(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - On Thursday members of the House subcommittee on national security, homeland defense and foreign operations discussed a transitional plan from the military mission to a civilian one in Iraq and its possible associated costs and repercussions for the United States.
"The most important lesson we are learning is the requirement for both advanced planning and essentially a continuous cooperation and monitoring process as we move through a transitional period," said the US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Peter Vera.
Despite the fact that the US’ new transitional program enjoys little support among Iraqis, the USAID [the United States Agency for International Development] Assistant Administrator Mara Rudman claimed that the ‘design of the programs makes sense for both Iraqis and Americans’ and it marks ‘a real shift in our [Americans] programming and the workability of our programming.’
During the meeting, Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary of state for management argued that “Like in Football you go to the line of scrimmage and you have got a plan and sometimes you have to call an audible, but you have to be prepared to call that audible.”
According to a study conducted by the Brown University, the Iraq war has cost the United States about two trillion dollars.
The decision to spend some further millions of dollars comes as millions of Americans are now living under the poverty line and millions of average Americans are facing widespread poverty and foreclosures of their homes.
The United States withdrew its troops from the war torn Middle Eastern country in 2011, under heavy international pressure and due to the unbearable soaring costs of its war machine in Iraq but still actively tries to somehow remain in the country to play a major role in the oil rich Persian Gulf region.
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