http://select.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/opinion/04krugman.html?th&emc=th
Two More Years By PAUL KRUGMAN NY Times Op-Ed: December 4, 2006 At a reception following the midterm election, President Bush approached Senator-elect James Webb. "How's your boy?" asked Mr. Bush. "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," replied Mr. Webb, whose son, a Marine lance corporal, is risking his life in Mr. Bush's war of choice. "That's not what I asked you," the president snapped. "How's your boy?" "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," said Mr. Webb. Good for him. We need people in Washington who are willing to stand up to the bully in chief. Unfortunately, and somewhat mysteriously, they're still in short supply. You can understand, if not condone, the way the political and media establishment let itself be browbeaten by Mr. Bush in his post-9/11 political prime. What's amazing is the extent to which insiders still cringe before a lame duck with a 60 percent disapproval rating. Look at what seems to have happened to the Iraq Study Group, whose mission statement says that it would provide an "independent assessment." If press reports are correct, the group did nothing of the sort. Instead, it watered down its conclusions and recommendations, trying to come up with something Mr. Bush wouldn't reject out of hand. In particular, says Newsweek, the report "will set no timetables or call for any troop reductions." All it will do is "suggest that the president could, not should, begin to withdraw forces in the vaguely defined future." And all this self-abasement is for naught. Senior Bush aides, Newsweek tells us, are "dismissive, even condescending" toward James Baker, the Bush family consigliere who is the dominant force in the study group, and the report. Of course they are. That's how bullies always treat their hangers-on. Even now, it seems, the wise men of Washington can't bring themselves to face up to two glaringly obvious truths. The first is that Americans are fighting and dying in Iraq for no reason. It's true that terrible things will happen when U.S. forces withdraw. Mr. Bush was attacking a straw man when he mocked those who think we can make a "graceful exit" from Iraq. Everyone I know realizes that the civil war will get even worse after we're gone, and that there will probably be a bloody bout of ethnic cleansing that effectively partitions the country into hostile segments. But nobody - not even Donald Rumsfeld, it turns out - thinks we're making progress in Iraq. So the same terrible things that would happen if we withdrew soon will still happen if we delay that withdrawal for two, three or more years. The only difference is that we'll sacrifice many more American lives along the way. The second truth is that the war will go on all the same, unless something or someone forces Mr. Bush to change course. During his recent trip to Vietnam, Mr. Bush was asked whether there were any lessons from that conflict for Iraq. His response: "We'll succeed unless we quit." It was a bizarre answer given both the history of the Vietnam War and the facts on the ground in Iraq, but it makes perfect sense given what we know about Mr. Bush's character. He has never been willing to own up to mistakes, however trivial. If he were to accept the failure of his adventure in Iraq, he would be admitting, at least implicitly, to having made the mother of all mistakes. So Mr. Bush will keep sending other men's children off to fight his war. And he'll always insist that Iraq would have been a great victory if only his successors had shared his steely determination. Does this mean that we're doomed to at least two more years of bloody futility? Not necessarily. Last month the public delivered a huge vote of no confidence in Mr. Bush and his war. He's still the commander in chief, but the new majority in Congress can put a lot of pressure on him to at least begin a withdrawal. I'm worried, however, that Democrats may have counted on the Iraq Study Group to provide them with political cover. Now that the study group has apparently wimped out, will the Democrats do the same? Well, here's a question for those who might be tempted, yet again, to shy away from a confrontation with Mr. Bush over Iraq: How do you ask a man to be the last to die for a bully's ego? *** Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 13:04:27 -0500 (EST) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [NYTr] Iraq: Bechtel's Billions Down the Drain Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> InterPress Service via Asia Times OInline http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK10Ak02.html Bechtel's billions down the drain By Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily BAGHDAD - The decision of the giant engineering company Bechtel to withdraw from Iraq has left many Iraqis feeling betrayed. In the company's departure, they see the end of remaining hopes for the reconstruction of Iraq. Bechtel, whose board members have close ties to the administration of US President George W Bush, announced last week that it was done with trying to operate in the war-torn country. The company has received US$2.3 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds and US taxpayer money, but is leaving without completing most of the tasks it set out to do. On every level of infrastructure measurable, the situation in Iraq is worse now than under the rule of Saddam. That includes the 12 years of economic sanctions since the first Gulf War in 1991, a period that Dennis Halliday, former United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, described as "genocidal" for Iraqis. The average household in Iraq now gets two hours of electricity a day. There is 70% unemployment, 68% of Iraqis have no access to safe drinking water, and only 19% have sewage access. Not even oil production has matched pre-invasion levels. The security situation is hellish, with a recent study published in the prestigious British medical journal Lancet estimating 655,000 excess deaths in Iraq as a result of the invasion and occupation. The group Medact recently said that easily treatable conditions such as diarrhea and respiratory illness are causing 70% of all child deaths, and that "of the 180 health clinics the US hoped to build by the end of 2005, only four have been completed - and none opened". A proposed $200 million project to build 142 primary-care centers ran out of cash after building just 20 clinics, a performance the World Health Organization described as "shocking". Iraqis are complaining more loudly now than under the sanctions. Lack of electricity has led to increasing demand for gasoline to run generators. And gasoline is among the scarcest commodities in this oil-rich country. "We inherited an exhausted electricity system in generating stations and distributing nets, but we were able to supply 50% of consumer demand during heavy load periods, and more than that during ordinary days," an engineer with the Ministry of Electricity said. "The situation now is much worse, and it seems not to be improving despite the huge contracts signed with American companies. It is strange how billions of dollars spent on electricity brought no improvement whatsoever, but in fact worsened the situation." The engineer said, "We in the ministry have not received any real equipment for our senior stations, and the small transformers for the distributing nets were of very low standard." Bechtel's contract included reconstruction of water-treatment systems, electricity plants, sewage systems, airports and roads. Two former Iraqi electricity ministers were charged with corruption by the Iraqi Commission of Integrity set up under the occupation. One of them, Ayham al-Samarraii, was sentenced to jail but was taken away by his US security guards. He insisted it was not he who looted the ministry's money. Managers at water departments all over Iraq say the only repairs they managed were through UN offices and humanitarian-aid organizations. The ministry provided them with very little chlorine for water treatment. New projects were no more than simple maintenance moves that did little to halt collapsing infrastructure. Bechtel was among the first companies, along with Halliburton, which US Vice President Dick Cheney once headed, to have received fixed-fee contracts drawn to guarantee profit. Ahmed al-Ani, who works with a major Iraqi construction contracting company, says the model Bechtel adopted was certain to fail. "They charged huge sums of money for the contracts they signed, then they sold them to smaller companies who resold them again to small, inexperienced Iraqi contractors," Ani said. "These inexperienced contractors then had to execute the works badly because of the very low prices they got and the lack of experience." "It is much worse than in the time of Saddam Hussein," Communist Party member Nayif Jassim said. "Most Iraqis wish Saddam would be back in power now that they lived out the hardships of the occupation. The Americans did nothing but loot our oil and kill our people." Some Iraqi political analysts, rather optimistically, look at Bechtel's departure from a different angle. "I see the beginning of a US withdrawal from Iraq," Maki al-Nazzal said. "It started with Bechtel and Halliburton's propaganda, and might end with their fleeing from the field. They came with Bremer and introduced themselves as heroes and saviors who would bring prosperity to Iraq, but all they did was market US propaganda." L Paul Bremer was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority that ran Iraq after US forces toppled Saddam's government. President Bush told reporters on a visit to Iraq in June: "You can measure progress in megawatts of electricity delivered. You can measure progress in terms of oil sold on the market on behalf of the Iraqi people." By his standards, the position in Iraq is now much worse. (Inter Press Service) *** National Congressional Call-In Day Monday, December 4th Members of Congress return to Washington, DC, today, December 4, to discuss their legislative priorities for the new session. Let's greet them with a flood of phone calls, because many still don't understand that the troops need to come home from Iraq -- NOW! Even Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, has said "We're not going to do anything to limit funding or cut off funds." We can't let the new Democratic leadership sit back on their hands and refuse to take responsibility for the Iraq war. YOU can help us send this message to Congress. Here's what to do: - Call the Congressional Switchboard at 202.224.3121 and ask for the office of your Representative or Senators. - Ask to talk to the foreign policy advisor. If he or she is not there, ask to leave a voicemail. - Once you have them on the phone, use these talking points: 1. This election was about the Iraq war, and we want a change! 2. I insist that Congress act immediately to bring all U.S. troops home from Iraq NOW! This includes limiting funding ONLY to withdrawal. 3. The US needs to pursue regional diplomacy for Iraq's future. It is the only way that the Middle East can find a way out of the chaos the US has created. 4. Congress has the power to end the U.S. occupation in Iraq and if it fails to do so, we will hold them responsible for the continued violence in Iraq. Please make 3 phone calls: to your Representative and to each of your Senators. Call the Capitol Switchboard TODAY at 202.224.3121 and help ensure that a withdrawal from Iraq will be a top priority! PS. Don't forget to email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] to let us know who you speak to and if you get a response. Sincerely, Linda Schade Executive Director VotersForPeace.US VotersForPeace 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 240 Takoma Park, MD 20912 301-270-2355 Copyright 2006 VotersForPeace.US All rights reserved --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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