NYT: Rebuilding Teams Would Swell Under Iraq Plan (info provided NYT by critic of plan) [View All]

[DeepModem Mom]

Rebuilding Teams Would Swell Under Bush’s New Iraq Plan
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: January 15, 2007

BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 — As part of its latest plan to stabilize Iraq, the United States intends to more than double the number of regional reconstruction teams and to add nearly 400 specialists for existing and new teams, in fields from politics and the rule of law to agribusiness and veterinary care, according to an official outline of the plan.

The document calls for the measures to be taken swiftly, in three phases, with waves of new teams and personnel expected to be put in place in March, June and September. The teams are to carry out rebuilding and governance projects from small offices all over Iraq.

The document, provided to The New York Times by a critic of the plan, lays out what an American official familiar with its contents calls simply “the playbook,” giving detailed estimates of the costs to be incurred by various teams as a result of the changes....While the plan does call for the creation of about a dozen new reconstruction teams around Iraq, most of the new personnel will be added to existing teams, the plan indicates. While 400 may sound like a small number compared with the plan to increase the number of troops by more than 20,000, the existing 10 reconstruction teams have, at most, a total of about 100 civilian specialists, and recruiting that many has been difficult, officials say....

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Some of the projected costs may raise eyebrows. Around the country, for example, the United States plans to spend more than $2 million in office furnishings alone as part of the plan. More than $7 million is budgeted for information technology, apparently including computers. Some of that money may be used to support existing team members.

The new plans could become a windfall for more than computer and furniture companies.

The document’s last page gives a hint of the likely financing requests in support of the teams in fiscal year 2008, suggesting that protection alone may require $400 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/world/middleeast/15reconstruct.html