A Promise Made is a Debt Unpaid

The Columbia Journalism Review and USA Today seem to be about the only folk reporting an arguably big story out of Iraq. It's a mystery why the liberal MSM has passed up the opportunity to leap on the Bush Administration on this one.

You'll all recall that amid the blizzard of lies and misrepresentations that accompanied the onset of these hostilities was that specific subset regarding the rebuilding and reconstruction of Iraq. You remember, like "Iraq oil revenues will pay for the rebuilding" and "we will never abandon Iraq."

Well, they haven't and we have. Daniel Speckhard, director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, told reporters that Iraq is on its own from here out and must look to its own resources and aid from other Persian Gulf states (which states have been curiously reluctant to commit actual money to the benefit of Iraq).

I know what you're thinking. "Hey, we committed $21 billion (which we borrowed from the Chinese, but that's another story) to rebuild Iraq ! Has that all been spent ? How does the reconstruction stand now ?"

As to your first impertinent question, let's just say the $21 bill is gone, o.k. ? "Spent" is a technical term which is subject to interpretation, but if you are willing to include concepts such as "stolen", "lost", "misappropriated", "unaccounted for", "misplaced", "cost overruns" and "corruption", then, yes, the money has been "spent". Happy ?

Your second question (which, by the way, indicates you are on the side of the terrorists) permits a more direct answer. We'll simply quote Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, who described the effort as “a dismal failure. It hasn't met any of its goals. It's left a legacy of half-built projects” that Iraq can't maintain.

Read the sorry details HERE, stop wondering why the media doesn't report the "good news" from Iraq and

Stay Naked
jd