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How will the next President handle reconstruction in Iraq?
By Lauren | July 18, 2008
On a recent trip abroad, I happened to be watching BBC television when the network rebroadcast an investigative series titled, “The Baghdad Billions” that first ran in November of 2006. BBC reporter Mark Gregory described how the U.S. government apparently mismanaged private contractors who were brought in to rebuild post-war Iraq. The program described alleged improprieties in the awarding of multi-billion dollar contracts, “cost-plus” contracts that included few or no restraints on how contractors spent taxpayer funds, and billions of dollars, both U.S. and Iraqi, that vanished without any reliable record of how they’d been spent. (If you want to hear the series for yourself, go to www.bbb.co.uk and search “Baghdad Billions” for the MP3 downloads.)
Now, the New York Times reports that at least some of the work done by U.S. contractors in Iraq may have been downright lethal. According to the Times, shoddy electrical work by private contractors working on military bases in Iraq caused at least 283 electrical fires over a six-month period. The Pentagon has acknowledged that thirteen Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq, and the Times reports that many more have been injured.
And who is ultimately responsible for the Pentagon and its contractors? Who else but the Commander in Chief?
I don’t understand why the BBC’s allegations haven’t been given greater play in the U.S. media – if they’re true, the American press should be screaming, and the American public (whose tax dollars may have been recklessly squandered) should be outraged. Most important, if our men and women in uniform are dying in accidents caused by the substandard work of U.S. contractors, something needs to be done immediately. I wish I trusted the current Administration to make things right but, in light of the BBC and New York Times stories, there seems to be little reason to hope that the situation in Iraq will improve before the next election.
Will the next President and his Administration take an honest, fearless look at what’s happened with the reconstruction of Iraq? Will he hold contractors responsible for damage they’ve done, and use the Department of Justice to prosecute any criminal conduct? Will he tell the American people what’s happened, and take the necessary steps to protect our troops from accidental death at the hands of their fellow Americans? Has your candidate taken a position on reconstruction in Iraq, and are you okay with it? You decide.
Topics: Legal Ethics, Presidential Campaign, Social Ethics, ethics |