Bush seeks to divert $3.3 billion
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is preparing to seek congressional approval to divert $3.3 billion earmarked to rebuild Iraq’s shattered infrastructure into programs focused mainly to establish law and order.
The move comes against a backdrop of steadily deteriorating public security in the country as it approaches a crucial first round of elections set for January.
Those working on the changes said the proposed reallocation amounts to nearly one-fifth of the $18.4 billion Congress approved last November to rebuild Iraq. They said the shift would delay vital electricity, water and sewage projects — all crucial to restoring Iraq’s economy and building public support for the country’s struggling interim government.
Instead, the money would go to an array of other programs, including $1.8 billion to strengthen the government’s shaky security organizations and additional funds to soak up unemployment. In a country where idle men with little hope for work make easy recruits for a virulent insurgency, job creation is closely linked to improved security.
In part, the changes reflect a reordering of priorities after the June 28 transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority that administered the nation following the fall of Saddam Hussein. That shift left U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, rather than CPA administrator L. Paul Bremer III, the highest-ranking American in the country.
At another level, however, the move underscores the administration’s assessment that substantial changes are necessary to control an insurgency that has grown in strength and sophistication despite U.S. military efforts to contain it. Officials at the State Department working on the reconstruction revisions said the shift in focus is part of a realization that funding even the most important projects makes little sense if conditions on the ground prevent their completion.
“The first priority for our effort right now has to be security,” Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told a group of reporters last week. “If a place is not safe to build a sewer system, you can’t spend the money.”
The revised spending plan calls for adding 45,000 new recruits to the national police force, raising 20 new battalions to the current 42-battalion Iraqi National Guard, and beefing up the force that patrols Iraq’s long frontiers in an attempt to stem the flow of illegal traffic, including armed fighters crossing into Iraq from countries such as Iran and Syria.
In his comments to reporters, Powell said the timing of some infrastructure projects would be affected, while other programs would be scaled back.
A senior State Department official wrestling with the choices admitted there were few easy options.
“Unfortunately, it is a zero-sum game, so something does have to go,” the official said. The official said the affected projects were those “further out on the horizon where planning hasn’t been fully developed.”