Reality Vs. Bush

1:12 am EST December 8th, 2005 | Politics | 2 Comments

Reality rears its ugly head again.

Several outside analysts also said Wednesday that Bush overstated the progress made by Iraq’s economy. They said failures in the reconstruction program had severely set back U.S. efforts to secure Iraq, combat the insurgency and set the stage for U.S. forces to leave.

The goal of the reconstruction effort was simple: to pump the bulk of $18.4 billion in U.S. aid into a series of major public works projects to show Iraqis that they could profit by sticking with the Americans and turning against the insurgents.

But “the security conditions make it extremely hard to roll out projects, so you can’t separate the security problem from the slow pace of reconstruction. And you can’t defeat the insurgency until you make progress on reconstruction and the political track. That’s why we’re chasing our tails in Iraq today,” said David Phillips, who worked on a State Department planning effort for post-war Iraq.

Based on a number of key indicators, the reconstruction effort is falling short of U.S. goals and, at times, even of pre-war output under Saddam Hussein. Most of the $18.4 billion for reconstruction has been pledged to projects — though about half, or $9.5 billion, actually has been spent, according to the State Department.

Electricity is still well below demand — at 3,700 megawatts in November, compared to the July 2004 U.S. goal of 6,000 megawatts and nationwide demand of 9,000 megawatts. Iraqis get about 14 hours of electricity per day nationwide, according to figures compiled by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Oil production — which Pentagon officials once hoped would provide the funds for Iraqi reconstruction — still has not returned to pre-war levels, mainly due to insurgent sabotage of facilities.

Unemployment remains as high as 40 percent. And even in relatively peaceful sectors like southern Basra, many Iraqis, as recently as this summer, said they were hard-pressed to see the fruits of U.S. reconstruction.

Iraq’s economy “is at roughly the level of the latter Saddam years, which, after a decade of sanctions and three decades of dictatorial rule, doesn’t represent a very impressive benchmark,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a Brookings defense analyst.

The facts, stubbornly, maintain their bias.

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2 Responses to “Reality Vs. Bush”

  1. AlexCorrigan says:
    December 8, 2005 at 6:12 am

    And, OW, don’t forget about all the corruption.

  2. elrod says:
    December 8, 2005 at 9:12 am

    Of all the “progress” speeches Bush is rolling out, the economy one seems the most baseless. After all, you can point out the number of troops trained, the elections, etc. But the economy is almost universally recognized to be stuck in the toilet due to war, corruption and incompetence.