Re-Building Iraq: Major General William McCoy Talks with Richard Fernandez

Maj. Gen. Bill McCoy, Commanding General, Gulf Region Division, Army Corps of Engineers

If you’ve gotten the impression that Iraq today is a wreck, you’ve gotten the wrong impression.

Richard Fernandez, PJM’s Sydney Editor and the writer behind “The Belmont Club,” phoned Major General William McCoy, Commanding General of the Corps of Engineers, Iraq, about a Washington Post assessment of the reconstruction efforts in Iraq (Much Undone in the Rebuilding of Iraq — Aug. 2, 2006) . The General had disagreed with just about everything in the article, yet his letter to correct the record went strangely unpublished by the Washington Post.

In this candid and far-ranging podcast interview, General McCoy discusses the conditions on the ground, the strategy of reconstruction, and what is needed to make a free, secure, and independent Iraq.

Some of General McCoy’s observations:

“We are making significant progress in the war on terror and significant progress in rebuilding Iraq.”

“People have to be able to see a future that is brighter than where they are.”

“Our contribution of 20 billion dollars is only a jumpstart of what this country needs…. There’s a 60 to 100 billion requirement for reconstruction in Iraq…. Have we had issues? Every day. And we continue to work through them to meet the needs of the Iraqi people.
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