Worldview: Heed the mistakes in Iraq | CSIS Event and Commentary by Journalist Trudy Rubin on Hard Lessons from SIGIR

Flikr photo by Army.mil used under a Creative Commons license.  On March 26, CSIS hosted an event with Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), to discuss Hard Lessons and the challenge of not making the same mistakes in Afghanistan.  Audio and video from the event are available online. Trudy Rubin for The Philadelphia Inquirer, who attended the event, points out in her Worldview column:

Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan shies away from the kind of grandiose nation-building tried in Iraq. But he still wants to offer U.S. expertise to build up Afghanistan's economy and government. This is necessary to undercut the poppy economy and dissuade unemployed youths from joining the Taliban.

Rubin continues:

Bowen tells a depressing tale of overly grandiose projects with little oversight in violence-ridden Iraq. They lacked clear goals and often failed to consult with Iraqis. Until the arrival of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, there was little coordination between U.S. civilian and military officials.

The lack of resources, coordination, and accountability have been even more pronounced with regards to USAID:

Rick Barton, codirector of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said USAID has been demoralized, but now is "the golden moment to fix things." He added: "This is a time of wrenching failures and spectacular need. The secretary of state gets it, the president is wildly supportive, the public wants better systems."