Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete - washingtonpost.com

So, we lefties never talk about all the good things that America has done for Iraq. OK, let's do that. Today's WP has a look at exactly what our reconstruction dollars have done in Iraq. And that's just some of the trillion or so we'll spend on it. Well, we didn't really spend it. We charged it. Our kids will be paying the Iraq tax for decades. But, let's look at the good stuff.

"'We accomplished a significant amount of work. But it was just overwhelmed by the overlay of violence,' said Clifford G. Mumm, who has spent much of the past three years in Iraq managing projects for Bechtel Corp. 'It's hard to be very optimistic.'

U.S.-funded projects have long been a target for sabotage. Many of those that were spared remain unused by a population paralyzed by violence.

Yet those inside the reconstruction effort say security concerns were hardly the only problem. Poor planning and coordination by U.S. officials meant that even successful individual projects failed to do the job; for example, health-care centers were built at great cost but had no water and sewer service. Poor work-site management by contractors meant that some projects went awry. And now that the United States is handing over reconstruction efforts to Iraq, many involved with the process worry that the Iraqis don't have the training or the money to keep U.S.-built facilities running."

I know, commie bastards like me even try to ruin the good stuff for you. So, maybe you'd like to hear what an actual Iraqi has to say.

"What reconstruction?" Othman said in an interview last week. "Today we are drinking untreated water from a plant built decades ago that was never maintained. The electricity only visits us two hours a day. And now we are going backwards. We cook on the firewood we gather from the forests because of the gas shortage."

Well, there you have it. Our money has actually done the opposite of what GW Bush, the great leader and hero who was OH so much better than Gore or Kerry (people with actual experience in war), intended. Well, boys and girls, the road to hell is paved with GW Bush's good intentions. So is the road to Baghdad.