Nations Slow to Deliver Iraq Aid

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-iraqaid12jul12,1,1896337,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Amid continuing efforts by the Bush administration to build international support for its mission in Iraq, countries have provided only a small fraction of the reconstruction aid they promised at a conference nine months ago.

Of the $13 billion in non-American aid pledged, only about $1 billion has been turned over to the U.N. and World Bank funds set up to take in most of the donations, U.S. and international aid officials said. Almost half the money contributed, $490 million, is from a single donor, Japan.

The shortfall is a source of growing frustration for Iraq's new interim government, which had hoped that the U.S. hand-over of sovereignty two weeks ago would have resulted in a flow of cash from European nations that opposed the U.S.-led occupation and from wealthy Arab neighbors — two groups that have long been generous donors.

Officials with the new government have begun to complain about the tardiness of the financial aid, as well as the reluctance of Iraq's creditors to follow through on promises to forgive some of the country's $120 billion debt. Iraqi officials fear that their frail economy will not be able to recover unless the debt burden is eased.

<snip>

"The reluctance to turn over the cash dovetails with the way the whole war has played out," said Steven A. Cook, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "Even though this is for a humanitarian cause, they feel like they would be, in a way, legitimizing the Bush administration's invasion."

[acmavm]

1. Would you give money to a bunch of thugs who have already stolen

how many billion for their own purposes, with no accounting? That would be stupid. There's no oversight, hench no accountability. And why would they want to give any support to this enterprise? bush* and bush* only profits. The Iraqis don't get shit. And the criminal cabal is free to line the pockets of Halliburton, KBR, etc., dropping a few million into the pockets of it's friends in the 'new sovereign Iraqi government'.

[uptown ruler]

2. this is NOT a shocker

Spreading The Word

[oasis]

3. The civilized world refuses to reinstall Bush for another four years.

[Spazito]

4. With millions of dollars unaccounted for by the bush admin...

puppets in Iraq, why would any country give one red cent to them to pay more mercenaries to torture Iraqis, add to Haliburton's coffers, give any credence to the faux handover? Once bush is back in Crawford or wherever he will crawl off to after the election (providing there is one) and there is a new administration with a multilateral focus, I am sure the commitments made will be honored.