NEW YORK, April 8, 2007
Insider: Missteps Soured Iraqis on U.S.
Iraq's Former Finance Minister Details "Shocking" U.S. Mismanagment Of Iraq In New Book
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Former Treasury Secretary John Snow, right, meets with former Iraqi Finance Minister Dr. Ali Allawi, second right, along with Treasury Deputy Secretary Robert Kimmitt, left, and Iraqi Central Bank Governor Dr. Sinan al-Shabib, second left, in Washington, Tuesday, April 25, 2006. (AP)
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Photo Essay Iraq In Pictures A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
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Photo Essay Anniversary Protests Demonstrations around the world as the war in Iraq enters its fifth year.
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Interactive Iraq: 4 Years Later The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
"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:
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."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 14 Comments
- The Failures Because of Incompetence (FBI) should be done away with. This group of Idiots couldn't catch a cold if they had one. They depend on the general puplic to do their job for them and then they take the credit. The only person who had an FBI of competence was J. Edgar Hoover. And he had it right when he said Martin Luther King was a Communist. He also had it right when he had it out with Bobby Kennedy. But since he passed on we have gone to the incompetents.
Posted by krg12171936 at 06:48 AM : Apr 09, 2007
ROFLMAO You've got to be kidding? ROFLAMO Talk about being in complete denial AND a southern Fascist on top of that! You wouldn't admit who's really to blame here if your Swastika burnt a hole in your pocket now would you? LMAO Sieg Heil and have a great day! - Reply to this comment
- whournameiz; then again, we all know the most common disclaimer with respect to EVERYTHING this administration has attempted to do is (in great understatement) "mistakes were made".
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- Maybe it was purposely done. It is clearly known through history that to have a reason to occupy a region is by creating unrest. If Iraq was completely clean and clear after invasion then the US army would have to leave.
I highly doubt that the CIA and the militant white house did not know what they were doing. The wanted to keep the US troops there and for that reason they needed chaos in the country so that they can "maintain peace"
Equal access to gulf oil has been planned for a long time now by the CIA, that's why the US is a such a big supporter of Israel. The white house wants US presence in the middle east and country by country it will invade and take down the governments. Where ever there is a resource, violence and chaos will break out. Watch and see. - Reply to this comment
- "Then we take every single burocrat and manager and such, and kick them out of their jobs"
Actually, that's beginning to sound better and better. - Reply to this comment
- Lets get back to the subject of BUSH-Rebulbican-Dull Witted American supporters of our incompetent, moronoic , arrogant losers who have destroyed a nation and besmirched our honor and reputation. You sorry morons who have supported the chickenhawks deserve to hang your heads in shame for your lack of education and gross stupidity. So much blood shed for nothing. Gross monsters one and all. and by the way you FBI supporters J. Edgar was a transvestite weirdo and a little nazi facist creep who liked to blackmail and take photos but then in your thinking that is ok. Jerks..crawl back under your rocks.
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- Impeach Bush before it's too late
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- Our dictator and his buddy should be sent on their way before it's too late for all of us..now they want to merge Mexico and Canada with us and make it one happy familly..as an ex canadian I know that this will never happen..they got rid of the Queen, do you think they want to screw up and take BUSH instead?
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- The Failures Because of Incompetence (FBI) should be done away with. This group of Idiots couldn't catch a cold if they had one. They depend on the general puplic to do their job for them and then they take the credit. The only person who had an FBI of competence was J. Edgar Hoover. And he had it right when he said Martin Luther King was a Communist. He also had it right when he had it out with Bobby Kennedy. But since he passed on we have gone to the incompetents.
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- Really - how obvious is it? Do you think the United States would do well if our entire military, CIA, FBI, all police, were suddenly dismissed and told they couldn't have their old jobs back? Then we take every single burocrat and manager and such, and kick them out of their jobs, then we revamp our stock market, banking, and all industry to some brand new form of business, using all novice and inexperienced people... how insanely stupid do you have to be to not see that this will not work.
You've just put out of work all of your law enforcement and government support, and given them nothing to do but rebel. You've kicked out all of the good organizational types that keep the government functioning, and you've done some serious damage to the economy to put everyone else out of work too! It's a recipe for anarchy, chaos and civil war, any fool could see that.
Then, when this doesn't work, you figure that you just need to keep doing it the same way until it works! Ever hear the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result! - Reply to this comment
- Really - how obvious is it? Do you think the United States would do well if our entire military, CIA, FBI, all police, were suddenly dismissed and told they couldn't have their old jobs back? Then we take every single burocrat and manager and such, and kick them out of their jobs, then we revamp our stock market, banking, and all industry to some brand new form of business, using all novice and inexperienced people... how insanely stupid do you have to be to not see that this will not work.
You've just put out of work all of your law enforcement and government support, and given them nothing to do but rebel. You've kicked out all of the good organizational types that keep the government functioning, and you've done some serious damage to the economy to put everyone else out of work too! It's a recipe for anarchy, chaos and civil war, any fool could see that. - Reply to this comment
- America, we've been had.
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- An other example of the President expecting everyone in the world to think and act like one of his %u201Cgood ol%u2019 boys.%u201D Every time he says the terrorists hate us because they can%u2019t stand %u201Cfreedom%u201D, I can%u2019t help but wince. Given the thousands of years of history of hating each other they have, the situation on the ground there cannot simply be boiled down to a trite campaign slogan. We need to understand that we don%u2019t understand them, and that if we expect them to act like the good folks from Wichita Falls, we%u2019ll continue to be disappointed.
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How much more arrogance, incompetence and dishonesty must we suffer under Bu$h?
How many more failed Bu$h plans must we pay for?
How many more lives must we sacrifice how much more money must we waste for this boondogle of a war?- Reply to this comment
- Unsurprisingly - more stupid blind political games, following ideology even if it doesn't reflect reality, once again costs us.
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How gold pays for 
