Essay - State Building and Nation Building in Iraq—present and Future Perspectives...

State Building and Nation building in Iraq—Present and Future Perspectives

Over the course of the current United States administration's involvement in Iraq,

President Bush has paid much lip service to the importance ***** multilateral action and ***** forming an international coalition when establishing a democr*****tic regime within the nation, after ***** ousting of the tyrant Saddam Hussein from power. However, the lack of ***** support for the ********** mission 'Operation Freedom' has *****ced the U.S. to essentially 'go it alone,' except for ***** moral and military support of Prime Minister Tony Blair's British forces. France, the traditional gadfly ***** European politics, ***** repeatedly condemned U.S. cowboy tactics in the Middle East. The United *****s weapon *****spec*****rs failed to find any weapons of mass destruction within Iraq. In light of terrorist activity and the resulting election results in Spain, all events point to decreased international coalition support for United States goals in Iraq, in the future.

*****, in terms of its foreign policy concerning state-building ***** nation-building in Iraq during this quarter, the United States seems intent on making Iraq over into a nation based in ***** own image, upon Western notions of constitutionality and choice and governance—all ***** which seems laudable in ***** abstract, but difficult in practice. The ********** of the mission is reflected in dollar figures. The Pentagon *****itially outlined a plan for the rapid scaling back of the US military presence in the region, reducing it to 70,000 troops by September. It now appears that at least three times ***** m***** US soldiers will be kept in the region for the foreseeable future. At ***** 160,000 U.S. ***** Brit*****h troops were deployed in Iraq during 2003. Another 90,000 support troops operated out ***** Kuwait and Qatar. (Vann, 2003) Rather than showing additional ***** for these troops, the UN continues ***** stress ***** tenuous reasons for United States ***** in the region.

Although the Bush ad**********istration estimates that $20 billion will ***** the maximum amount it will cost to rebuild Iraq, since the conflict began, experts estimate it will cost about $56 billion more over the next four years to rebuild the country. Twenty billion dollars of the $87 billion package is likely to be necessary rebuilding Iraq, and $66 billion ***** ***** defending *****, a figure reflective of the *****mount it ***** to 'liberate' the nation. (Boyle, 2003)

According to CNN.com, ***** 2003 defic***** for the U.S. was 375 billion, extending to a projected 477 billion ***** at the end of this 2004 fiscal year. To lower this expenditure, it ***** unlikely ***** increased ***** support will be the answer, particularly in ***** of recent events in *****. However, the divisiveness of party political factions ***** *****, as well as the unfamiliarity of democratic institutions within the nation also makes a faster push towards potential Iraqi sovereignty seem unlikely. There*****e, tax increases or *****ly politically unpopular spending cuts seem like the only options for ***** administration.

*****, because the economic recovery is so *****, the ***** increases