Monumental Ignorance

[ldzppln]

Iraqi insider details U.S. mismanagement

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent

In a rueful reflection on what might have been, an Iraqi government insider details in 500 pages the U.S. occupation's "shocking" mismanagement of his country — a performance so bad, he writes, that by 2007 Iraqis had "turned their backs on their would-be liberators."

"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order," Ali A. Allawi concludes in "The Occupation of Iraq," newly published by Yale University Press.

Allawi writes with authority as a member of that "new order," having served as Iraq's trade, defense and finance minister at various times since 2003. As a former academic, at Oxford University before the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq, he also writes with unusual detachment.

The U.S.- and British-educated engineer and financier is the first senior Iraqi official to look back at book length on his country's four-year ordeal. It's an unsparing look at failures both American and Iraqi, an account in which the word "ignorance" crops up repeatedly.

First came the "monumental ignorance" of those in Washington pushing for war in 2002 without "the faintest idea" of Iraq's realities. "More perceptive people knew instinctively that the invasion of Iraq would open up the great fissures in Iraqi society," he writes.

What followed was the "rank amateurism and swaggering arrogance" of the occupation, under L. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which took big steps with little consultation with Iraqis, steps Allawi and many others see as blunders:

• The Americans disbanded Iraq's army, which Allawi said could have helped quell a rising insurgency in 2003. Instead, hundreds of thousands of demobilized, angry men became a recruiting pool for the resistance.

• Purging tens of thousands of members of toppled President Saddam Hussein's Baath party — from government, school faculties and elsewhere — left Iraq short on experienced hands at a crucial time.

• An order consolidating decentralized bank accounts at the Finance Ministry bogged down operations of Iraq's many state-owned enterprises.

• The CPA's focus on private enterprise allowed the "commercial gangs" of Saddam's day to monopolize business.

• Its free-trade policy allowed looted Iraqi capital equipment to be spirited away across borders.

• The CPA perpetuated Saddam's fuel subsidies, selling gasoline at giveaway prices and draining the budget.

In his 2006 memoir of the occupation, Bremer wrote that senior U.S. generals wanted to recall elements of the old Iraqi army in 2003, but were rebuffed by the Bush administration. Bremer complained generally that his authority was undermined by Washington's "micromanagement."

Although Allawi, a cousin of Ayad Allawi, Iraq's prime minister in 2004, is a member of a secularist Shiite Muslim political grouping, his well-researched book betrays little partisanship.

On U.S. reconstruction failures — in electricity, health care and other areas documented by Washington's own auditors — Allawi writes that the Americans' "insipid retelling of `success' stories" merely hid "the huge black hole that lay underneath."

For their part, U.S. officials have often largely blamed Iraq's explosive violence for the failures of reconstruction and poor governance.

The author has been instrumental since 2005 in publicizing extensive corruption within Iraq's "new order," including an $800-million Defense Ministry scandal. Under Saddam, he writes, the secret police kept would-be plunderers in check better than the U.S. occupiers have done.

As 2007 began, Allawi concludes, "America's only allies in Iraq were those who sought to manipulate the great power to their narrow advantage. It might have been otherwise."

[jbrune56]

When the title said monumental ignorance, i thought you would talk about Imus (I didn't know he was still around).

[hork]

Originally Posted by jbrune56

When the title said monumental ignorance, i thought you would talk about Imus (I didn't know he was still around).

would definitely fall into the monumental ignorance category. add to that the fact he's (Imus) agreed to appear on Sharpton's radio show and you don't get much dumber than that (present thread topic excluded of course )

[rich76]

Curious Ken.....why is he dumb for going on sharpton's show?

[ldzppln]

Originally Posted by rich76

Curious Ken.....why is he dumb for going on sharpton's show?

I didn't know Sharpton had a radio show. Sounds like both of these guys are taking advantage of the situation. The whole thing may have just been a marketing stunt. If you think about it... who wouldn't know better than to refer to black women as "nappy hoes"? Seriously.

[rich76]

Never really thought much of sharpton since the Brawley fiasco (happened not far from where I was living at the time and proved to be a big sham.sharpton lost all credibility after he was caught lying while trying to frame those cops froim wappinger's falls) and never really gave Imus a second thought. Saw him (Imus) live once doing his stand-up routine and he was pretty funny.

LOTS of people have said stupid things over the years but have not lost their jobs over it. While I do NOT condone his racist mutterings, I fail to see where him getting fired is the answer. Hell, IMO, you'd have to go pretty far to find anyone more racist than sharpton.

[hork]

Originally Posted by rich76

Curious Ken.....why is he dumb for going on sharpton's show?

simple, what might have eventually blown over as poor taste and pure ignorance is now going to be blown up beyond all proportion, hit every major talk show and media outlet, and live for months after the whole issue would have died away leading to increased racial issues, and more publicity in general for both (neither of which deserves a second thought).

and, like him or not, sharpton is far more capable of manipulating the system and in the end this will do nothing for Imus other than turn up the heat.