Subject: [Homestead] Trying to get by on the cheap always a disaster
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 08:02:22 -0400
Cheap in trying to get by with 140,000 grunts when 500,000 would be more
appeopriate---a consequence of the Bush passion for concealing true cost
of anything, military or domestic.' Cheap in trying to hide the trur
cost of Iraq reconstruction, and cheap in stealing funds from that
reconstrucyion for security. Fact is that Iraq security does require
more money and fact is that Iraq reconstruction requires more
money---the too little, too late sickness runs deep in the Bush psyche.
unnecessarily killing American troops, unnecessarily destabilizing
Iraq---as the CIA now predicts, totally out of control---all the men and
money we have spent wasted by the fool in the White House.
I don/t mean to say that the two billion dollars a month we spend in
Iraq is sheap, but not asking for and not spending the true requirement
means the two billion a month accomplishes nothing except total
failure. El Estupido can't get anything right.
Boston.com THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
WASHINGTON -- Two leading Republican legislators yesterday attacked the
Bush administration's approach to rebuilding Iraq, in one of the
strongest indictments of the administration's Iraq policy from members
of President Bush's party.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony from State
Department officials seeking to divert almost 20 percent of the $18.4
billion in US reconstruction funds to security operations instead of
public works projects and economic development.
But the hearing quickly became a forum for attacking what the Republican
committee chairman, Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, referred to as
the ''dancing-in-the-street crowd" that wrongly predicted that Iraqis
would be celebrating after the fall of Saddam Hussein a year and a half
ago. He said the same White House officials have repeatedly failed to
make necessary course changes.
''Now, the nonsense of all [the predictions] is apparent; the lack of
planning is apparent," he said.
Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, addressing two of the State
Department's point men on Iraq, said the pace of reconstruction has been
''beyond pitiful. It's embarrassing. It is now in the zone of dangerous."
''You don't win the hearts and minds of the people at the end of a
barrel of a gun," Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran, said. ''You do that
through the process that we started here in the Congress appropriating
$18.4 billion."
As for the original architects of the Iraq war, he added: ''Maybe we
ought to have a hearing with the inventors of this, have them come back
up, all these smart guys that got us in there and said, 'Don't worry.' "
The criticism signaled the growing worries in both parties that Iraq is
slipping out of control, with large areas of country under guerrilla
control and rising attacks on troops and Iraqi civilians. It also sent a
clear signal to the White House that some Republican supporters of
Bush's decision to invade Iraq last year are worried that the
administration's Iraq policy is veering off-track.
To try to beef up security, the Bush administration Tuesday announced it
was asking Congress for permission to reallocate about $3.5 billion of
the $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds Congress approved last November.
Most of the money would finance more training for Iraqi police. A
smaller portion would be used to establish a nationwide work program to
combat the estimated 50 percent unemployment rate in Iraq and deter
young people from joining the insurgency.
US rebuilding funds have created 111,000 new Iraqi jobs, according to
State Department figures, far below what specialists agree is necessary
to prevent defections to the insurgents.
Administration officials told the Senate panel yesterday that the
proposed funding shift is part of a new strategy by the State
Department, which took over responsibility for Iraqi reconstruction from
the Defense Department in June.
''An uncertain security situation affects all potential economic and
political development," said Joseph Bowab, deputy assistant secretary of
state for foreign assistance programs.
As of last week, only $1.14 billion out of the $18.4 billion pot that
was approved on an emergency basis last year has been spent because of
contract delays and the growing attacks on public infrastructure by
guerrillas and Islamic extremists.
Most of the frustrations expressed by the senators centered on the slow
pace of reconstruction.
''This is an extraordinarily ineffective administration procedure,"
Lugar said of the reconstruction. ''It is exasperating for anybody
looking at this from any vantage point. We're in favor of the security
aspect, but we're still also in favor of getting money out to these
towns and villages.