>>The Iraqis don't see a dime of that money, most of them. What is there to appreciate?
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>There are no firm figures that I've seen that say, one way or another. But such a blanket charge is incorrect. A lot of money is being pumped into the Iraqi economy as a result of reconstruction, local purchase of fuel and supplies, security, and so forth. Plus, the Iraqis are benefiting from construction of roads, schools, and medical facilities, plus the reconstruction of utilities - so even if they don't see hard cash, they see the results of it.

But that is the point - they feel most of that reconstruction as a foreign body. They haven't worked on it. The investors bring in foreign construction companies which bring in foreign workers. They don't even bother to hire Iraqi companies. At least that was so during the viceroy Bremmer, but from what I read it's still so, because the investors don't want to do business with state companies.

All over the history, after a war it was a major thing to do, to engage the whole populace in reconstruction. For one, it gives the yesterday's warriors something to do, it binds the people with the new state and gets them a feeling of being on the same boat. They begin to own the new country, in a way, and they have an honest job. The way it is done now, they don't feel it as their own. And their best chances for a job is to start making roadside bombs - pays well.