Iraq seeks extra cash to rebuild

[Talon]

Iraq seeks extra cash to rebuild

The interim Iraqi government has said it needs an extra $3.4bn (£1.9bn) to restore water and power supplies.

Iraqi planning minister Mehdi Hafedh said his government would ask for the additional funds at a donors' conference in Tokyo next month.

"This will be high on the agenda because it's very important to us," he told the Reuters news agency.

Mr Hafedh said the money would plug a gap caused by a US decision to redirect part of the reconstruction budget.

Security issue

Last month, Washington reallocated $3.4bn of the $18.4bn it has set aside to rebuild Iraq's water and power networks towards measures aimed at improving security and creating jobs.

Mr Hafedh acknowledged that improving security was "important."

"Unless we have full security in the country it is difficult to imagine any quick rehabilitation," he said.

Attacks by Iraqi insurgents, many of them directed at foreign contractors hired to fix the country's shattered infrastructure, have drastically slowed the reconstruction effort.

According to Mr Hafedh, the US has spent just $700m - a small fraction of the available sum - on reconstruction projects so far this year.

Persistent electricity blackouts and water shortages more than a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime have exacerbated Iraqi resentment towards the US-led coalition forces.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3652058.stm

[Fluffybunny]

Sorry, the US is all tapped out...we already have 200 BILLION commited or thereabouts(And that is just the start)...with all of the bullets and band-aids we have been using I don't think we have much more to spare...

I think we are going to have to send the collection dish around to some of the other countries in the neighborhood that stand to gain from a stable Iraq.

[+joc]

I think we are going to have to send the collection dish around to some of the other countries in the neighborhood that stand to gain from a stable Iraq.

Maybe this would be a way for France and Germany to get back into the good graces of the United States. Let France ante up 2 billion and Germany do the same and that would about settle it. That would be about 1 percent of what The United States has contributed thus far. Seems a small price to pay for their under the table dealing with Sadaam.

I propose another idea. The World Tax. Every working person in every industrialized country in the world would pay .02 percent of their annual income to the World Tax. This money could then be used for reconstruction in Iraq as well as for construction in the Sudan and other impoverished nations. It could also be used as relief money for disasters around the world. Floods, famine, earthquakes and the like.

[Fluffybunny]

I think a worldwide bake sale would do the trick too. A couple hundred million brownies sold door to door would help get the lights and water in working order in Iraq.

Perhaps Iraq could put a few saddam statues in Ebay, that might help too.

Oh yeah, quit blowing up the oil pipelines so that they can sell some dang oil...

[Talon]

Perhaps Iraq could put a few saddam statues in Ebay, that might help too.

lol

Oh yeah, quit blowing up the oil pipelines so that they can sell some dang oil...

true true

[Homer]

I think a worldwide bake sale would do the trick too. A couple hundred million brownies sold door to door would help get the lights and water in working order in Iraq.

Good one Fluffybunny

Oh yeah, quit blowing up the oil pipelines so that they can sell some dang oil...

Those guys p*** me off

[AztecInca]

Of course if the americans and iraqi rebels tsop shooting at each other and blowing everything up, then the cost would be significantly rduced.

I believe that all industralized countries should have to make a contribution to the rebuilding of Iraq, especially those in the coalition. They dont have to spend billions upon billions but just something in the millions, these people deserve to live with all the luxuries we do and they mainly wont the basics like water and electricity, they aren`t asking for much. They need our help so we should give it. America shouldn`t be given basically all the burden, a najority yes but not all of it.