Bush $1bn jobs plan to draw Iraqis into fold

We're beginning to get more of an idea of what Bush's great new plan for Iraq might look like. Apparently, apart from the addition of more troops, the new plan is to double reconstruction efforts.

The other sweetener will be a doubling of reconstruction efforts. Up to $1bn is to be spent on a programme in which Iraqis are employed to clean the streets and repair and paint schools.

The Pentagon-run scheme would try to draw young men away from insurgent groups and back into the mainstream economy. It would be administered by officials embedded in US combat brigades in a bid to persuade Iraqis that the Americans were there as a force for good and not just of occupation.

Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, who took up the post of commander of US combat forces in Iraq a month ago, said the new military operation could see Iraqi government forces in control of the capital within a year, and the overall mission accomplished within two or three years.

But other experts expressed reservations about continuing on a course that had been tried and had failed. "I don't know that the Iraqi government has ever demonstrated ability to lead the country, and we shouldn't be surprised," said Lieutenant General Jay Garner, who led the US mission in Baghdad after the invasion.

The idea of attempting to get people back to work and of reconstructing Iraq is itself a very good one. Unemployment and the inability to see any improvements coming from the occupation are themselves fuelling the insurgency.

However, as I've long argued here, the main problem in Iraq is the lack of order. Without that prerequisite requirement, nothing can follow. The idea of a country attempting to reconstruct itself whilst it is still racked by war is frankly ludicrous.

Nor will the addition of 20,000 new troops be anywhere near sufficient to impose the order that is needed.

However, I suspect the most important part of this plan is the time scale. You'll notice that the plan is for the overall mission to be completed in three years time. That's after Bush has left office.

And I think that's what this is all about. Bush wants to pass his failure to his successor. He does not want the size of his Iraqi failure to have to be admitted whilst he is still in office. So he comes up with a new plan that does just that.

Is there anyone anywhere who thinks this plan has a hope of success? I very much doubt that. However, I also doubt that this is the point of this new policy.

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tag: Bush, Iraq, Iraq war, surge and accelerate, Stay the course