Wanted: 25 nations to rebuild

By emptywheel

So remember when Condi was getting grilled, and many of her most strident critics were taking solace in the State Department's new nation-building office. Well, now the first outlines of the office are taking shape and it doesn't look like such a good thing:

US intelligence services are drawing up a secret watch-list of 25 countries in which instability might lead to US intervention, according to officials in charge of a new office set up to co-ordinate planning for nation-building and conflict prevention.

The list will be composed and revised every six months by the National Intelligence Council, which collates intelligence for strategic planning, according to Carlos Pascual, head of the newly formed office of reconstruction and stabilisation.

Does it trouble anyone else that our vaunted intelligence services are putting together a list of countries to intervene in...in the name of nation building? And the NIC, which will take charge of the list of lucky intevenees, has proven of late to be rather blind about the US' role in guaranteeing peace and prosperity, IMO. Why doesn't the State Department's own INR, which has proven to be right more often than the CIA of late, get to form the list?

But I also want to know why they're starting by forming a list of countries rather than methods? After all, our failures in Iraq don't necessarily stem from our choice of country (but then again, it might). Our failures stem from the methods we chose to use once we actually started reconstruction.

And I'm troubled, too, by a little snippet that appears in Carlos Pascual's official bio:

The Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) will lead and coordinate U.S. Government planning, and institutionalize U.S. capacity, to help stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict or civil strife so they can reach a sustainable path toward peace, democracy and a market economy.

Which is it, Mr. Bush? Democracy or market economy? No wait, don't answer that...I guess you have to give them a bit of credit for being explicit.

But perhaps I shouldn't worry after all. After all, BushCo has done with the Office of Reconstruction the same thing it has done to all of the other programs it claims are a priority--it has shorted it funds:

But advisers say its small budget $17m requested from Congress this year and $124m in fiscal 2006 reflects a lack of commitment. They say the administration remains divided about the merits of nation-building and the international institutions that do it.

I just hope all those Senators who rationalized a yes vote for Condi recall that rationalization as the Office of Reconstruction begins to look like the institutionalization at the State Department of the same kind of pre-emptive intervention that used to be the province of Defense.

Comments

[norbizness]

Is the United States itself on that list? In any event, the World Bank has billions at its diposal, this seems like a fart in a hurricane, even at the expanded level of funding.

[Nanette]

There is also this story, which I suppose shows how they are planning to help some of the 25 countries to start on the road to chaos.

Rice Alarms Reformist Arabs with Stability Remarks

CAIRO (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has alarmed many reformist Arabs with comments suggesting a new U.S. approach that promotes rapid political change without regard for internal stability.

Just when you thought these people couldn't get any crazier...

[emptywheel]

Norbizness

Yeah, and I assume there is a good chunk of funds hidden in the CIA budget. They're just moving the money to places that escape oversight, right?

Nanette

Thanks for posting the link. I saw it and was going to come update. Sure sounds like they're going to sow their own chaos.

[Meteor Blades]

What do you get when you divide 25 into the number of troops we have?

[emptywheel]

MB

A failed state, I think--our own.