Let’s forget for a moment whether the invasion of Iraq was necessary or worth the price. In fact, let’s – for the purpose of this column – hereby stipulate for the benefit of the president and his supporters, that bringing democracy to Iraq is a worthy goal. Are we doing a good job of it? Is our measure of success how quickly we can rationalize a troop pullout in time for the 2006 elections? Because if we are measuring success by raising the quality of life for the average Iraqi, an article in last week’s New York Times by James Glanz reveals we are failing miserably. And, if we can’t improve the quality of life in Iraq for its citizens, then forget about whether they have a new constitution and a duly elected government, as the country threatens to slide into chaos, we are getting ready to abandon them.
The article cites a report that indicates the reconstruction projects we financed in Iraq fall far short of Mr. Bush’s lofty rhetoric. According to the inspector general’s report, "only 49 of the 136 projects that we originally pledged to improve Iraq’s water and sanitation will be finished, with about 300 of an initial 425 projects to provide electricity."
"Unforeseen security costs, haphazard planning and shifting priorities" are blamed for what amounts to our failure to give Iraqis the water and electricity they enjoyed before we decided what they needed was a good dose of American firepower. The average Iraqi has about two or three hours of electrical power a day as a result of our invasion. While supporters and detractors here argue about how fast we can leave, Iraqis are left to wonder ‘what price democratic ideals?’ The inspector general is calling this failure of the Bush Administration "the reconstruction gap." The Administration calls it "shock and awe."
The Bushies have already signaled they are ready to turn off the faucet in financing the rebuilding of Iraq. The new Bush mantra is it’s up to Iraqis and our allies to rebuild. This after another audit of our accounting practices in Iraq revealed "millions of reconstruction dollars stuffed casually into footlockers and filing cabinets, an American soldier in the Philippines who gambled away cash belonging to Iraq, and three Iraqis who plunged to their deaths in a rebuilt hospital elevator that had been improperly certified as safe." And there was CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asking if the Iraqis aren’t being a little ungrateful to their American "liberators."
The president is right. Iraq is important. Our invasion made it important. The entire Middle East is watching to see if we leave Iraq better off than the way we found it. Bush has staked the credibility not only of his administration, but of American democracy on the outcome. From the beginning, when we went in with too few troops and contemptuously allowed Iraqi treasure to be looted, we screwed up winning the hearts and minds of the people we claimed to care about. It is no accident most observers say the surprising strength of the insurgency is made up, not of foreign terrorists, but mostly native Iraqis. In order for an insurgency of that size to exist, it must be supported by many Iraqis themselves who increasingly view American democracy as so many empty promises. Think about it. While the Bushies talk about stepping up training for Iraqi forces to battle the insurgency, who the hell is training the insurgents? It’s not the training, it’s the motivation. It always has been. People will fight our presence so long as our presence does not mean a better life. And a better life means rebuilding Iraq. In reality, no matter what the president said in his State of the Union speech, the facts on the ground don’t match his words. The Democrats, instead of holding the president’s feet to the fire and insisting he fulfill his promises to Iraq, are actually co-conspirators in the crime of abandoning that country.
Iraq is Katrina a hundred fold. Just as the citizens of New Orleans wonder where all the promised support is to rebuild that city, the citizens of Iraq also wonder. George W. Bush made a major mistake by invading Iraq without having the resources or the competence to finish the job. He is getting us ready for an even more monstrous mistake – the abandonment of Iraq.
