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Few Ready to Pay to Rebuild Iraq after Islamic State Defeat

(AP-Military Times) Susannah George and Lori Hinnant - Mosul's Old City is a crumpled landscape of broken concrete and metal. Every acre is weighed down by tons of rubble, much of it laced with explosives and unexploded ordnance. Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild nationwide in Iraq, but so far no one is offering to foot the bill. The Trump administration has told the Iraqis it won't pay for a massive reconstruction drive. The areas with the worst destruction are largely Sunni, while the Baghdad government is Shiite-dominated. Two years after Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, was retaken from ISIS, more than 70% of the city remains damaged or destroyed. "We haven't received a single dollar in reconstruction money from Baghdad," said Ahmed Shaker, a member of the Anbar provincial council. "When we ask the government for money to rebuild, they said: 'Go ask your friends in the Gulf'" - a reference to fellow Sunnis. After the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein, the U.S. pumped $60 billion over nine years into Iraqi reconstruction. Critics say the money did little to prevent political disarray and the rise of militants in Iraq. About $8 billion was wasted through corruption and mismanagement, according to the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the U.S. is no longer in the business of "nation-building."
2018-01-01 00:00:00
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