America’s Financial Crisis
Lessons from Reconstructing Iraq
by Captain Timothy Hsia, Small Wars Journal Op-Ed
Lessons from Reconstructing Iraq (Full PDF Article)
News coverage of the 700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street by the government have briefly mentioned that the government’s bill for rebuilding Wall Street will turn out to be monetarily equivalent to the costs associated with the Iraq War. To alleviate credit concerns, the Treasury Department has established a troubled asset relief program (TARP). Ideally, TARP and the financial bailout will prevent a broadening of the credit crisis from imperiling America’s long term growth while also fueling the global economy. Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury Secretary, will be hard pressed to find any historical financial incident of today’s magnitude when examining our nation’s history which can serve as a historical waypoint. Nonetheless, he should perhaps reflect upon the immediate past as America’s endeavors to reconstruct Iraq proffer vital lessons which can greatly assist today’s financial mandarins as they seek to unwind the country’s financial Gordian knot. The lessons learned from the government’s ongoing reconstruction of Iraq apply in many cases to the current credit restoration, and it would be foolhardy for government officials to ignore these parallels.
