Bush bails on rebuilding Iraq
The Bush administration does not intend to seek
any new money for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before
Congress in February, officials say.
The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new money 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 the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq’s criminal-justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein.
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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 building new security forces for Iraq and a nationwide system of medium- and maximum-security prisons and detention centers…
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In a speech Aug. 8, 2003, President Bush promised more for Iraq.
“In a lot of places, the infrastructure is as good as it was at prewar levels, which is satisfactory, but it’s not the ultimate aim. The ultimate aim is for the infrastructure to be the best in the region,” Bush said.
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The Americans, said Zaid Saleem, 26, who works at a market in Baghdad, “are the best in destroying things but they are the worst in rebuilding.”
Mr. Saleem says it all.
It doesn’t have to be true. It hasn’t always been true. But, Americans have given up on having governments that tell us the truth.
Posted: Tue - January 3, 2006 at 06:17 AM