But a contractor currently working in Iraq said via e-mail that the military "could not likely handle" the reconstruction effort alone because its main focus is on fighting wars and security matters, not rebuilding collapsed or failed states.
European banks have been hit hard by the fallout from a crisis that began in the United States when the housing market collapsed and bad mortgage debt multiplied.
The economy collapsed by some 40% when Soviet subsidies ended at the start of the 1990s, and the United States' embargo has helped to prevent it clawing much of that back.
When it failed in 1990 it was one of the largest securities firms in the United States, not much smaller in relation to the market at the time than Lehman Brothers was when it collapsed earlier this year.