. Like here in America, the neo-cons could care less about poor people or a dysfunctional economic system. For them, there must be an utterly uncontaminated free market for maximum corporatist profit. They’d rather watch Iraq burn to the ground then have “state run enterprises”.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:02 amSurprising! Usually the “steal their oil” crew and the “force them to buy everything from Halliburton” crew are on the same page. It sounds like even the war profiteers are getting “Iraq Fatigue.”
May 14th, 2007 at 11:02 amIf we had a President with a clue, maybe he would make a decision on how to proceed. Or shouldn’t the department heads be working on a consensus. Sounds like everybody is just passing the buck so the blame falls squarely on somebody elses head.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:03 amLook fool, we’re tryin’ ta starve’m out, not give’m jobs.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:07 amI think that is the French spelling.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:09 amGee, Mr. Polident, you’re absolutely right, just like home here in America!
May 14th, 2007 at 11:10 amThis is the one of the weirdest story I’ve seen yet with this war with the two departments so amalgamated now. This is definitely one hand not knowing what the other is doing.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:11 amSo which side is rooting for Al Qaeda?
May 14th, 2007 at 11:11 amGee, Mr. Polident, you’re absolutely right, just like home here in America!
Comment by heyzeus — May 14, 2007 @ 11:10 am
That’s right, heheh…
May 14th, 2007 at 11:14 amRUC #26 too funny, but it’s the irony that makes it so.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:17 amlooks like a job for the War Czar. Lord knows that Bush isn’t up to the task.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:20 amOne of the main (if many) fatal flaws with modern conservatism: an unfailing belief that the “free market” (roughly defined as completely unfettered movement of capital, including no taxation or regulations thereon) must necessarily work in all situations.
Even when it is clear that “free markets” aren’t working, the neocons insist that they are. Rather than being satisfied with saying “free markets” work well most of the time, but there are instances where governmental or quasi-governmental (think trade federation, etc.) regulations might be desirable (due to externalities, market dynamics, etc.), the neocons, like all ideologues, must claim that the “free market” works perfectly all the time, even when it is perfectly clear it doesn’t.
Like all remaining Republicans, they’re totally divorced from reality. And if you point that out to you, they’ll resort to petty rhetorical tactics like ad hominem attacks (you’re a terrorist, you’re supporting the Islamofascists, etc.); anything to change the subject from the fact that they’re completely insane.
(I use “free markets” in quotes, of course, because such markets of course are only free from the perspective of owners of mass quantities of capital, and never from the perspective of workers, consumers, or commodity producers to name a few).
May 14th, 2007 at 11:25 amExactly why are such decisions left up to these people? Isnt something like this supposed to be a major part of how to solve the Iraq problem? Like the Marshall Plan was? Or is bushco only interested in using the military to solve all their problems and all other initiatives are left to underlings?
May 14th, 2007 at 11:31 amJake-o-binLaden = French pussy-wussy
May 14th, 2007 at 11:32 amThis is feuding between the pragmatics in the Pentagon and the whacked out free market neo-con theists that inhabit the State Dept. Like here in America, the neo-cons could care less about poor people or a dysfunctional economic system. For them, there must be an utterly uncontaminated free market for maximum corporatist profit. They’d rather watch Iraq burn to the ground then have “state run enterprisesâ€.
Comment by snarkmaster
* “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.” — Henry Kissinger
* “Not a nut or bolt shall reach Chile under Allende. Once Allende comes to power we shall do all within our power to condemn Chile and all Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty.” — Edward M. Korry, U.S. Ambassador to Chile, upon hearing of Allende’s election.
And here we are again. Better the country implode than go Communist-lite…er…socialist.
We had to burn the village in order to save it.
X(
May 14th, 2007 at 11:33 amBrinkley must be stopped at all costs. If his effort to jump start the Iraqi economy through state owned factories were to work, people might demand the same sort of thing here.
Conservatives will always accept their own failure at home or abroad over someone else’s success. Failure IS an option.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:37 amI strongly suspect that most of the pundits, politicians, and corporate spokesdroids who are loudest in their support of an “unfettered free market” would starve to death — or worse — in an actual unfettered free market. Most of them are either disingenuous or delusional … or both.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:38 am“Free market” is a euphemism for capitalism. Capitalism is an ugly word, but it is the name of the world economic system. Let’s use it.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:46 amThis story makes sense, if we let the people in Iraq, it would mean actually letting the Iraqi’s controll there lives. I mean the only real achievement is replacing the control of the country from saddem to the the Usa.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:48 amHow about a compromise — they re-open state-run factories, but Monica Goodling gets to vet all the employment applications
May 14th, 2007 at 12:40 pmYou bloody Lefties!
Don’t you get it? We don’t want Iraqis to open and run their own factories and businesses. We want them to work in OUR factories and Starbucks franchises for minimum wage - that’s Iraqi minimum wage.
How are we going to be able to set up factories to turn out goods cheaper than the Chinese, and create Tech Centres that cost less to run and staff than the ones in India if we go and give the Iraqis the power to run and control and profit from their own factories and hard work?
What? You think we invaded and occupied Iraq at a cost of 3600 American lives and half a trillion dollars just to go and let liberated Iraqis profit off their new found freedom and independence?
Bloody Lefties! Wake up to yourselves!
All the best,
A Dedicated Free Market Capitalist
(and yes, I’m as shocked as many here by the idea that the State Department would even think of interfering in this way. Clearly giving the Iraqis permanent jobs and incomes would solve many of the social problems there)
May 14th, 2007 at 12:42 pmRegent University shows its stellar performance at the State Department as well as “Justice”.
May 14th, 2007 at 1:30 pmSo one of them cares to stop the slaughtering both from USA people and iraqis, and cutting the support that is the poorness of a great share of the Iraq’s population for the insurgents, and the other wants to continue his little “full capitalism” experiment.
No wonder the USA GOP supports the later.
May 14th, 2007 at 2:12 pmJake-o-binLaden = French pussy-wussy
Comment by Mr. President
Can’t find him, so you call him names? About what I’d expect from a Texas Turd-Bucket …
May 14th, 2007 at 3:01 pmJake-o-binLaden = French pussy-wussy
Comment by Mr. President — May 14, 2007 @ 11:32 am
You didn’t get the memo? The French are your *friends* again, you’re supposed to stop projecting your own self loathing homophobia on them, and just quietly resume hating yourself for still hiding in the closet…
May 14th, 2007 at 3:16 pmIf this doesn’t prove the Bushies don’t want out of Iraq, what would? People have died so we could bring, not democracy to the Middle East, but an open market for big business to exploit.
Our presence in Iraq never had anything to do with the plight of the Iraqi people or any other bullshit claim Bush & Co. made. It was all about securing the oil, and opening up the region to western companies with the Iraqis as cheap labor. They are not stupid, but we have been, and we have all been screwed.
The neo-cons hate government, and think private ownership - particularly by corporations - is the panacea for all. They have successfully and quietly privatized security with over 100,000 private contractors unaccountable to anyone, and our own roads, water treatment facilities, and other core infrastructure is already being sold out from under us.
If the Democrats hadn’t taken back Congress, we’d all be pledging allegiance to the United States of America, INC.
May 14th, 2007 at 3:59 pmIt amazes me how much time some people have on their hands.
I thought the same thing, recently, while watching the History Channel, a show about all the plans and models that Hitler and Albert Speer made for building enormous, ludicrous monuments and domes and structures all over Berlin, trying to make it look like some Cecil B. Demille Roman period film. Didn’t those guys have day-jobs? Didn’t they have a war going on? Weren’t their in-boxes filling up with letters saying, “We’re going to lose if we don’t stop diddling ourselves!”
Apparently true believers don’t worry about such practical matters.
When I hear people say that our Democratic leaders don’t have enough “vision,” I say thank God. There’s already way too much vision for me.
May 14th, 2007 at 7:17 pmJust go read “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” for more on this GOPian fustercluck….
Cheers,
May 14th, 2007 at 9:41 pmEveryone should read this Harper’s article by Naomi Klein… it is a bit old, but still critically relevant.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:38 amhttp://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197