The Defence Department guidelines for the 18.6 billion dollars in contracts freezes out France, Germany and Russia -- the main opponents of the war -- while giving greatest hope to Britain, Japan, Australia and other nations that backed President George W. Bush.
The measures were written up by Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the administration 'hawks' on the Iraq war.
A Wolfowitz memorandum cited the US "essential security interests" and the need to encourage countries to provide troops for Iraq as the reason for limiting tenders.
The White House defended the decision, saying it was "appropriate and reasonable to expect that prime contracts for reconstruction funded by US taxpayers' dollars should go to the Iraqi people and those countries who are working with the United States on the difficult task of helping to build a free, democratic and prosperous Iraq." Germany, Russia, France and Canada have been quick to express opposition to the US move to restrict bids to 63 countries that backed the March invasion.
A European diplomat in Washington stressed that the US had effectively "excluded about 100 countries from the bidding, including about half of the European Union." The outcasts include Europe's neutral countries such as Ireland, Sweden and Austria.
On the other hand, the 63 approved countries include Rwanda and the tiny Pacific island of Palau which gave symbolic support to the US-led invasion, but stand little chance of winning reconstruction contracts.
The US decision disappointed a lot of US analysts.
Thomas Carothers, a foreign policy specialist at the Carnegie Endowment think tank in Washington, said the US administration had "lost an opportunity to reduce tensions both between governments and between societies." Carothers said most Russians are "fairly ambivalent" about the US intervention in Iraq "but what really bothers them is the notion that America is getting in and pushing Russia out economically.
"All it would take would be one or two medium size contracts for Russian businesses and people would feel much more positive about this." Ivo Daalder, an expert on international affairs at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the US decision was mainly intended to impress US voters before presidential elections less than a year off.
But he added: "This is gratuitous, unnecessary and reopens all the old wounds that were starting, at least in the beginning process, to be heeled." Daalder called it "a return to the childish behavior that has marked so much of American diplomacy for so long on Iraq." The Wolfowitz memorandum was released only a few days after President George W. Bush named former secretary of state James Baker as his special envoy on restructuring and reducing Iraq's estimated foreign debt of 120 billion dollars.
Carothers predicted that France, Russia and others would be "less forthcoming and less flexible" on Iraq's foreign debt. Russia has already made it clear that it will not give up the estimated eight billion dollars it is owed.
Secretary of State Colin Powell recently called on NATO countries to take a greater role in Iraq. But the analysts said the US move suggested the administration had already decided it was not going to get more help.
Daalder said the administration was "scoring cheap political points" - Sapa-AFP
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
