While TIME reports that 53% of Americans at home trust BushCo to handle the war in Iraq, the number of Americans dying there mounts. Today's news:
A suicide attacker sped up to a U.S. military convoy outside Fallouja and detonated an explosives-packed vehicle today, killing seven Marines and three Iraqi soldiers, U.S. military officials said. It was the deadliest day for American forces in four months.
BushCo insists, though, that the price is worth it because we are building democracy. Really?
BAGHDAD -- Iraq remains on course to hold landmark elections in January, but violence could force authorities to exclude hotspots such as the western city of Fallouja from voting, a top U.S. general said here Sunday.
Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, operations chief of more than 150,000 mostly U.S. troops, said in an interview that the "cancer" of anti-American militancy in places such as Fallouja would not derail national elections.
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Although bypassing some cities could allow officials to stick to their planned January timetable, doing so could detract from the election's credibility, foment discontent in Iraq and leave other countries reluctant to acknowledge any government chosen in the vote.
Well, even if we can't have "real" elections, we are rebuilding the country, right? Think again.
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is preparing to seek congressional approval to divert $3.3 billion earmarked for reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure into programs focused mainly on establishing law and order.
The move comes against a backdrop of steadily deteriorating public security in Iraq as it approaches a crucial first round of elections set for January.
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Officials at the State Department working on the reconstruction revisions said the shift in focus was part of a realization that funding even the most important projects made little sense if conditions on the ground prevented their completion.
"The first priority for our effort right now has to be security," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told a group of reporters last week.
"If a place is not safe to build a sewer system, you can't spend the money."
But if BushCo built a sewer, at least they would have something concrete to pour the money and the lives into.