HOW MANY STEPS TO REBUILD IRAQ?

Human Rescue

Iraqi health care deterioration

UNHCR estimates the war created 4.7 million Iraqi Refugees through April 2008 (about 16% of the population of Iraq.) Concerning Orphans On December 15, 2007 a conference dedicated to orphans in Iraq was held in Baghdad. Iraq’s anti-corruption board reported that official government statistics revealed that five million (or 35%) of Iraqi children were orphans. The term ‘orphan’ applies in Arabic to a child whose father or both his or her parents have died.Wijdan Salem Mikhail, the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, stated the phenomenon “is one of the most passive things that grew immensely during the past few years due to destructive wars and unbridled violence in the country.” The Iraqi parliament’s women and family committee have proposed a draft law to set up a fund for the orphans.

On January 21, 2008 the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs released a report estimating that there were 4.5 millions Iraqi orphans, with 500,000 living on the streets without any home or family care. The report further said there were only 459 orphans in governmental houses of orphans while there were 800 Iraqi orphans in American Iraqi prisons. Amal Kashefal-Ghetaa, the president of the Islamic Foundation of Woman and Child, explained that “a massive change took place in the lives of children that forced many of them to leave their schools and friends to go to work; a matter that affects them mentally.” Sociologist Atheer Kareem said the negative situation that children in Iraq are experiencing would increase their suffering unless the government in Iraq responds by issuing legislation.

Baghdad Bombing

The WAR

The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War or the Occupation of Iraq, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the INVASION OF IRAQ  by a multinational force led by and composed largely of United States  and United Kingdom troops.

Prior to the war, Iraq’s alleged possession of  weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was claimed to pose a serious and imminent threat to the security of the United States and its coalition allies. United Nations weapons inspectors found no evidence of WMD, giving support to earlier criticism of poor intelligence on Iraqi WMDs.After the invasion, the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its WMD programs in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if the Iraq sanctions were lifted. Although some degraded remnants of misplaced or abandoned chemical weapons from before 1991 were found, they were not the weapons for which the coalition invaded. The failure to find WMD in Iraq caused controversy, particularly in the United States. Some U.S. officials also accused  Saddam Hussein of harboring and supporting AL-Qaeda ,but no evidence of any collaborative relationship was ever found. Other reason for the invasion have been provided, and the issue has remained a subject of debate since the invasion took place.

The  invasion led to the quick defeat of the Iraqi military, and the eventual capture and execution of Saddam Hussein. The U.S.-led coalition occupied Iraq and attempted to establish a new democratic  government; however, violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups soon led to  asymmetric warfare with the  Iraqi Insurgency, strife between many  Sunni and Shia  Iraqi groups, and al-Qaeda operations in Iraq . The number of Iraqis killed through 2007 ranges from “a conservative cautious minimum” of more than 85,000 civilians to a survey estimate of more than 1,000,000 citizens. UNHCR estimates the war created 4.7 million Iraqi Refugees through April 2008 (about 16% of the population of Iraq.) ^.The U.S. Department of Defense claimed in 2008 that “the security, political and economic trends in Iraq continue to be positive, however, they remain fragile, reversible and uneven.” Iraq was fifth on the 2008 Failed States Index , and the  Red Cross stated in 2008 that Iraq’s humanitarian situation “remains among the most critical in the world”. Member nations of the Coalition began to withdraw their forces as public opinion favoring troop withdrawals increased in their countries and Iraq itself, and as Iraqi forces began to take responsibility for security. The U.S. and Iraq have concluded a status of force agreement , which calls for the complete withdrawal of all troops by the beginning of 2012 pending any separate negotiations.U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has predicted that after 2011 ,he would expect to see “perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops” as part of a residual force in Iraq.

U.N. weapons inspections resume

The issue of Iraq’s desarmament reached a crisis  in 2002-2003, when President Bush demanded a complete end to alleged Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and full compliance with UN Resolutions requiring UN weapons inspectors unfettered access to suspected weapons production facilities. Previously, the  UN had prohibited Iraq from developing or possessing such weapons after the Gulf War and required Iraq to permit inspections confirming compliance.

During 2002, Bush repeatedly backed demands for unfettered inspection and disarmament with threats of military force. In accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1441  Iraq reluctantly agreed to the new inspections in late 2002. The results of these inspections were mixed, with the inspectors discovering no WMD programs but concluding that Iraqi declarations failed to prove that all such weapons had been properly destroyed.

Project to rebuild Iraq

In December 2007 the Iraqi government announced plans to cut food rations and subsidies by almost 50 per cent as part of its overall 2008 budget because of insufficient funds and rising inflation. Apart from the cut in subsidies, Baghdad also wants to reduce the number of people dependent on the rationing system by five million. Rationing was first introduced in 1991 after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Iraq but the country has seen an alarming rise in poverty since the 2003 invasion. Nearly 10 million Iraqi’s living in poverty now depend heavily on the rationing system.
* Infrastructure need a amount of $ 11 billion
* Electricity need a amount of $ 13 billion
* Agriculture and water resources need a amount of $3 billion

As of 2008 ‘Rebuild Iraq’ Rebrands to ‘Project Rebuild Iraq’ to Consolidate Position as the World’s Leading Iraq Reconstruction Show.
Since its inception in 2004, the ‘Rebuild Iraq’ exhibition has acquired a worldwide reputation as the world’s pre-eminent Iraq reconstruction show. Over the years, other Iraq reconstruction shows with similar names have sprung up. As of next year, ‘Rebuild Iraq’ is re-branded as the Project Rebuild Iraq exhibition, to underscore its unique identity as the world’s premier Iraq reconstruction exhibition, and to clearly differentiate it from other Iraq reconstruction shows.

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Humanitarian crises

On December 14, 2008, New York Times Baghdad Bureau chief, James Glanz, reported on the pending release of a voluminous report that highlighted the failures of US Government reconstruction planning. The report in its current draft is 508 pages long, and told the sordid history of the failure of the Bush Adminsitration to effectively plan for post-combat operations. It included the staggering figure of $117 billion that had been spent since 2003, some $50 Billion in US taxpayer money. The report was authored by Republican lawyer Stuart Bowen, who is the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and includes substantial criticism for Donald Rumsfeld, who right after the war began was taken aghast by Retired Liuetanant General Jay Garner’s, who headed the short-lived Office of Humanitarian Reconstruction Agency, opinions that it would take $1 billion dollars for reconstruction activities of Iraq. The comment seemed prophetic at the time. The report will be officially presented on February 2, but was apparently leaked by civilians working reconstruction activities in Iraq.

Interview with CNN

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David Bellavia (2007) House to House: an Epic of Urban Warfare. Simon and Schuster. About the 2nd Battle of Fallujah – written by a participant.

MICHAEL R. GORDON(2006) COBRA II : The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

THOMAS  E. RICKS (2006) Fisaco, The American Military Adventure in Iraq . Penguin.

EDWARD O ‘ CONNELL(2008) Counterinsurgency in Iraq: 2003-2006. RAND.

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