Posted 8:00 AM by Blah blah

Iraq Gets Worse. Our Costs for Occupying Iraq (Politics)

The Iraq reconstruction is getting much worse. Please read The Guardian article.

I never thought we invaded Iraq mainly for the oil. No oil revenue could make up for the ridiculous costs of invading and occupying a feeble country. The whole Iraq mess has been nothing but a huge economic sinkhole and a huge drag on our economy. Will the American public wake up and vote out the Bush Administration next year, at last?

Even the optimists are losing heart as Iraq goes from bad to worse (The Guardian):

"Rory McCarthy returns to Baghdad after two months to find electricity and water still in short supply, aid workers leaving, and insecurity growing....

Nearly two months later, I have returned to Iraq and so much has changed. A wave of fury and despair among Iraqis has drowned out the few voices that filled me with hope. Those of my Iraqi friends who clung resolutely to their optimistic dreams are finally losing heart. They shrug their shoulders and begin to list the unrelenting failures of the new Iraq. "

Bremer: Iraq Effort to Cost Tens of Billions (Washington Post):
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Iraq will need "several tens of billions" of dollars from abroad in the next year to rebuild its rickety infrastructure and revive its moribund economy, and American taxpayers and foreign governments will be asked to contribute substantial sums, U.S. occupation coordinator L. Paul Bremer said yesterday.

Bremer said Iraqi revenue will not nearly cover the bill for economic needs "almost impossible to exaggerate." Just to meet current electrical demand will cost $2 billion, Bremer said, while a national system to deliver clean water will cost an estimated $16 billion over four years.

The figures, which must be added to the $4 billion the Pentagon spends each month on military operations in Iraq, offer the latest evidence that the price of the Iraqi occupation is growing substantially. A State Department official said the Bush administration is preparing to seek a "huge" supplemental spending bill from Congress. Administration sources also said the U.S.-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority is running so low on funds that the White House is considering seeking an emergency infusion next month to cover the organization's bills.

Bremer's comments, in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors, came on a day when the Congressional Budget Office said the federal government will post a record deficit next year of $480 billion. Wary of revealing specifics, neither Bremer nor President Bush -- who referred to "substantial" new costs in a St. Louis speech -- would give details....

Bombs and hostile fire have killed 63 U.S. troops since May 1, while Islamic fighters and operatives of the militant Ansar al-Islam organization pose a "growing terrorist threat," Bremer said....

Bremer said it will take until next summer for the Coalition Provisional Authority to meet Iraq's daily 6,000-megawatt electricity demand -- longer, if sabotage continues on the country's 19,000 kilometers of power lines. He said the country is producing about 3,300 megawatts, less than the 4,000-megawatt prewar average.

Calling electric power "in many ways the key to reconstruction," he said authorities have ordered a 400-megawatt generator for Baghdad, plus 1.5-megawatt emergency generators for 36 water pumping stations. Engineers have told him Iraq should spend $13 billion over five years to put the aged system in good order.

Oil revenue is lower than U.S. planners had hoped, afflicted by antiquated facilities, power shortages and severe looting. Bremer said Iraq produced 1.7 million barrels on Monday, down from a prewar range of 2.5 million to 3 million barrels a day. His goal is to return production to prewar levels by October 2004.

Even when Iraqi deliveries return to 2002 levels, the industry will not produce enough revenue for reconstruction, Bremer said.