Schmedlap:

At one point in mid-2008, we had about five different civ. expert folks working hard to re-open banks in Samarra. We did the math on salaries and costs for these US experts, and the unlikeliness of success at that period, and figured we shoud, instead, just leave shoe boxes of cash around the walled city. (They thought we were kidding). Note: Al Warka opened its own branches as soon as things cooled down.

Same with one of those 2008 DoD initiatives to distribute refrigerated bongo trucks to farmers. Why not just load up a C-130 with open dumpsters of cash and stream it out the back door from, say, 5,000 feet. (they thought that was a joke, too.)

But that Powerpoint idea is really the best.

If only you had done that in 2005, the US, by 2008, could have just reviewed Iraqi powerpoints (maybe even by internet) instead of having to send so many military and civilian folks over there to create them in-country.

We just don't seem to be able to plan ahead...

Steve