Al Franken: Americans need to invest at home, not in Iraq

By Al Franken
Grand Forks Herald

ST. PAUL - In April, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., took a trip to Iraq and spoke to a senior U.S. military officer. The officer told Levin that he had asked an Iraqi official why American dollars, rather than Iraqi dollars, were being used to clean up Iraqi towns.

The Iraqi official replied, “As long as you are willing to pay for the clean-up, why should we do it?”

He had a good point. There is a fine line between trying to fix what we broke in Iraq and being taken for chumps. And a report released recently was just the latest piece of evidence that we crossed that line a long time ago.

The Government Accountability Office reported that Iraq is headed for a 2008 surplus that could be as much as $50 billion. That’s because they’ve been able to generate nearly $100 billion over the past three years from oil and gas revenues. The Iraqi government is entirely capable of taking financial
responsibility for its own reconstruction.

But that’s not happening. In fact, the Maliki government has devoted only 1 percent of its total expenditures to maintaining the infrastructure we’ve helped them build.

The problem is that five years of Bush-Coleman policies has created a culture of dependency in Iraq. Bush has sent, with the approval of Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., $42 billion in taxpayer money to fund the reconstruction.

Because Coleman, as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, held no hearings to oversee that spending, billions of taxpayer dollars were wasted or stolen. And the continuing refusal of Bush and Coleman to set a timetable for withdrawal has only made matters worse.

Now, as Iraq runs a surplus and we sink deeper into deficit, the only way to make the Maliki government start taking responsibility for the reconstruction is to end that culture of dependency.

A couple of weeks ago, Coleman proposed rescinding $1.1 billion in reconstruction funding (funding he had just voted to approve). But that’s not enough to fix the problem - and it’s certainly not enough to fix his record of helping to create the problem.

I say we should send not one more cent of taxpayer money to fund the Iraq reconstruction while the Maliki government is running surpluses and failing to pay for the rebuilding of the country.

That means rescinding not a part, but the entire $7.1 billion that’s been appropriated, but not yet spent, on reconstruction. I want to devote that money to taking care of our own infrastructure needs here.

That’s the only way to put real pressure on the Maliki government to take responsibility for rebuilding Iraq - and the only way to change course.

Similarly, the only way to put effective pressure on the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own security is to make it clear that, just as the money faucet won’t flow forever, neither will our military presence.

That’s why I’ve been a longtime advocate for changing course in Iraq - setting a responsible timetable for withdrawal and beginning the process of bringing our troops home. (Coleman, on the other hand, has voted 17 times to rubber-stamp Bush’s policy.)

There is important work to be done here at home. Minnesotans need affordable health care and smaller class sizes. Four-dollar gasoline is another sign that we need to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency to end our dependence on foreign oil. And in the Red River Valley and across the state,
middle-class families are feeling the squeeze in their family budgets as this administration continues to devote so much of its budget to this botched effort at rebuilding Iraq.

Unfortunately, it’s clear that Bush and his enablers are content to keep footing the bill for Iraq’s reconstruction. So, if we want to change course in Iraq so that we can invest in Minnesota, we need to start by making a change in Washington.

Franken, a Democrat, is running against incumbent Norm Coleman, a Republican, in the race to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate

The Grand Forks Herald published this column on September 21, 2008.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=87113

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