A new consortium of organizations --- including several with Catholic roots --- have proposed a $590 million plan to bring "proven strategies of peace-building, humanitarian relief and responsible economic development" to Iraq.

"Two-and-a-half days worth of funding the military could get you all of this for a year. Not bad, huh?" said Sister Simone Campbell, a Sister of Social Service who is head of Network, the Catholic social-justice lobby which is one of the backers of the proposal.

The plan would include:
---$290 million to respond to the needs of an estimated 3.7 million Iraqis displaced in and outside their own country, including an estimated 712,000 displaced since the a Shiite mosque in Samarra was bombed in February 2006.

---$100 million to restore full funding of the Community Action Program and an Iraqi war victims' fund commonly known as the "Marla Fund."

---$100 million to support Iraqi civil society, conflict resolution and peace-building strategies, and the advancement of human rights and rule of law.

---$100 million to rebuild 143 Iraqi state-owned industries with the potential to employ 150,000 Iraqis, which would reverse the decline in U.S. economic assistance --- a recommendation found in the Iraq Study Group's report.

The money would be included in a supplemental appropriations bill, the groups said in their March 7 statement.

"These are unexpected bedfellows working together," Sister Simone told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from St. Louis, referring to the broad base of organizations behind the proposal.

She pointed to "the fact that we've got Mercy Corps and Amnesty (International), and endorsements from the peace community, which is also supporting this as part of their message, getting this engaged. We're also getting a lot of support from the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations)."

A similar effort by such varied groups "might have happened before, but not in my memory," she said.

Catholic groups behind the plan also include the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, Pax Christi USA, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, and the Holy Name Province of the Franciscan Friars. Nine other religious denominations are backing the initiative.

Major NGOs supporting the plan include the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, the International Human Rights Law Institute, the International Medical Corps, International Relief and Development, Refugees International, Relief International and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

Copies of the proposal were distributed in early March to members of Congress. "We understand that Murtha's (Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.) office has seen it, is interested in it, but whether it will make it to the markup, we don't know," Sister Simone told CNS.

"There's a lot of interest in trying to find alternative ways of talking about this whole situation that exists there" in Iraq, Sister Simone said, "and when even the president starts talking about the need for development, it's beginning to gain some traction."

Ideas are being bandied about over what to do next in Iraq.

Murtha, a Vietnam War veteran now regarded as one of Congress' leading doves on Iraq, has advocated a bill with troop-deployment restrictions, a counter to President George W. Bush's "surge" of 21,500 additional U.S. soldiers. Other Democrats call for defunding the war effort.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, in a confidential recommendation reported March 8 by The New York Times, called for the post-surge troop level of 180,000 to be sustained through next February, and to take steps to halt a decline in numbers expected to start in August.

The AFL-CIO, which in 2005 called for "rapid withdrawal" of U.S. forces, said March 8: "It is time to bring our military involvement in Iraq to an end," recommending reconsideration of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations, and for Congress to "insist on a timetable for disengagement. If the president refuses to act, Congress must use its powers under the Constitution and act."

The Department of Defense had identified 3,171 U.S. troop deaths since the war began nearly four years ago.

"If you have development, then you can't have such a dependence on the troops and you can draw down," Sister Simone said.

"I'm not sure the military is helping" in Iraq, she added, but "our Iraqi friends who are left in Iraq are still pretty terrified about a withdrawal. They don't believe in a surge, but they believe that a presence at some level is necessary to keep the lid on. We (Network) haven't taken a position on the (number of) troops because of this."

---CNS