(CNN) -- The official who has overseen a massive U.S. taxpayer investment in Iraq reconstruction sounds a blunt warning about any federally backed effort to help rebuild Syria after its civil war.

"We can't send a team to Syria with a pile of money asking them to sort things out on the ground," said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

Speaking at the Atlantic Council think tank, Bowen noted on Thursday that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved $250 million to help rebuild war-damaged Syria.

"A big part of it will be reconstruction --- piecing back together a shattered Syria," he said.

But he said none of that will work unless the United States learns the lesson of Iraq, meaning there must be extensive planning before reconstruction operations begin.

He used the elite forces raid in 2011 that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as an example of meticulous planning.

"Planning with a capital 'P,' saved American lives," he said.

Bowen said there was "little to no" planning in Iraq where the United States has allocated $60 billion for reconstruction over the past nine years.

"We didn't have that sort of planning when we went into Iraq in 2003 and decided after toppling Saddam Hussein that we would stay and rebuild that shattered nation," he said. "And we didn't consider how security would make that reconstruction lethal."

He noted that 719 military and civilian personnel were killed in Iraq working on reconstruction projects.

"There is a grim lesson here," he said.