Memo Blasts State Dept. Iraq Effort-GOP Loyalist Says U.S. Brought 'Worst of America' to Iraq

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

In a confidential memo, a long-time Republican operative who has served in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for the past year says the State Department's efforts in Iraq are so poorly managed they "would be considered willfully negligent if not criminal" if done in the private sector.

"We have brought to Iraq the worst of America -- our bureaucrats," writes Manuel Miranda in the memo, which was addressed to U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and cc'd to "ALCON" or "all concerned" at the State Department.

"You are doing a job for which you are not prepared as a bureaucracy or as leaders," Miranda writes. "The American and Iraqi people deserve better."

Asked to respond to the allegations made in Miranda's memo, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Miranda is entitled to his opinion, but "We think Ambassador Crocker and his team are doing a very good job under extremely challenging circumstances. We have great confidence in their ability to carry out their mission."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=4263378

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Link to memo: http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Manuel_Miranda_1.pdf#http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Manuel_Miranda_1.pdf

[nightrider767]

1. I see a different problem,,

I think the big delay is that it's taking a while to convince the Iraqi's to sell out.

It's more than the Bureaucracy, in Iraq we've demonstrated the same finesse a bull would show in a china shop.

Sad.

[Postman]

13. exactly. Just sign over the oil fields and we'll be outta here yesterday...

n/t

[TheMadMonk]

28. Um, I just watch Mythbusters put that one to bed a week or two ago. nt

[Adsos Letter]

2. Think of how frustrating/disfunctional bureaucracies are to deal with IN the US...

now...transfer that image to Iraq...

[rfranklin]

23. This plays into the Republican meme of "government no good"

Every large organization, including our powerhouses of capitalism, have functionaries who create roadblocks. I have dealt with many government employees who are amazingly helpful, knowledgeable and sympathetic. But the Republicans blame their very intentional sabotage and incompetence on the concept of government regulation--even though through history our government has nutured and built great programs and institutions. So please don't parrot their propaganda.

[badgervan]

3. Won't Be Long Now.....

...before this house of cards comes crashing down. Once the loyalists start turning, it's just a matter of time. The truth will come out.

[bkcc]

4. The truth has been out for a while.

The problem has been getting the average, everyday person to listen.

[Voltaire99]

5. Worse than...

redneck torturers and murderers?

Um, I doubt it.

[pnwmom]

6. Thanks. k&r. n/t

[MarinCoUSA]

7. We shit kicked that country w/ a lot worse than "our bureaucrats"

This memo stinks of wingnuttery "look-over-there-not-here" vapor. When a long time Repuklican operative bashes US State Department bureaucrats for the situation in Iraq, I imagine a news headline in some sick parallel universe:

"Abusive Husband Breaks Wife's Arm, Defends Self: "But She's A Woman".

[dansolo]

17. Remember, the State Department is now headed by Condaleeza Rice

Remember how rapidly FEMA deteriorated when Bush put his crony in charge. It is the same thing in the State Department. This Administration feels like the State Department serves no purpose, and Rice just follows in that mold. That, along with the fact that she is lazy and incompetent.

[tanyev]

19. Yep. That memo should read

"We have brought to Iraq the worst of America -- bureaucrats who are loyal Bushies". The competent ones left that sinking ship a long time ago.

[spindrifter]

25. I agree with this. Former State Dept. careerists

say she is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. We don't even need an insider's assessment to figure that out.

[ima_sinnic]

8. Crocker et al. are doing a heckuva job!

It's Katrina redux--how could we believe any differently about this bunch that is there, not to serve, but for their own greedy ends?

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. It's what the commander in chief delegated and protected and is

still protecting.

[JohnyCanuck]

10. Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006; Page A01

Adapted from "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, copyright Knopf 2006

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600193.html

[susu369]

12. Must point out:

"O'Beirne, a former Army officer who is married to prominent conservative commentator Kate O'Beirne, did not respond to requests for comment."

[Roland99]

15. How Not To Run A Country (and a country you invaded)

[Trajan]

22. This is one of the crucial revelations in print ...

Thanks for preserving the knowledge ....

Bookmarked ...

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. He's calling for the privatization of Iraq

He blames the State Department for wanting the Iraq embassy to be a 'normal embassy', and for saying that it's mainly up to the Iraqis to get their government going. He says the problem in Iraq is there's too few lobbyists. He says they need more private sector Americans running Iraq.

Personally, I'd say Blackwater was the worst of the US that went to Iraq. And the soldiers in Abu Ghraib. But he gives them all a pass. No, it's the embassy staff who want a noraml embassy that are the problem to him. What a tool.

[Roland99]

14. This is exactly what happens when political appointees and cronies are given such positions.

Might as well as take a computer programmer or an accountant. At least they'd approach things methodically and know their limitations. :)

This passage is key, imo:

Foreign Service officers, with ludicrously little management experience by any standard other than your own, are not equipped to manage programs, hundreds of millions in funds, and exper human capital assets needed to assist the Government of Iraq to stand up. It is apparent that, other than diplomacy, your only expertise is your own bureaucracy, which inherently makes State Department personnel unable to think outside the box or beyond the paths they have previously taken.

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. File on page D26 behind the classified ads. Nobody's listening anymore

Iraq is all but forgotten in the average American household.

[mdmc]

18. After 9-11-01, there were two groups of Americans

Those that thought that Saddam was a contained threat, and those that felt that Saddam needed to be violently overthrown in order to protect America.

Those that advocated war over diplomacy caused this mess. Some benefited from this mess (the military industrial complex - banks - corporations). Over 3000 Americans and a million Iraqis died cause of this mess.

[justinaforjustice]

27. You Forgot the Crucial Third Group of Americans.

The third group of Americans knew that Iraq was not a threat to the United States or our allies, but were determined to take control of Iraq's oil fields and establish a permanent U.S. base there from which to mount a compaign to take control of Iran's oil. The leaders of this very small but very powerful third group, Bush and Cheney, took our country to war on lies and have killed over four thousand U.S. soldiers and over a million innocent Iraqis, injured over five million and made orphans out of 19 per cent of Iraq's population of 26 million, half of whom are under the age of 15.

Bush, Cheney and their fellow conspirators must be impeached if we are to save any semblance of American democracy.

[QUALAR]

20. Let Freedom Ring

Bush's biggest blunder in Iraq was installing a semblance of democracy before obtaining an oil agreement. You know one of those we steal your oil thingies. Should have robbed Iraq when the puppet government was in place. To some degree the Iraqi government is demonstrating a unified resistance to privatizing the country's resources. In other words, the Iraqi are giving Bush the purple finger of hate.

[MidwestTransplant]

21. Hey Condi...You suck and are in way over your head. Go back to studying the Soviets.

[spindrifter]

26. She didn't even foresee the devolution of the U.S.S.R. Some

"expert."

[Peace Patriot]

24. Hm. Could be Bushite-NeoCon-Pentagon sabotage of the State Dept.

Hard to say, in this viper-ridden cauldron of corruption they are calling our government.

I'd be cautious of insider Republican whistleblowers, and their leaked memos.

Even ABC news is a bit cautious. Look at the way they describe this person (Manuel Miranda): "a long-time Republican operative who has served in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for the past year." That both qualifies him to know what's going on, and also qualifies him to be a major shit-head--somebody's mole, a back-stabbing rat full of ambition, a fascist, a guy who loves torturing prisoners, greedy, Cheney's tool, Rumsfeld's tool (you think he's "retired"? ha!), McCain's tool, and various other varieties of S.O.B., Rovebot, worm, traitor to the American people...

I know nothing about him, except what's in this article. He could be a good-guy. But how many "long time Republican operatives" do you know who are?