underwater Posted March 17 Report Share Posted March 17 Bush Has Audacious Plan to Rebuild Iraq Within YearMon Mar 17,12:30 AM ET WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's audacious plan to rebuild Iraq (news - web sites) envisions a sweeping overhaul of Iraqi society within a year of a war's end, but leaves much of the work to private U.S. companies, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported. The Bush plan, as detailed in more than 100 pages of confidential contract documents, would sideline United Nations (news - web sites) development agencies and other multilateral organizations that have long directed reconstruction efforts in places such as Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Kosovo. The plan also would leave big nongovernmental organizations largely in the lurch: With more than $1.5 billion in Iraq work being offered to private U.S. companies under the plan, just $50 million is so far earmarked for a small number of groups such as CARE and Save the Children. Washington is under international pressure to broaden a postwar rebuilding effort, even as it continues to do battle with traditional allies over the merits of launching a war on Iraq. The administration recently has signaled it may seek down the road to give the U.N. and other countries a larger role. President Bush (news - web sites), after a one-hour summit in the Azores Islands, said yesterday that if it comes to war he plans to "quickly seek new Security Council resolutions to encourage broad participation in the process of helping the Iraqi people to build a free Iraq." But U.N. officials said they still have no clear indication how the administration might involve the international body, especially if many of the large rebuilding tasks are already farmed out to U.S. companies directly answerable to Washington. Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Neil King Jr. contributed to this report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted March 18 Report Share Posted March 18 he really succeeded with Afghanistan.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underwater Posted March 18 Author Report Share Posted March 18 Originally posted by bigpoppanils he really succeeded with Afghanistan.... it has to be better then when the tittyban's were in charge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted March 18 Report Share Posted March 18 Originally posted by underwater it has to be better then when the tittyban's were in charge not by much....women still being thrown in jail for adultery, and having to wear burquas (sp) in public out of fear of being rapedregional warlords ruling pieces of afghanistan like feifdomsand today afghanistan warned that unless it receives more foreign aid, it fears its population will go back to producing heroin (which was banned by the taliban) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted March 18 Report Share Posted March 18 oh wait...theres a gas pipeline running through the country now...except the companies running it have been exempted from any taxes by the afghani gov'tunder taliban rule there would have been taxes (the pipeline was under development with US backing before 9/11)i guess thats a plus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted March 18 Report Share Posted March 18 heres an articleAid or heroin, Afghanistan warns The narco-mafia state will have the lowest indirect price tag... But it will have the highest indirect costs Ghani AhmadzaiAfghan Finance Minister Afghanistan will slip back into its role as the world's premier heroin producer unless the international community hands over promised aid, the ravaged country has warned. On Friday in Kabul, the Afghan capital, Finance Minister Ghani Ahmadzai unveiled a $2.25bn budget, of which $1.7bn was set aside to rebuild infrastructure flattened by 15 years of conflict. But more than $1bn still has to be pledged by the countries which previously promised to support the country's rebuilding after the US-led invasion in 2001 to drive out the former Taleban government. Without that, and money to fill the $234m gap in the $550m cost of normal government business, donors will not only cripple the country's recovery but face a resurgent drug trade at home as well, Mr Ahmadzai warned. "We will focus on reforms," he told a donor conference in Brussels on Monday, "but we need your assistance in providing predictable finance. "The narco-mafia state will have the lowest indirect price tag... But it will have the highest indirect costs." Unconventional weapons The Taleban government which took power in most of Afghanistan in the mid-1990s stamped down hard on the country's long-established heroin trade. Kabul is still a dangerous place 16 months on from the US invasion But with precious few other ways for Afghan farmers to make money, many of them are returning to poppy cultivation. The Afghan government's warning of dire consequences should the rebuilding grind to a halt should figure largely in the West's strategic calculations, said Dan Plesch, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. "Shipping tonnes of heroin at Europe and the US might well be described as a form of asymmetric warfare," he told BBC News Online, using the term often applied to the use of suicide bombs and similar tactics by groups faced with apparently all-powerful military foes. As the focus of the so-called "War on Terror" has shifted to Iraq from Afghanistan, he said, it has also switched back from looking at the nuances of non-traditional weapons to old-fashioned guns-and-bombs warfare. "There's a concentration on high-tech armoury, and a refusal to understand the social and economic warfare that is being waged," he said. The ongoing campaign by US and local forces against the Taleban and al-Qaeda "remnants" was getting bogged down, he warned. Short attention span Mr Ahmadzai's warning has particular resonance, coming just a few hours before the deadline imposed on the UN Security Council by the US, UK and Spain to back their plans to attack Iraq. Aid agencies and former soldiers have expressed concern that the planning for what to do once the war is over is dangerously incomplete. Meanwhile, the Afghan government, officials say, is afraid that it will be forgotten in the rush by US and other Western companies to do business with a post-Saddam Iraqi regime. Much of the country remains in the hands of warlords who pay lip service to their alliance with the US and the government in Kabul, while running their territory effectively as a feudal fiefdom. taken from the BBC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underwater Posted March 18 Author Report Share Posted March 18 Originally posted by bigpoppanils not by much.... so you are agreeing that it is a marginally better place.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igloo Posted March 18 Report Share Posted March 18 Originally posted by bigpoppanils he really succeeded with Afghanistan.... I guess you expect radical change over night??....you are a cynical, overblown alarmistBRUSSELS, Belgium — International donors on Monday committed some $2 billion in aid over the next year to rebuild Afghanistan and help it counter international terrorism and curtail heroin production."The response has been extremely generous. Ninety percent of what we asked for has been committed to," Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani said. He stressed the donor countries stood united in continuing to back Afghanistan over the coming years despite world attention being diverted to Iraq."We have to be able to cope with more than one blip on the radar screen at the same time," said EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.U.S. government representative Alan Larson said Washington would contribute $820 million in new aid this year, while Japan said it would give a further $500 million over the next two and a half years.The European Union, which hosted the donor meeting, has pledged $432 million in aid until the end of 2004.Afghanistan, which has been a major opium producer, is struggling to rebuild itself after years of conflict, including a U.S.-led war that drove out the Taliban regime in late 2001. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted March 18 Report Share Posted March 18 Originally posted by igloo I guess you expect radical change over night read the original post..Bush does...Bush beleives he can completely rebuild Iraq in one year. I was just pointing out that it has been more than a year since his reconstruction of Afghanistan began, and very little has actually happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pumavisor808 Posted March 18 Report Share Posted March 18 It would be easier to rebuild Iraq than Afgan... They have a hell of alot more Oil, which means more money to spend than Aghan has... To rebuild Iraq the money could come from their own resources not other countries.... (And if some of the oil flows our way....no harm)There is nothing in Afghanistan of value....Iraq is much more important than Afghanistan will ever be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigpoppanils Posted March 19 Report Share Posted March 19 Originally posted by pumavisor808 There is nothing in Afghanistan of value....Iraq is much more important than Afghanistan will ever be. no...dont fall into that mentality....thats what started a lot of our current problemsafter the cold war ended, we did not see afghanistan as important, so we decided to not help them rebuild their country after the war with the USSR. we told bin laden to fuck off and cut him from the CIA payrolllook how far that got us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
normalnoises Posted March 19 Report Share Posted March 19 Originally posted by igloo I guess you expect radical change over night??....you are a cynical, overblown alarmistBRUSSELS, Belgium — International donors on Monday committed some $2 billion in aid over the next year to rebuild Afghanistan and help it counter international terrorism and curtail heroin production."The response has been extremely generous. Ninety percent of what we asked for has been committed to," Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani said. He stressed the donor countries stood united in continuing to back Afghanistan over the coming years despite world attention being diverted to Iraq."We have to be able to cope with more than one blip on the radar screen at the same time," said EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.U.S. government representative Alan Larson said Washington would contribute $820 million in new aid this year, while Japan said it would give a further $500 million over the next two and a half years.The European Union, which hosted the donor meeting, has pledged $432 million in aid until the end of 2004.Afghanistan, which has been a major opium producer, is struggling to rebuild itself after years of conflict, including a U.S.-led war that drove out the Taliban regime in late 2001. I'm not here to insult you this time but seeing you're big on Bill O'Reilly, I found a nice avatar you can use for your sn. Enjoy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underwater Posted March 19 Author Report Share Posted March 19 Originally posted by normalnoises I'm not here to insult you this time but seeing you're big on Bill O'Reilly, I found a nice avatar you can use for your sn. Enjoy: holy cow....a current events peace offer...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnice35 Posted March 19 Report Share Posted March 19 Originally posted by underwater holy cow....a current events peace offer...... who needs the UN.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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