Congress should tackle waste in the rebuilding effort in Iraq

Now that American troops are no longer responsible for the security of Iraq, Congress should turn to what the Associated Press in a recent investigative story revealed were “hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects” paid for with our dollars.

According to the wire service, more than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds have been wasted — more than 10 percent of the $50 billion the United States has spent on reconstruction in Iraq. On Tuesday, in his address to the nation to announce the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq that began seven and a half years ago, President Barack Obama stressed that the troop pullout does not mean the abandonment of the country once ruled by the bloody dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Obama made it clear the U.S. would remain an active partner with the democratically elected government in Baghdad — agreement still must be reached among the participants in the coalition government — in charting a course toward a brighter future.

Given America’s investment, such engagement is necessary and justified.

But, the administration must know America’s credibility is called into questioned every time an Iraqi citizen passes by the empty $40 million prison in the desert north of Baghdad, or the unused $140 million children’s hospital, or the $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah. Although it cost three times more than projected, sewage still runs through the streets.

The story of waste and even outright thievery in Iraq is not new. The reconstruction began not long after the U.S.-led allied invasion in 2003 resulted in Saddam being deposed and his government and security force dismantled.

Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region District insists that it has completed more than 4,800 projects and is rushing to finish 233 more, many projects were terminated because of security concerns.

Steps being taken

Col. Jon Christensen, who assumed command of the Gulf Region District this summer, contended that steps are being taken to fix the 595 terminated projects.

“There’s only so much we could do,” Christensen told the AP. “A lot of it comes down to them [the Iraqis] taking ownership of it.”

Not so fast, say many Iraqi officials involved in rebuilding the country. The Americans are responsible for seeing the projects through to completion, they argue.

Rather than passing the buck, the parties should have a meeting of the minds. They should identify the projects that can be completed quickly, the ones that will take some time to tackle and, finally, those that should be dismantled or abandoned because the cost would be unacceptably high.

President Obama should recognize that his administration and this country are being judged by the Iraqi people not only on the military campaign, but also on the rebuilding effort. While there has been progress on the military front, the daily lives of people continue to be a struggle.

Having a children’s hospital that’s unused is more than a construction mishap. It symbolizes failure — on the part of the most powerful nation in the world.

A congressional hearing is necessary to find out what went wrong and what happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars that simply disappeared.