tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953410733493889728.post2103932545170175067..comments2024-02-29T12:38:32.191-08:00Comments on MUSINGS ON IRAQ: From Arrogance To Hubris, Interview With Brad Swanson Former CPA Official On What Went Wrong In The Early Years Of The US Occupation Of IraqJoel Winghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09611810110771744360noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953410733493889728.post-4245971433243498002014-05-23T09:10:49.076-07:002014-05-23T09:10:49.076-07:00Hi Keith,
Thank you for sharing your experiences....Hi Keith,<br /><br />Thank you for sharing your experiences. I think everyone besides Bremer believes that the CPA took an ideological approach to the Iraqi economy and other issues, which could be called mistaken at best. Even after the CPA was disbanded many of these policies persisted to the detriment of Iraq. Joel Winghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09611810110771744360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953410733493889728.post-12827498193211797972014-05-23T07:30:05.539-07:002014-05-23T07:30:05.539-07:00Really well put, thanks Brad and Joel for keeping ...Really well put, thanks Brad and Joel for keeping this project alive. These were my thoughts exactly from Al Anbar in the same period. We needed state provided jobs for a two year period while we got the politics and security settled. I argued this to no avail with Ambassador Bremer, who was more concerned that we might be setting up a statist petro-state, to which i argued, what is wrong with a stable, statist petro state. CPA officials were all afluter over the transition in Eastern Europe and someone made the mistake of citing Hungary, where i was TDY from, as a positive example of privatizing a statist economy. This was a total misreading of the Hungarian case -- where the first post communist government didn't touch the economy for four years, waiting for the Socialists to come in witht he Bokros plan to do so. Those four years bought them political stabilty, exactly what we needed in Iraq. Also needed to grow the security sector massively, which would have taken up most of the slack in the labor market.Keith Minesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953410733493889728.post-41412618018416435362014-05-19T16:33:05.002-07:002014-05-19T16:33:05.002-07:00As many people have commented on before the CPA sh...As many people have commented on before the CPA should have kept up tariffs on products that Iraqi companies could produce and lower those on ones they couldn't It should have also been most concerned with keeping as many people employed as possible rather than firing the security forces, Baathists, and those that worked for state owned enterprises. Even after the CPA was disbanded the policy of trying to privatize and enforce "shock therapy" continued. As you mentioned, it wasn't until the Brinkley group came along that there was a real effort to change that. The problem as ever was that many Americans in Iraq either 1) didn't care about the businesses and economy or 2) didn't trust the Iraqis and wanted to do everything themselves Joel Winghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09611810110771744360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1953410733493889728.post-28451637796001528772014-05-19T11:07:21.886-07:002014-05-19T11:07:21.886-07:00Of course, "the Brinkley Group" and vari...Of course, "the Brinkley Group" and various other programs ended up subsidizing Iraqi SOEs - years later.<br /><br />The flood of imported goods when the borders were opened relieved pent-up demand for consumer goods, but it also destroyed domestic manufacturing. I wonder whether there was a better approach there.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13659754829333251878noreply@blogger.com