M a r k D i l l e y

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The Hairy Eyeball: Innocents Abroad: "Six Americans in their twenties and thirties with no foreign service experience who were hired to prepare a low-level report in Baghdad ended up managing Iraq’s $13 billion budget, the Washington Post reports. The six were selected from resumes they had posted at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank.

The "young, inexperienced ideologues" moved into their heady new gig when a CPA economist lost a testicle in a rocket attack on the Al-Rashid and the IMF figured it was next when the UN got blindsided by a suicide bomber parked in a side alley.

... none had ever worked in the Middle East, none spoke Arabic, and few could tell a balance sheet from an accounts receivable statement.

The U.S.-led coalition had come seeking to establish a strong economy with high-paying jobs, functioning factories and a rich consumer market. This was seen as the road to democracy."