Iraq Reconstruction

It's not going too well. But you knew that:

The answer is, precious little. Although the U.S. has already burned through more cash in Iraq than it did in Germany or Japan during the entire post-World War II recovery period, it has failed to spark peace or economic renewal.

[...]

Scores of health clinics and hospitals are unfinished, their doors and windows walled up with concrete. Raw sewage continues to flow directly into the Tigris River. The U.S.-trained police force is riddled with death squads. And then, of course, there is the unrelenting daily violence unleashed by the same Sunnis and Shiites who were by now supposed to be happily employed in U.S.-funded work projects.

[...]

The decision to rely on the private sector to achieve U.S. policy goals also guaranteed a clash of interests that undermined the rebuilding. A country is interested in achieving a policy, a company in making a profit. The 82nd Airborne's tactics are different from Halliburton's. Told to jump, a soldier will ask, "How high?" A contractor asks, "How much will you pay me?" A contractor will use machinery to pick up trash cheaply; a postwar planner would prefer to hire as many locals as possible to do the job slowly by hand. Finally, nobody was paying attention. Although Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were responsible for military and political developments in Iraq, the rebuilding ping-ponged between U.S. agencies under the leadership of career bureaucrats.

But somewhere in Iraq a school was painted! Why doesn't the MSM report on that? Huh? Huh?

It's the reverse Midas touch: Everything Our Glorious Leader™ touches turns to shit.


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