We always hear how the “liberal media” ignores the good going on in Iraq. How
we have rebuilt so much of that country and all they report is bombings. To hear
the administration and right wing pundits talk, you would think Iraq was a
beautifully rebuilt town with all the services and only occasional attacks.

Today the

Washington Post is reporting that our rebuilding efforts there are coming to
an end and the country is still in shambles:

BAGHDAD — The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds
for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in
February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4
billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten
away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq’s criminal justice system and the
investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein.

Just under 20 percent of the reconstruction package remains unallocated.
When the last of the $18.4 billion is spent, U.S. officials in Baghdad have
made clear, other foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government will
have to take up what authorities say is tens of billions of dollars of work
yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other
services to Iraq’s 26 million people.

“The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq,” Brig. Gen. William
McCoy, the Army Corps of Engineers commander overseeing the work, told
reporters at a recent news conference. In an interview this past week, McCoy
said: “This was just supposed to be a jump-start.”

Since the reconstruction effort began in 2003, midcourse changes by U.S.
officials have shifted at least $2.5 billion from the rebuilding of Iraq’s
decrepit electrical, education, water, sewage, sanitation and oil networks
to build new security forces for Iraq and to construct a nationwide system
of medium- and maximum-security prisons and detention centers that meet
international standards, according to reconstruction officials and
documents. Many of the changes were forced by an insurgency more fierce than
the United States had expected when its troops entered Iraq.

In addition, from 14 percent to 22 percent of the cost of every
nonmilitary reconstruction project goes toward security against insurgent
attacks, according to reconstruction officials in Baghdad. In Washington,
the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction puts the
security costs of each project at 25 percent.

View complete article

here.

First things first. I reported yesterday on how another general has said the
insurgency is “fizzling out”. Well if that is the case then now should be the
time to totally rebuild. Unfortunately that is not the case. That is more smoke
screens going up to full the people here into thinking Bush is right on plan
with Iraq.

We hear Rumsfeld constantly talk about how well we were planned for this war.
One thing that seems to have slipped through those plans is the insurgency,
something common amongst almost all wars. That lack of planning has lead to this
problem. They had to shift money from rebuilding to security. If Rumsfeld would
of planned for the insurgency and listened to constructive criticism instead of
firing them then Iraq could be have been a success.

Articles yesterday were talking about how the Iraqi’s rang in the new year in
darkness and many spent New Year’s day waiting in long lines for gas. Those long
gas lines are because of security issues forcing refineries to shut down:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Long lines formed at gas stations in Baghdad on Friday as
word spread that Iraq’s largest oil refinery had shut down in the face of
threats against truck drivers.

View complete article

here.

Now that our position has changed on reconstructing Iraq, it appears that
Bush is “cutting and running”. He wants to get the troops out of there this year
so he can spend the second half of this term trying to salvage a legacy. Also he
knows with midterm elections coming up and withering public support for the war
that he better get the troops home or face a possible Democratic controlled
Congress that will insure his legacy is dark and dismal.

What it boils down to is the fact that Bush has played politics with the
lives of soldiers and Iraqis and made terrible mistakes along the way, and like
everything else in his life, he wants to leave it for someone else to fix.