Why aren't we hiring Iraqi engineers, electricians & laborers to rebuild?

I found this little tidbit on my favorite Blog out of Iraq:
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Listen to this little anecdote. One of my cousins works in a prominent engineering company in Baghdad- we’ll call the company H. This company is well-known for designing and building bridges all over Iraq. My cousin, a structural engineer, is a bridge freak. He spends hours talking about pillars and trusses and steel structures to anyone who’ll listen.

As May was drawing to a close, his manager told him that someone from the CPA wanted the company to estimate the building costs of replacing the New Diyala Bridge on the South East end of Baghdad. He got his team together, they went out and assessed the damage, decided it wasn’t too extensive, but it would be costly. They did the necessary tests and analyses (mumblings about soil composition and water depth, expansion joints and girders) and came up with a number they tentatively put forward- $300,000. This included new plans and designs, raw materials (quite cheap in Iraq), labor, contractors, travel expenses, etc.

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A week later, the New Diyala Bridge contract was given to an American company. This particular company estimated the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be around- brace yourselves- $50,000,000 !!

Something you should know about Iraq: we have over 130,000 engineers. More than half of these engineers are structural engineers and architects. Thousands of them were trained outside of Iraq in Germany, Japan, America, Britain and other countries. Thousands of others worked with some of the foreign companies that built various bridges, buildings and highways in Iraq. The majority of them are more than proficient- some of them are brilliant.

Iraqi engineers had to rebuild Iraq after the first Gulf War in 1991 when the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ was composed of over 30 countries actively participating in bombing Baghdad beyond recognition. They had to cope with rebuilding bridges and buildings that were originally built by foreign companies, they had to get around a lack of raw materials that we used to import from abroad, they had to work around a vicious blockade designed to damage whatever infrastructure was left after the war… they truly had to rebuild Iraq. And everything had to be made sturdy, because, well, we were always under the threat of war.

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So instead of bringing in thousands of foreign companies that are going to want billions of dollars, why aren’t the Iraqi engineers, electricians and laborers being taken advantage of? Thousands of people who have no work would love to be able to rebuild Iraq… no one is being given a chance.

The reconstruction of Iraq is held above our heads like a promise and a threat. People roll their eyes at reconstruction because they know (Iraqis are wily) that these dubious reconstruction projects are going to plunge the country into a national debt only comparable to that of America. A few already rich contractors are going to get richer, Iraqi workers are going to be given a pittance and the unemployed Iraqi public can stand on the sidelines and look at the glamorous buildings being built by foreign companies.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2003_08_01_riverbendblog_archive.html

...Republican candidates for office.

This is not so much an invasion as a hostile takeover, just as the Bush campaign in 2000 wasn't so much a campaign as an IPO.

This is all about spreading money among big campaign donors and the monopoly corporations which have the power to keep President Cheney in office.

It doesn't matter how well trained the Iraqi engineers are, they do not work for Corps that donate $ to the Repiglican Party.

Americans should know that we'll be spending $50 million to rebuild a bridge in Iraq instead of $300,000. Hiring Iraqis would also relieve some of the tensions there with the idle, unpaid workers. As Riverbend describes, Iraq has many educated people who are capable of rebuilding their own country. It should become common knowledge that this administration's greed and that of their cronies is only increasing the tensions and creating new enemies who'll be taking pot shots at our troops. Goddamned fucking greed will be our ruination.

Only white Christians can do that kind of work.

there were terroristic threats against anyone who would go to work for the coalition assisting in the rebuilding. But this might just be the White House's spin.

Hard to shovel that much dough at local rates. Contracts are adjusted to maximize flow, before voters take the piggy bank back.

Maybe Dean's right about not wanting to run surpluses. If there's no surplus, people like Bush and Cheney won't have to lie and cheat to get their hands on the surplus. Not pot of gold to steal, then no theft. Of course if there's no public wealth, there's nothing to spend to put up barricades between the people and the barbarians like Bush and Cheney trying to use the government to make their cronies wealthier (which is actually how Clinton was trying to spend the surplus -- he wanted to spend it building barricades for democracy from the barbarians on the right).

there is a major road project that an American or British company got the contract for, even though its cost was astronomically higher than local bids. Karzai was pissed, because of the cost and also because of the shenanigans also cause a delay for the project to get started. I don't remember why Karzai didn't have the authority, but it seemed like the U.S. military was behind the whole thing.

If they can build a bridge for $300,000, clearly they are not paying a living wage to the laborers required to build it.

When you can build a bridge for the cost of a family house, something is clearly wrong.

Because of the appropriate environmental and safety laws, large projects are now VERY expensive. Take the Hoover Dam. We built it during the depression because we paid people next to nothing, ignored and ingnored safety. Today building another Hoover dam would cost 100x as much (in inflation adjusted dollars).

I cant stand to see people exploited, and that includes Iraqis.

how bout the bridge is built by Iraqi's for 5,000,000. I think they'd love to make some dough while rebuilding their country. It sure as hell beats $50,000,000 to republican campaign contributors.

Sheesh.

Houses do not cost $300,000 in Iraq.

The cost of living in Iraq is entirely different than here. This isn't exploiting Iraqis. This is giving them their livelihood and dignity back. Ditto on the Sheesh.