As an opponent to the administration’s present policy in Iraq, I had to do some soul-searching to see what I would do if I had to work on the rebuilding efforts in that country with a civil war and all of the unrest.

It occurred to me that we have appropriated $20 billion to rebuild Iraq. Douglas MacArthur instituted the building trades in Japan during the occupation after World War II. Adolph Hitler broke up the building trades in France when the Germans occupied that country because they were the core of the resistance movement. Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown and Root are the premier union-busting contractors in this country, and they are the contractors of choice in Iraq, sucking up the American taxpayer dollars and actually being more divisive than inclusive.

The building trades are the simplest form of democracy as they elect their leadership to promote their causes and work with other building trades to build.

If we were to institute building trades in Iraq and use the $20 billion to hire natives to be the carpenters, electricians, masons, ironworkers, asphalt workers and roofers, plumbers and pipe fitters, office and professional workers, and help these people in rebuilding their own country instead of just training police and soldiers, we might accomplish what we are striving for.

Rep. Ray Pineau, Jay

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