Why Are We Still In Iraq
...dvising countries on issues of strategy, organization, and operations, estimates about ten to fifteen billion dollars for the “electricity and telecommunications”, alone, are going to be needed (Report). “it has been estimated that up to 10 00-15 000 MW of new generating capacity will be need to be added in the country by 2015” (Report ). The amount of power will increase allowing more power for the production of oil. The head of the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority), Ambassador Paul Bremer, in June told the “Iraq’s Economic Council” that even though the oil that Iraq produces will be a large factor in the rebuilding without our government’s intervention and urging of “businesses at home and abroad” to put their money into the Iraqi, there wouldn’t be enough to complete the restoration of their economy (Report). Saddam could have paid for the postwar rebuilding of the electricity, but he decided instead to either save it in banks and vaults, or use it to pay for his forty-eight new palaces (Dowd ). According to Dowd, “Postwar Iraq needs every bit of wealth generated by its oil. The rebuilding effort could cost $20 billion per year”. The Weekly Petroleum Argus says that rejoining the “old Iraq National Oil Company”, which means joining fifteen oil companies into one, would help bring back some of the Iraqi economy. While the postwar continues the amount of oil being sold by Iraq is getting back to normal, but it is still far from completely self-sufficient. Secondly we need to help them figure out what kind of a government they want and then establish that kind into their system. With the plan to give control of Iraq back to the Iraqi government, in little over three months, officials in Washington are worried about what will happen next (Iraq’s ). President Bush said that “’moving toward democracy and living in freedom” and recalled that, in the past, Americans “ did not leave behind occupying armies; we left constitutions and parliaments’” deciding that a democracy in Iraq would be established (Kaplan). Now that the GC (Iraqi Governing Council) has decided to sign the interim constitution, the June thirtieth release date won’t be as significant (Iraq’s). After the first election, which is being planned for the thirty-first of January 2005, “Iraq’s first elected government will then draft Iraq’s permanent constitution” (Iraq’s) The GC and CPA are under enormous time pressure to come up with a plan to select the caretaker government. But the question is hardly touched in the GC’s interim constitution, and Washington is in paralysis over the issue as infighting between the state and the defence departments continues. The options so far under discussion are an expanded version of the GC, or a national conference… of representatives that would produce a national assembly along the lines of Afghanistan (Iraq’s ). Even though the US is releasing the Iraqi government to rule itself it still needs a lot of work before it will be fully operational. The final bit of concern we have is with the Iraqi police force. According to Ken Dilanian, of the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, the Iraqi police force was one of the coalitions first priorities in Baghdad to turn much of the protection to the police force. The main problem is that 40,000 police officers aren’t enough, they don’t have to right equipment, and are under trained (Dilanian). Forty thousand police officers is only about 0.16 percent of the total 24 million population ion Iraq. The Chief of the Baghdad police even admitted that they are shorthanded and without enough equipment. More policemen are underway as are the supplies, and the rookies are now getting training. The supplies for the newly trained police are increasing, and now many of them have weapons and some “state-of-the-art walkie-talkies”(Dilanian ). “The coalition’s budget for the current year shows $180 million in police-related spending” said Dilanian back in 2003. With about seven hundred gun-related deaths a month, and no time to investigate all of them, the Iraqi police force is far from being ready to work on its own. Even with all of the improvements from directly following the war, people, especially Iraqi women, were scared to leave their homes at night (Dilanian ). There are many people who don’t feel that we should still be in Iraq. They have a few legitimate reasons too. The most obvious reason would be that the Iraqi people don’t want any help. According to Dowd, “an Iraqi cab driver told The New York Times, “It may be a little chaotic, but it’s our chaos.” It may be their chaos, but it effects more than just them. Pulling out without reestablishing their economy would create problems for us...