lily
12-13-2006, 02:06 AM
I've been saying this for three years! (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101318.html?referrer=email)
To Stem Iraqi Violence, U.S. Aims to Create Jobs
By Josh White and Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; Page A01
As Iraq descends further into violence and disarray, the Pentagon is turning
to a weapon some believe should have been used years ago: jobs.
Members of a small Pentagon task force have gone to the most dangerous areas
of Iraq over the past six months to bring life to nearly 200 state-owned
factories abandoned by the Coalition Provisional Authority after the
U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Their goal is to employ tens of thousands of
Iraqis in coming months, part of a plan to reduce soaring unemployment and
lessen the violence that has crippled progress.
Defense officials and military commanders say that festering unemployment --
at 70 percent in some areas -- is leading Iraqi men to take cash from
insurgents to place bombs on roads or take shots at U.S. troops. Other
Iraqis are joining sectarian attacks because their quality of life has
slipped dramatically, officials say.
Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the top U.S. field commander in Iraq, said
that tackling unemployment could do far more good than adding U.S. combat
troops or more aggressively pursuing an elusive enemy. He said the project
to open the factories and stimulate local economies is long overdue and was
born "of desperation."
"We need to put the angry young men to work," Chiarelli said in a phone
interview from Baghdad. "One of the key hindrances to us establishing
stability in Iraq is the failure to get the economy going. A relatively
small decrease in unemployment would have a very serious effect on the level
of sectarian killing going on."
The CPA initially hoped private investors would buy or lease the state
factories, but that did not happen as security faltered and much of Iraq
became inaccessible. As privatization hopes failed, the factories
languished; some were in pristine form and others had been looted when the
Pentagon task force examined them this fall. The tens of thousands of Iraqis
who used to make them run -- the country's second-largest employment group,
after the army -- remained out of work.
Pentagon officials say the vast majority of former Iraqi factory workers are
still unemployed and are bringing in no pay. A small portion of the
workforce receives government stipends, akin to welfare, but the pay system
is badly flawed and provides about 20 percent of what the workers would make
if fully employed, the officials said.
Economic development is a departure from the military's usual missions, but
officials think the Defense Department's heft as a consumer of goods and
services can boost the effort. The department has been reaching out to U.S.
companies that can place large orders for products from Iraq.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England set the task force in motion in June
after Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense, returned from a
visit to Iraq the month before.
Brinkley, who returned last night from a trip to Iraq with his team, said
thousands of Iraqis lost their jobs and the ability to support their
families when CPA projections dimmed. Unrest followed the absence of work.
"After three years of unemployment in excess of 50 percent, there are no
people in the world that wouldn't be undergoing violence and militias,"
Brinkley said. "That's human nature. And I think we have to do whatever we
have to do to alleviate that problem if we are going to create stability."
So far, members of the task force have visited 26 factories in some of the
worst areas of the country, traveling to Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul, Najaf and
Ramadi to inspect facilities that make cement, tile, rubber and textiles.
They have identified 10 factories -- their "hot list" of facilities in both
Sunni and Shiite areas -- that they think could be open and employing more
than 11,000 Iraqis within the next month.
To Stem Iraqi Violence, U.S. Aims to Create Jobs
By Josh White and Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; Page A01
As Iraq descends further into violence and disarray, the Pentagon is turning
to a weapon some believe should have been used years ago: jobs.
Members of a small Pentagon task force have gone to the most dangerous areas
of Iraq over the past six months to bring life to nearly 200 state-owned
factories abandoned by the Coalition Provisional Authority after the
U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Their goal is to employ tens of thousands of
Iraqis in coming months, part of a plan to reduce soaring unemployment and
lessen the violence that has crippled progress.
Defense officials and military commanders say that festering unemployment --
at 70 percent in some areas -- is leading Iraqi men to take cash from
insurgents to place bombs on roads or take shots at U.S. troops. Other
Iraqis are joining sectarian attacks because their quality of life has
slipped dramatically, officials say.
Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the top U.S. field commander in Iraq, said
that tackling unemployment could do far more good than adding U.S. combat
troops or more aggressively pursuing an elusive enemy. He said the project
to open the factories and stimulate local economies is long overdue and was
born "of desperation."
"We need to put the angry young men to work," Chiarelli said in a phone
interview from Baghdad. "One of the key hindrances to us establishing
stability in Iraq is the failure to get the economy going. A relatively
small decrease in unemployment would have a very serious effect on the level
of sectarian killing going on."
The CPA initially hoped private investors would buy or lease the state
factories, but that did not happen as security faltered and much of Iraq
became inaccessible. As privatization hopes failed, the factories
languished; some were in pristine form and others had been looted when the
Pentagon task force examined them this fall. The tens of thousands of Iraqis
who used to make them run -- the country's second-largest employment group,
after the army -- remained out of work.
Pentagon officials say the vast majority of former Iraqi factory workers are
still unemployed and are bringing in no pay. A small portion of the
workforce receives government stipends, akin to welfare, but the pay system
is badly flawed and provides about 20 percent of what the workers would make
if fully employed, the officials said.
Economic development is a departure from the military's usual missions, but
officials think the Defense Department's heft as a consumer of goods and
services can boost the effort. The department has been reaching out to U.S.
companies that can place large orders for products from Iraq.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England set the task force in motion in June
after Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense, returned from a
visit to Iraq the month before.
Brinkley, who returned last night from a trip to Iraq with his team, said
thousands of Iraqis lost their jobs and the ability to support their
families when CPA projections dimmed. Unrest followed the absence of work.
"After three years of unemployment in excess of 50 percent, there are no
people in the world that wouldn't be undergoing violence and militias,"
Brinkley said. "That's human nature. And I think we have to do whatever we
have to do to alleviate that problem if we are going to create stability."
So far, members of the task force have visited 26 factories in some of the
worst areas of the country, traveling to Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul, Najaf and
Ramadi to inspect facilities that make cement, tile, rubber and textiles.
They have identified 10 factories -- their "hot list" of facilities in both
Sunni and Shiite areas -- that they think could be open and employing more
than 11,000 Iraqis within the next month.