IMPEACH BUSH

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration's rosy pre- war assumptions about the speed at which Iraq would stabilize led to poorly coordinated, haphazard planning for post-war reconstruction that's brought waste and inefficiency, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq.

Pre-war planning that assumed a small reconstruction effort was so poor that Congress should consider passing legislation similar to a 1986 law that reorganized the military to better perform joint military operations, Inspector General Stuart Bowen said in the report.

"There was an assumption that the Iraqi infrastructure was in reasonably good shape. It wasn't," Bowen said in an interview yesterday. "There was an assumption that the Iraqi government would be able to pick up and sustain itself. That didn't happen. There was an assumption that the Iraqi oil and gas production would provide revenue sufficient to fund recovery. That also did not pan out."

Most significant, Iraq "did not stabilize; it's evident for all to see," Bowen told reporters in his Arlington, Virginia office.

Bowen's assessment corroborates from an independent government inspector criticism that to date has come mostly from journalists, retired military or diplomatic officers or academics who worked in the reconstruction effort.

The post-conflict effort, run largely in 2003 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his undersecretary for policy, Douglas Feith, was characterized by unclear and shifting leadership and strategies, lack of oversight over billions of dollars and poor cooperation between the Pentagon and State Department, the report said.

Senate Hearing

"The system should be adjusted" to improve coordination between the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies that will be tapped to craft post-conflict reconstruction plans, Bowen said.

"The United States government was not well poised to execute the kind of relief and reconstruction agreement that was presented in Iraq," Bowen said. "That needs to be developed before we go to war," he said.

Bowen's report is scheduled for release this morning during a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut.

Lieberman said he agreed with the inspector general that "the State and Defense Departments and U.S. Agency for International Development must work together much more effectively on post-conflict reconstruction. I will examine possible legislative fixes to achieve that goal."

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: March 22, 2007 05:30 EDT