NYT: Plan to Divert Billions to Security Could Cut Crucial Iraq Services

RECONSTRUCTION
Iraqis Warn U.S. Plan to Divert Billions to Security Could Cut Off Crucial Services
By JAMES GLANZ

Published: September 21, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 20 - Iraqi officials in charge of rebuilding their country's shattered and decrepit infrastructure are warning that the Bush administration's plan to divert $3.46 billion from water, sewage, electricity and other reconstruction projects to security could leave many people without the crucial services that generally form the backbone of a stable and functioning democracy.

Under the plan, which was proposed last week and would require approval by Congress, the money would pay for training and equipping tens of thousands of additional police officers, border patrol agents and Iraqi national guardsmen in an attempt to restore order to a land where lawlessness and violence have replaced Saddam Hussein's repression since the American-led invasion last year.

But the move comes as a grievous disappointment to Iraqi officials who had already seen the billions once promised them tied up for months by American regulations and planning committees, consumed by administrative overhead and set aside for the enormous costs of ensuring safety for the workers and engineers who will actually build the new sewers, water plants and electrical generators. Of the $18.4 billion that Congress approved last fall for Iraq's reconstruction, only about $1 billion has been spent so far....

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The decision to shift the money, which had been earmarked for rebuilding everything from roads and bridges to telecommunications and the outdated equipment pumping oil, appears to signal an abandonment of the administration's original plan for putting Iraq back on its feet as a functioning nation....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/international/middleeast/21rebuild.html

<snip>"In the original allocation, the dollar winner, the sector that got the most resources, was electricity," Mr. Taylor said. "Now security is at the top."

Clowns.

"Them there inerstrucshers will still get builded! I gots a task force of gnomes and goblins workin' on it and they work fer pixie dust! Dem Eyrakis'll have their roads and bridges and 'lectrizity and sewerages in no time! They jus' hafta click their heels three er four times! Next thing ya know, they'll all be voting for me for preznit of Eyrak!"

Senator Kerry, have at it sir! You've just been handed another gold mine! Bush most definitely IS living in a world of fantasy!

the Glorious Leader and his Neo Fascist Junta.