BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O JUST CAN'T MANAGE TO PULL OFF "ONE OF US" AND ALWAYS SEEMS LIKE THIS WEEK'S CRAZY ANOMALY ON FRINGE.
HE CONTINUED THE TREND THIS WEEK WHEN, ASKED BY A CHILD TO NAME HIS FAVORITE FOOD, BARRY O INSISTED IT WAS BROCCOLI.
BROCCOLI.
THE VEGETABLE MOST KIDS HAVE TO PRETEND ARE LITTLE TREES JUST TO GET THROUGH EATING THEM.
NEXT UP, BARRY O REVEALS HIS FAVORITE DRINKE: NEW COKE.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
The useless Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart
Bowen is thankfully heading out the door. What a useless
disappointment he became. Appearing before the House Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa this morning, Bowen,
in his usual pompous manner, insisted at one point, "There was no one in
charge in Iraq specifically for the rebuilding program and when the
Commission Wartime Contracting on Afghanistan held a hearing and
called . . ." Excuse me, you are over Iraq or Afghanistan?
That's right, Iraq. So why don't you stick to the topic?
The reality is that they're closing down the SIGIR office when they
should be extending it but if extending it means keeping Bowen there's
no point in wasting any more money because Bowen has been useless. Why
is the office needed? Because the State Dept budget continues to
include billions for Iraq. The same State Dept that Bowen briefly
called out in 2011 for its continued failure to provide his office with
basic answers. Then weak, meek Bowen fell silent.
It was time, on his final report, to deliver and instead he couldn't
because he is a weak ass who speaks privately about so much but goes
before Congress and plays dumb. Instead of using his final appearance
before the House to address Iraq, the stupid Bowen wanted to weigh in on
Syria, Afghanistan and so many other topics. He is a public servant
and it's time to call out these public servants paid to do a job and
failing to do it when appearing before Congress. I don't give a damn
what Bowen thinks is needed. I don't give a damn about his hypothesis,
speculation or conjecture. He was paid to provide oversight on Iraq and
he wanted to talk about everything except Iraq.
The Subcommittee Chair is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Ranking Member is
Ted Deutch. Appearing before the Subcommittee were Stuart Bowen and the
Center for Complex Operations' John Herbst (who is also the former US
Ambassador to the Ukraine and Uzbekistan).
Subcommittee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: The stabilization and
reconstruction operations in Iraq were, at the time, the largest such
project
of its kind that the United States Government ever undertook. But for
all the good intentions, it
was a program replete with challenges, overpromises, setbacks and
shortcomings. Of course it
had its share of accomplishments and successes as well, but at the end
of the day when we look
back at our approach to the rebuilding of Iraq we’re left with an
overall sense that there were too
many errors, that fraud was widespread and that here was an unnecessary
amount of waste of
U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Not long into the Iraq conflict it became clear that our expectations
for a limited post-conflict
engagement gave way to the realities on the ground. Our mission would
quickly have to shift
from a short-term operation to a long-term, protracted rebuilding effort
that would require large
amounts of human and financial capital that we had neither the planning
nor the capability to
conduct.
The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and his excellent
team spent nine years
and countless hours analyzing our efforts in Iraq in order to identify
the challenges we faced,
what we did wrong, where we succeeded, and most importantly: what
happened to the $60
billion used to fund the rebuilding of Iraq. What was concluded painted a
very grim picture of
our inability to adequately plan, execute and oversee large scale
stability and reconstruction
operations.
According to the Inspector General, as much as three to five billion
dollars were wasted from the
Iraq Relief and Reconstruction fund alone due to poor accountability,
and as much as eight
billion overall. Many projects in Iraq ran over budget and behind
schedule because of a lack of
oversight and lack of accountability, like the Basrah Children’s
Hospital.
According to the Inspector General’s reports, this hospital was supposed
to cost $50 million, but
ran to over $165 million and fell more than a year behind schedule.
Another mismanaged project
was the Fallujah Waste Water Treatment System. The IG found that the
initial $30 million dollar
project tripled in cost to nearly $100 million and only reached
one-third of the homes originally
planned.
From the Chair's opening remarks, there was much about Iraq to
discuss. However, Bowen was not interested in discussing Iraq. (He
appeared to grow bored with his job in early 2012.)
When pressed to talk about Iraq, he got snippy and, at one point,
insisted that a chief requirement for reconstruction in Iraq is to
ensure that security exists before reconstruction and relief efforts are
started. Does anyone think that security exists in Iraq currently?
Or how about his assertion that the plan was for the US to leave in
September 2003 but then that changed. Bowen is pulling opinions out of
his ass and they're not opinions he was paid to develop. That lie is
laughable and that's how he wasted everyone's time repeatedly.
Ranking Member Ted Deutch: It's been just over ten years since the
United States went into Iraq under a false pretense of thwarting Weapons
of Mass Destruction. Nearly 4500 brave US soldiers were killed more
than 3200 were wounded including thousands with critical brain and
spinal injuries and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. And now I
think there is an unfortunate perception that with so much upheaval in
the region over the last two years, Iraq is no longer a priority. Yet
at a cost of two-trillion dollars and the high human toll, we will feel
the effects of this war for many years. The US has spent 60 billion
dollars on reconstruction efforts that's an incredible amount of
taxpayer dollars.
Ranking Member Deutch deserves credit for that and for being aware of
the ongoing diplomatic presence in Iraq. US House Rep Mark Meadows
deserves credit for being aware that the US military remains in Iraq.
If other members were aware of the realities Deutch and Meadows noted,
they certainly didn't mention these realities in their own remarks.
After nine years of Bowen babbling on, don't you think he could have
prepared for this hearing? Don't the American people deserve
accountability? Bowen was riding his high horse about accountability.
But this was his final testimony after 9 years and he showed up
unwilling or unable to note how much money his office recovered or how
many people the work of his office led to convictions for.
Nine years and he had nothing to show for it but generic statements. How very sad.
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