pdf - http://www.sigir.mil/files/audits/12-006.pdf#view=fitOctober 25, 2011
US Iraq training program 'bottomless pit' for US taxpayers
The U.S. government's program to train the Iraqi police could become a "bottomless pit" for American taxpayers, according to a report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).
As the U.S. prepares to withdraw its military from Iraq, only 12 percent of the funds in a State Department program to train police there will be used for that purpose, a government watchdog group report said. Antiwar
HIGHLIGHTS
Training police is one of the responsibilities turned from the Defense Department over to the State Department just this month, in preparation for the withdrawal of tens of thousands of U.S. troops in December. Although the State Department knew since 2009 that it would be taking over the program, it failed to develop a plan as to how to carry it out. Antiwar
In 2009, the State Department agency in charge of the training, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, estimated it would cost about $721 million to pay for a program with 350 police advisers, averaging out to about $2.1 million per adviser, said SIGIR. Politico
The "vast preponderance" of the $500 million program will instead be going to things such as security and "life support" for trainers, according to the report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Only 12 percent will go toward "advising, mentoring and developing the Iraqi police forces" the report said. U.S. Inspector General
FACTS & FIGURES
While the State Department is spending about $2 billion annually on Iraq operations now, it plans to spend an additional $1 billion on the construction of facilities in each of the next several years. Politico
The United States has spent $1.15 trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.
However, prominent economics professor Joseph E. Stiglitz says the true cost of the Iraq war is beyond $3 trillion. Washington Post
President Barack Obama has proposed a budget that would spend $671 billion on the U.S. military next year. The Obama administration's budget proposal for fiscal 2012 includes $118 billion for the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, on top of the base budget of $553 billion.
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