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.
So. After destroying the country's infrastructure with ten years of sanctions, and then bombing the bejeebus outta them, when the allocated package is gone, we're done. No matter that much of it got spent on other things that we should have accounted for in the first place, like the insurgency. No matter that most of the population still has little or no regular electricity or potable water. Tough shit, Hopalong. This act of the script calls for an orderly draw-down, and that's what they're sticking to.
"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.
In other words, it's pretty much like the US budget. Pretty much everything else gets pilfered to make sure we get Humvees sent over to Buttfuckistan before anyone has a chance to properly up-armor them. Because you just never know when those low-hanging -- yet treacherous -- Buttfuckis might decide to attack with weapons that they don't really have.
It's a rather complicated reasoning process. You'll just have to trust us.
"It is easy for the Americans to say, 'We are doing reconstruction in Iraq,' and we hear that. But to make us believe it, they should show us where this reconstruction is," said Mustafa Sidqi Murthada, owner of a men's clothing store in Baghdad. "Maybe they are doing this reconstruction for them in the Green Zone. But this is not for the Iraqis."
"Believe me, they are not doing this," he said, "unless they consider rebuilding of their military bases reconstruction."
U.S. officials say comparatively minor sabotage to distribution systems is keeping Iraqis from seeing the gains from scores of projects to increase electricity generation and oil production. To showcase a rebuilt school or government building, meanwhile, is to invite insurgents to bomb it.
Uh-huh. And what exactly was the cause of said school or government building to need to be rebuilt in the first place? And why do we constantly hear whimpers about it here if it's so dangerous to reveal the details? Come on. Can we get our story straight just once here?
I've been meaning to post this link for a while, but here it is finally, from Juan Cole:
Top Ten Myths About Iraq in 2005
Also, Ten Amazing Predictions For 2006.
As always, read them with someone you love.
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