I realize this isn’t at all new information, and I suspect this new report will get lost in the shuffle because it reinforces already-known facts, but Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen’s perspective shouldn’t be overlooked.
The U.S. government was unprepared for the extensive nation-building required after it invaded Iraq, and at each juncture where it could have adjusted its efforts, it failed even to understand the problems it faced, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
In a stinging, wide-ranging assessment of U.S. reconstruction efforts, Stuart W. Bowen Jr. said that in the days after the invasion, the Defense Department had no strategy for restoring either government institutions or infrastructure. And in the years since, other agencies joined the effort without an overall plan and without a structure in place to organize and execute a task of such magnitude. […]
For the first time, the report lays out a timeline documenting the paucity of planning from the beginning of the war in Iraq, noting what was needed when and describing how the scale of reconstruction grew once the United States was in Iraq. It details how Congress provided vast amounts of money with little idea of how it was being spent. The push to get things done quickly meant turning much of the reconstruction over to contractors with little oversight from the government, as security worsened. And the lack of coordination magnified every shortcoming.
Bowen’s credibility couldn’t be higher; no one in any part of the government has been as effective in exposing fraud, waste, and mismanagement in Iraqi reconstruction, and then punishing those directly responsible. His office “opened 27 new criminal probes in the last quarter [of 2006], bringing the total number of active cases to 78. Twenty-three are awaiting prosecutorial action by the Justice Department, most of them centering on charges of bribery and kickbacks.” Indeed, Bowen is the only guy in the administration who actively targeted Halliburton contracts.
It’s no wonder the White House tried to fire him.
From a NYT article in November:
Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.
And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen’s supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.
The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.
It’s an almost perfect example of how the GOP has approached the war and legislating. Identify the one guy who’s been doing his job perfectly, fire him, but keep it secret because of how utterly shameful the decision truly is. (Fortunately, Congress ended up saving Bowen’s job, which helped lead to today’s report.)
Regular readers may recall that I’ve mentioned this before, but the background on who Bowen is fascinating. The president chose Bowen to lead the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction in January 2004. At the time, it seemed like a typical set-up job for the Bush gang: the president needed to respond to criticism about corruption and mismanagement, but instead of asking an independent voice to begin serious oversight, Bush chose Bowen, a loyal friend, senior member of Bush’s gubernatorial campaign team in 1994, a Bush attorney during the Florida recount debacle in 2000, and an associate counsel in Bush’s White House. For Dems hoping for a strong, independent voice to exercise real oversight of Iraqi reconstruction, Bowen’s resume offered little encouragement.
But Bowen surprised everyone — including, presumably, the White House. And now Bowen is making it clear just how incompetent the administration’s reconstruction efforts have been from the outset.
The guy deserves a medal.