Via Rawstory (and WaPo): "Bush Won't Seek Iraq Reconstruction Funds"
"The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials tell the WASHINGTON POST in Monday's editions, RAW STORY has learned..."
Excerpt below the fold. (Note: I attempted to link the article but was not allowed to do so. My apologies.)
"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."
It seems that Bush and Co. are giving up on trying to make the lives of common Iraqis better. Is anyone else angry about this? Why don't we try funnelling the money we're pouring into bombs and bullets and pour them into more social programs and such? Hell, better yet, let's restore full electricity to the country's infrastructure for starters!
I guess we can argue, though, that since we're not going to help them build anymore we might as well leave them to figure out their security deficit too. Perhaps this is the beginning of a drawdown of the occupation. One can hope.....