6:06 PM :: Stephen (contact)

More generous than the Marshall Plan: I've been swamped with work for the past few weeks, which is why I haven't been posting. But when I saw this quote from Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) cited in the NYT, I was simply flabbergasted:

Some have compared the Iraq reconstruction effort to the Marshall Plan that led to the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. In fact, the differences between the current proposal and the Marshall Plan are dramatic. For instance, the Marshall Plan required countries receiving assistance to contribute a matching amount to their own reconstruction, and also included loans that were eventually paid back. Neither of these important requirements are present in the Iraqi reconstruction request of the Administration.

In other words, the Iraq proposal differs from the Marshall Plan in that it's even more generous.

Levin goes on to say that the Marshall Plan was also the result of eight months of work, and he may be right that an $87 billion grant deserves more than two weeks' consideration. But does anyone really want to saddle Iraq with even more debt? At the very least, from now on, no one can accuse the Bush administration of trying to do nation-building on the cheap.