A Transition Dividend in Iraq

Deputy Secretary of State, Tom Nides, says that we'll be getting a transition dividend when the State Department takes over for the military in Iraq. Annual costs will decrease from $50 billion to less than $6. Not bad, huh? Hmm, what could we buy with less than $6 billion a year in the U.S.?

Of course, we shouldn't expect the diplomatic costs of staying in Baghdad to be small. After all, it is our largest embassy in the world and cost almost $1 billion to build. So, we'll need about 16,000 people to keep it hopping. Don't worry that 80% of them will be contractors. The 1,750 diplomats and their aides will need to be protected; 5,000 protectors will be necessary. They will need to get to and leave Iraq; hence,  a 46 plane air force will be at their disposal. They will get sick; don't worry they will go to State Dept. hospitals. They will have the benefit of servants to make meals and clean up.

All these tasks are new to the State Dept., which, in the eyes of the Commission on Wartime Contracting, has squandered "billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan". The Commission has raised doubts that State is ready for this.