US to International NGOs -- Drop Dead

by Trent Telenko at March 18, 2003 2:08 AM

The Wall Street Journal has a very interesting article on the redevelopment of Iraq after the coming war. I got a copy through the Pentagon's Early Bird clipping service, so I lack a link.

The Bush Administration has tested the Wilsonian vision of an "International Civil Society," and found it wanting. "International Civil Society" has failed the audit of war. Multi-national non-government organizations will not be trusted to impliment American post war policy in Iraq.

This has grave implications for the Democratic Party. ***

A short summary version of the WSJ article can be found here.

CTD

The key paragraphs from the version of the article I had are below:

"The Bush plan, as detailed in more than 100 pages of confidential contract documents, would sideline United Nations development agencies and other multilateral organizations that have long directed reconstruction efforts in places such as Afghanistan and Kosovo. The plan also would leave big non-governmental organizations largely in the lurch: With more than $1.5 billion in Iraq work being offered to private U.S. companies under the plan, just $50 million is so far earmarked for a small number of groups such as CARE and Save the Children."

and

"European officials, and even some prominent Iraqi dissidents, have reacted to the current U.S. plans with disbelief. They charge that efforts to keep the U.N. and non-U.S. contractors on the sidelines will delay reconstruction in Iraq and stir deeper ill will toward Washington. Some U.S. humanitarian groups charge the Bush administration has downplayed the difficulty of the postwar work in the hopes of scoring some quick public-relations points."

and

"Senior U.S. administration officials say problems in rebuilding Afghanistan -- including work on the Kabul-Kandahar-Herat highway, a pivotal project that is proceeding slowly -- prove that a multilateral approach only slows postwar assistance. "At least to start, we intend to handle the big jobs ourselves," said one Bush official closely involved in the postwar planning.

U.S. officials say they also want credit for the reconstruction. "The administration's goal is to provide tangible evidence to the people of Iraq that the U.S. will support efforts to bring the country to political security and economic prosperity," says a U.S. contract document for up to $900 million in reconstruction work.

Much of the heaviest work will fall to U.S. companies through a growing web of contracts with the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development. USAID is expected this week to pick the prime contractor for a $900 million job rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, including highways, bridges, airports and government buildings. The agency is also contracting for five other large jobs, worth a total of between $300 million and $500 million, administering Iraq's seaport and international airports, revamping its schools and health-care system, and handling large scale logistics such as water transport. The Army Corps of Engineers is also taking bids for work worth up to $500 million for building projects such as roadways and military barracks. Additional contracts to refurbish Iraq's neglected oil industry would likely be handled through the U.N., which currently administers Iraq's oil exports. "

The Bush Administration, by its actions, is telling the U.N., E.U. and the galaxy of multi-national aid an human rights NGOs that they are not required. American economic and military power are such that, given the American political will to follow through, the Bush Administration can make that stick.

The implications for the American "Wilsonians" are clear. The only way for them to "do good" is through naked unilateral American power. This will be comfortable for Republican Neo-cons, who are "Wilsonians" who don't believe in multilateralism.

For Democratic Wilsonians, this will be disaster. The only way that Democratic internationalists could exert American power was by providing a "patina of multilateralism" to hide the reality of American military power from the anti-war "Jeffersonian" Democratic Party base.

Bush's emerging Iraq precedent will remove that tool from the bag of future Democratic Presidents.

*** Walter Russel Mead's "Special Providence: American Foreign Policy And How It Changed The World" is required reading. This link and this link will help explain the terms "Wilsonian" and "Jeffersonian" in context.

All rights reserved. This article can be found on the Internet at:

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/us_to_international_ngos_drop_dead.php

Persons wishing to contact the author of this article for reprints etc. should put a request in the Comments section, or send an email to "joe", over here @windsofchange.net.