Here’s a story you won’t find repeated in the ‘left’ press. The Washington Post‘s brilliant Rajiv Chandrasekaran reports that a DoD unit in Iraq has sparked a confrontation with the State Department over its plans to reopen state-owned companies in Iraq.
“Paul Brinkley, a deputy undersecretary of defense, has been called a Stalinist by U.S. diplomats in Iraq. One has accused him of helping insurgents build better bombs. The State Department has even taken the unusual step of enlisting the CIA to dispute the validity of Brinkley’s work. His transgression? To begin reopening dozens of government-owned factories in Iraq. Brinkley and his colleagues at the Pentagon believe that rehabilitating shuttered, state-run enterprises could reduce violence by employing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Officials at State counter that the initiative is antithetical to free-market reforms the United States should promote in Iraq.”
