Why Does Our Remaining Iraq Security Contingent Cost So Much And Where Is The Missing $8.7 Billion?

One thing is surely striking about our remaining non-combat presence in Iraq:

By October 2011, the State Department will assume responsibility for training the Iraqi police, a task that will largely be carried out by contractors. With no American soldiers to defuse sectarian tensions in northern Iraq, it will be up to American diplomats in two new $100 million outposts to head off potential confrontations between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish pesh merga forces.

“Two new $100 million outposts”?  Would one $100 million structure be enough? What is it that costs $200 million? Saddam Hussein’s palaces probably didn’t cost as much.  And while we’re at it, how did the Pentagon lose $8.7 billion in Iraq, and what is being done to rectify that?

The Pentagon has repeatedly come under fire for apparent mismanagement of the reconstruction effort — as have Iraqi officials themselves.

Seven years after the U.S.-led invasion, electricity service is spotty, with generation capacity falling far short of demand. Fuel shortages are common and unemployment remains high, a testament to the country’s inability to create new jobs or attract foreign investors.

Complaints surfaced from the start of the war in 2003, when soldiers failed to secure banks, armories and other facilities against looters. Since then the allegations have only multiplied, including investigations of fraud, awarding of contracts without the required government bidding process and allowing contractors to charge exorbitant fees with little oversight, or oversight that came too late.

Note to conservatives: Instead of whining about providing health care and unemployment benefits to millions of Americans, why not a peep from you about this?

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.