Ballooning deficits, mortgaging our future, and nothing to show for it. This
piece details the embarrassing failure of attempts to reconstruct Iraq.
Reconstruction represented the one area where America could create a positive out of this disaster. Not only have we failed to deliver on our promises, but we have given Iraqis a clear example of our complete incompetence.
The most basic of needs is water:
The Bush administration cannot fulfill all its grand promises to rebuild Iraq because soaring security costs, mismanagement and poor planning have cost billons of dollars.... Some projects - including those to provide clean water for Iraqis - have been cancelled as a result.....The U.S. government has scaled back spending to provide clean water from $4 billion to $1.2 billion. Three of the four major clean-water projects were cancelled.
Security concerns trump reconstruction efforts. The fact that we need to devote more and more money to maintain security speaks to a worsening situation:
In July 2005, 34 percent of reconstruction spending went to pay for security, up from 23 percent a year earlier. Two power generation programs - worth about $15 million - were cut, and sewer repairs in central Iraq were stopped for four months because of security cost overruns, according to the GAO.
Remember when Wolfowitz claimed that Iraqi oil revenues would fund reconstruction? That assetion is now laughable, but I doubt anyone expected this shocking state of affairs:
The Bush administration expected Iraqi oil revenues to help foot the bill. Instead, Iraq is spending $300 million a month to import refined gasoline because it doesn't have enough refineries. One potential pot of money - the $30 billion United Nations Iraqi oil-for-food program - is about $8 billion short because of thievery and poor recordkeeping, he said.
You can't expect to realistically win hearts and minds when you can't even get the taps running. You could rationalize the debt if you could see the monies bettering the lives of Iraqis, but instead we have just reinforced bitterness with nothing to show for it.
I hope when the next appropriation bill comes before congress that Democrats are hopping mad at the callous waste of money and good faith. What a pathetic failure, and hardly a ringing endorsement of the democratic society to Iraqis. Instead of dampening the insurgency, our mismanagement and broken promises only fuel it.
