The Hill News

With U.S. troops now home from our military operation in Iraq, there has been a flurry of debate around our mission there, the future of Iraq, and our security interests in the region. Whatever one may think of the reasons for going into Iraq in 2003 or the effects of our travails there, it is a given that the United States has invested a great deal of blood and treasure  in order to leave a Iraq a more stable country. Our stabilization and reconstruction efforts following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime were well â€" intentioned, but fraught with mismanagement and waste. The U.S.-led rebuilding program in Iraq was met with mixed success, producing a plethora of painful lessons that should be closely examined. Iraq’s current difficulties must not obscure or impede Congress’s careful review of our experience as we seek to develop a more integral and effective system for managing overseas stabilization and reconstruction operations. Strict Congressional oversight! is in our national interest. As then-Senator Harry Truman found when fighting waste and mismanagement of funding during World War II, effective Congressional oversight can not only save money and lives, it can make our efforts stronger.

Read more...