Ooops. Sorry. I do disagree with something else, after all.

quote:

Rebuilding Iraq is not a fiasco, it is not a disaster, and with or without the U.N., things are progressing along the pre-war projected timetable, even with the unforseen obstacle of some minor pro-Saddam resistance.
From www.economist.com

quote:

Last week, Mr Bush told Americans that he would ask Congress for $87 billion in extra spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to the $79 billion already approved. This would make Iraq’s reconstruction the costliest such endeavour since the Marshall Plan half a century ago....

...Is America’s occupation of Iraq going well, or badly? Certainly, it is not as rosy as the Bush administration is trying to suggest. Americans are having a tough time establishing security and credibility, particularly in those areas of Iraq dominated by Sunni Muslims (who made up most of Saddam Hussein’s regime). Already-tense situations can worsen quickly, as was evident last week in Falluja when American troops accidentally shot dead ten Iraqi policemen. At their funerals this weekend, Falluja residents vowed revenge, and one American soldier was killed in the town on Sunday (and another in Baghdad on Monday). Elsewhere, in areas dominated by Shia Muslims and Kurds, things are calmer. But there too progress is bumpy: last month, a top Shia cleric in the holy city of Najaf and more than 100 others were killed by a bomb. Still, that incident has not set off the spiral of violence that many predicted. Throughout Iraq, attacks on American forces and their allies have decreased in the past month.

...Mr Powell said America wants to get out as soon as it can, but will not do so before Iraqis have the capacity to run themselves. Already, America is hurriedly shoving more responsibilities at Iraqis—a plan to train a 40,000-member Iraqi army in three years has been accelerated into one year.
I don't think being $166 billion in the red over the war means it is proceeding as expected. Setting aside the army's rehabilitation, other matters also seem to be progressing very slowly - essential services, for instance.

I think things are not good over there, but I also think it seems to very much differ from region to region. The Kurdish north and Shi'ite south seem to be doing much better than the areas around Baghdad.

America isn't the bad guy in this - it is importing a tonne of wheat every hour of every day to help out with food shortages. While I'm still suspicious that the war is a boon for oil companies at the American taxpayers' expense, I at least think that in the very long run Iraqis will be better off as a result of the invasion. But the administration, or perhaps more accurately the Pentagon, has made a botch up of rebuilding - a terrible underestimate.