Better Late Than Never
According to news reports, the president's speech this week on the Iraq troop surge escalation will include plans to put Iraqis to work rebuilding the country:
The Bush proposal also will include a $1 billion jobs program for Iraqi civilians...
Plans include direct funding for such projects as water and sanitation system repairs, street cleaning, and painting schools, as well as money for job training.
WTF?
I thought that's what we'd spent the last close to four years doing...
[T]hrowing huge amounts of money at Iraqis to rebuild the country is the obvious thing to do. It was such the obvious thing to do that some of us were a bit confused when we realized they weren't doing it. Had there been a massive public works program which hired Real Live Iraqis instead of whoever the hell Halliburton was importing to do the work, and instead of painting the goddamn schools they'd managed to turn the lights on for more than a couple of hours per day there's some chance things could've worked out a bit better.
Comments
Nice post, Abi. You illustrated why Bush is pushing for a surge in troops - money. It's all about the money and it has been from day one. Sure, we've dumped huge sums into rebuilding Iraq so far, but why stop now? Bush is still in the White House and there's still more taxpayer money to be spent.
The Democrats had better do what they were elected to do and end this war now - not tomorrow.
Posted by: Kathy | January 8, 2007 10:24 AM
Thanks, Kathy. I'm giving the Dems the benefit of the doubt, but not for long. ;-)
Posted by: abi | January 8, 2007 07:21 PM