So says the Inspector General Report (but you know the liberal media will be blamed for reading it and reporting about it):
Iraq’s national government is refusing to take possession of thousands of American-financed reconstruction projects, forcing the United States either to hand them over to local Iraqis, who often lack the proper training and resources to keep the projects running, or commit new money to an effort that has already consumed billions of taxpayer dollars.
The conclusions, detailed in a report released Friday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, a federal oversight agency, include the finding that of 2,797 completed projects costing $5.8 billion, Iraq’s national government had, by the spring of this year, accepted only 435 projects valued at $501 million. Few transfers to Iraqi national government control have taken place since the current Iraqi government, which is frequently criticized for inaction on matters relating to the American intervention, took office in 2006.
The United States often promotes the number of rebuilding projects, like power plants and hospitals, that have been completed in Iraq, citing them as signs of progress in a nation otherwise fraught with violence and political stalemate. But closer examination by the inspector general’s office, headed by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., has found that a number of individual projects are crumbling, abandoned or otherwise inoperative only months after the United States declared that they had been successfully completed. The United States always intended to hand over projects to the Iraqi government when they were completed.
Fabulous. I am sure we can pin this on the defeatist media and Democrats somehow.
*** Update ***
From the comments:
Damn you, Scott Beauchamp
EXACTLY!
scarshapedstar
Under the Unified Wingnut Quantum Iraq Success Theory, all reconstruction projects exist in a superposition of wonderful and amazing until they are observed by a blog post or a Fifth Columnist, at which point they become disasters.
Way to fuck it up, John.
jake
Excuse me, it has been clearly established by this Administration that Scott Bowen is a baby-eating satanist who commits illegal acts with bovines.
Funny how a poorly planned and unjustified invasion can fuck up one’s SOP.
I also wonder how many of these projects that have been handed over (Hot potato!) are now the bases for various, heavily armed groups of people.
myiq2xu
Can you really blame the Iraqis?
Would you buy anything from George Bush?
The Kenosha Kid
a number of individual projects are crumbling, abandoned or otherwise inoperative only months after the United States declared that they had been successfully completed.
Damn you, Scott Beauchamp!!!
The Commissar
John,
One of the themes or memes with this story goes “The Wingnuts have not produced a single shred of evidence to suggest that Beauchamp was lying.” (Leaving aside the question of burden-of-proof, you porpoise-humper.)
Here’s an email from Beauchamp’s First Sergeant:
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/update-on-the-new-republics-man-in-iraq/
Or it claims to be so.
John Cole
Commissar-
I read that the other day when it was linked on memeorandum. I am not even going to begin to discuss how inappropriate I think it is for a 1SG to write to a third party for publication his opinion of one of his soldiers. Not only that, it is his opinion of one of his soldiers CURRENTLY in Iraq AND now under what is supposed to be an intense and professional military investigation. In my opinion, there should be charges brought against that NCO for unprofessional conduct. No matter- the wingnutosphere has deemed Beauchamp as public enemy number one- set phasers on smear.
Additionally, let me be clear- I am not going to spend anymore time arguing the minutae of the affair. Not only is there ample evidence to suggest that these sorts of things did happen, and not only do we have documented proof that MUCH, MUCH worse has in fact happened, and not only do the refutations amount to little more than “THAT COULDN’T HAPPEN BECAUSE IT IS AGAINST SOP” and “IT IS HARD TO RUN OVER A DOG IN A BRADLEY- AT LEAST USING MY SAND TABLE MODEL,” I really don’t care. Arguing particulars in this case is precisely what the wingnutosphere wants- they can find one discrepancy and in your arguments then claim that EVERY aspect of their behavior on this has been acceptable.
It hasn’t. The hysterical screeching from the lynch mob has been absurd, and it is a wholly self-created phenomenon. “The left,” of which I am now apparently a member, met the stories by this kid with a resounding “MEH?” I hadn’t even read them till the Malkin-led screamathon at memeorandum began. No one really cared if a dog was runover or some assholes made fun of a disfigured woman. We really didn’t. This is not My Lai or Abu Ghraib. It was, at worst, if true, some soldiers acting like assholes in theatre- something that happens a great deal. it was not the high crimes and misdemeanors the nutters want you to think it was. After all- we have watched the war party spend the past five years telling us war is hell and that you gotta break some eggs and that torture is good, mmkay. A runover dog rates pretty fucking low on the outrage-o-meter, much as I love dogs.
What “the left” is aghast at is the pathological behavior from those attacking Beauchamp (to include writing his First Sergeant begging him to spublicly smear him), and we are aware that this fits the typical pattern of smear and destroy.
In the end, maybe it will be shown beauchamp is a liar. I don’t know or care. Regardless, what has already been proven is that the people out to destroy Beauchamp are flaming assholes, support the troops only when their narrative they have created in their head is supported, and they should be taken to a public square, beaten, publicly ridiculed and humiliated, and then fucking ignored for the rest of their miserable existence.
Pb
Wow, sounds like this Beauchamp guy is pretty awesome after all.
Wilfred
It’s exactly like fighting with my wife.
The Other Steve
Interesting how the WingNutosphere immediately believed that this Hatley existed without any hard evidence.
myiq2xu
When I was in the service we tended to behave when our 1st Sgt. (or “Top” as they are called) was in the vicinity. And, like Attorney General Al “Fredo,” we usually suffered from blindness, deafness and/or early-onset Alzhemer’s if any brass or NCO’s started asking questions.
Didja notice a complete lack of IP adress, email address, APO address, unit ID, date, time or anything that would give indicia of credibility to the alleged letter by SFC Hatley?
And, just like with Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, we are supposed to assume that because Beauchamp is related to someone employed at TNR that everything he says is a lie.
Just one more point: Why is Beauchamp being investigated? Shouldn’t they be investigating his allegations?
myiq2xu
Oops – Let me correct my last post.
The letter allegedly from Beauchamp’s Top Sgt. does not say that Beauchamp is being investigated, only that an investigation is being made.
But if the investigation has not been completed, how can SFC Hatley be certain that the allegations made by Beauchamp are untrue????
ConservativelyLiberal
Well duh! He is saying the ‘RIGHT‘ stuff. Of course he is ‘RIGHT‘! It is only when someone says what is not ‘RIGHT‘ that they are lying…
;)
What BushCo needs to do is go to that market that McCain safely strolled through (with Blackhawk helicopters and a bunch of troops standing guard), set up a booth and hang a banner over it that says Free American Stuff!
Wait, better strike the American from that banner, it might be harder to give away if that is there.
Maybe the projects are crumbling due to the ‘sheep dung and spit’ concrete that they used to build them…
I saw a report that Bechtel Corp has only completed about 1/2 of their projects that they contracted for, and the other half have fallen apart, been modified and are still incomplete or they have abandoned them outright.
I thought it was really telling that when our new, shiny embassy was opened and they went to cook the first meal for the troops and personnel who will be stationed there, the kitchen literally melted down due to electrical shorts and shoddy construction.
This mess in Iraq is a total clusterfuck, through and through. I guess BushCo has been slow in passing out the rose tinted glasses to the public…
John, you are right about the keyboard commandos picking apart something that pisses them off (read as: what may be the truth) until they find one little thing that is at fault, at that point they then reason that it is ok to dismiss the whole thing.
Using that logic, they should have stopped cheerleading the invasion of Iraq right after it started. Same with the BushCo presidency. Just with those two items, anyone can find lies and inconsistencies anywhere they look, except in right wing echo chambers. Maybe that is their problem. Since they believe only what is ‘RIGHT‘, they are living on a diet of talking points.
This is what happens when the lunatics have the keys to the asylum…
Cassidy
More than likely they are. What is the likely case at the moment is a very pissed off Company Commander. So while this kid’s stories may be true, they are going to be investigated. Other than the grave, though, I haven’t heard anything that’s actually a crime. I haven’t read his blog either (no interest). OTOH, the amount of attention and whatnot brought to his unit,is not going to make him popular, especially if he’s lying or embellishing. In all likelihood, they will find something that he has done wrong in this and he’ll be hammered for it.
ConservativelyLiberal
Fixed.
Chuck Butcher
In a previous comment section on the Beauchamp mess “ConservativelyLiberal” was apparently mislead to believe I served in the military, I have not. “Risking my butt” referred to hotshot firefighting mentioned in the opening paragraph to show that I have reason to at least partially have a personal understanding of living in adverse and dangerous conditions on an extended basis. It certainly is not combat, but it does contain elements of it. Further it gives me status as one who has not just sucked on the American tit. The financial risks I incurred were related to my political campaign for federal office. If you have not been involved in such a thing, you have no idea, particularly low budget efforts.
I was careful to reference the recollections of ONG Sgt Brian P*** who is well known to me and a credible source.
To further qualify and disclose, my war era was ‘Nam and a high lottery number kept me out of Federal Penitentiary because I was not a CO and I was not going to participate in killing I disapproved of. My right to say, “Fuck you,” and their right to say, “No, fuck you.” I’m not exactly known for backing up or backing down and I’m willing to pay for it.
CL, sorry for the misunderstanding, and thanks for the nice words, anyhow.
Pb
This could set a disturbing precedent–someone commenting on an ongoing investigation?!
ConservativelyLiberal
Sorry about that Chuck, I thought you were relating military service experiences with fire service experiences. My mistake. Hey, it happens… :)
Either way, thanks for fighting the fires, that is for darn sure! We tend to get them on the other side of the mountains here. One summer, we spent almost six weeks in smoke from one.
Firefighting is dangerous work, and not to be taken lightly. All it takes is a wind shift at the wrong time and people die.
Thanks for the correction though… :)
ConservativelyLiberal
Some more good news today from Iraq via the Telegraph in Britian:
Read the rest at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IGAHG33FIYEL1QFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/28/wirq128.xml
Things are going just perfect over there, eh?
H/T to DK for this one…
Downtown Lad
In the end, maybe it will be shown beauchamp is a liar. I don’t know or care. Regardless, what has already been proven is that the people out to destroy Beauchamp are flaming assholes, support the troops only when their narrative they have created in their head is supported, and they should be taken to a public square, beaten, publicly ridiculed and humiliated, and then fucking ignored for the rest of their miserable existence.
Well said. I’m still convinced that NONE of the wingnuts have actually even read Beauchamp’s original column. It’s not even sensationalist. It’s really about self-reflection.
rachel
And we all know how much they respect that.
Chuck Butcher
CL, I looked at the post again after I hit “submit” and thought, well this may cause confusion – it did. My firefighting was limited to the West, Canadian border to southern UT including WA, OR, CA, UT; heavy timber and heavy terrain. We were a “first out” crew, the first ones out after initial attack crews lost it. 5,000 acres to 250,000 acres with a big cluster of 100,000. The fire is a big threat, but the really common threats were falling (and tobaggoning) timber and rocks turned lose – those were the worst, softball to pickup sized hauling ass about head high (in the dark and smoke). Longest time out continuously was 12 weeks with 1/2 day off, usually 3-4 weeks, no days off 12-18 hrs/dy. GS-3 pay scale.
I know, way OT
ConservativelyLiberal
Interesting Chuck. We live on the south Oregon coast, and we get hit with fire once in a while. The summer of smoke I was referencing was the one that they called the ‘Biscuit fire’ in 2002. It was pretty impressive to look at from space, and we were hit with so much smoke that I had to wash our walls to get it (and the discoloration) off after they finally got it out about 6 weeks later.
Every morning, the smoke would roll in as the sun rose, and every evening the clear air would roll in as the ocean air would push back. It got so bad that all we did was suffer until the evening would bring relief. It was hard to believe that the fire was on the other side of the Coastal Range.
When we lived in Spokane, Washington, we used to have the grass growers and farmers that burned their fields every summer, and it was far worse than that.
Last summer, we passed up through Sisters, and there was a huge fire camp set up outside of town there. They were fighting a fire that was up near highway 242. The smoke was pretty bad, causing them to close the highway for a bit until it cleared enough that people would not crash into each other.
True, it is OT, but what the hey! It is nice to talk about something that is productive and saves lives and property.
Again, thanks for your service! :)
Chuck Butcher
I have a pal just outside Gold Beach, stayed down there about a month doing some work for him. Nice folks there but way to wet for my dessicated self – Baker City.
ConservativelyLiberal
We live in Brookings. True, it is wet but the bright point is that you don’t have to shovel snow. Plus I love calling my sis in Spokane and saying;
‘Well, it is 72 degrees today, how is it up there?’
lol!
Barry
John Cole Says:
Commissar-
“I read that the other day when it was linked on memeorandum. I am not even going to begin to discuss how inappropriate I think it is for a 1SG to write to a third party for publication his opinion of one of his soldiers. Not only that, it is his opinion of one of his soldiers CURRENTLY in Iraq AND now under what is supposed to be an intense and professional military investigation. In my opinion, there should be charges brought against that NCO for unprofessional conduct. No matter- the wingnutosphere has deemed Beauchamp as public enemy number one- set phasers on smear.”
Notice how the 1sg’s name and address were withheld, to protect his privacy?
As to why Beauchamp is being investigated? He commited a crime, that of publishing things that the Army doesn’t want publicized. Note that people have done far worse, on Army orders, and this was OK – the real crime was political.
Tax Analyst
But wait…the rose petals and candy treats will begin to float down upon us any moment now…because they really, really, really do love what we are doing for them, and we’ve done such a really, really, really good job of fixing up their little society.
And yet they are so ungrateful, and that after asking us to come in and…OH…wait…they DIDN’T ask us to come in, did they??
Well, we meant well…at least we say we meant well…I mean, we just wanted a little free (or really cheap) oil…was that so bad…doesn’t everybody want that?
You know what I think is kind of sad? If we had, by some miracle, just gone in, and been able to somehow just kill Hussein and somehow worked out that “free or cheap oil” thing, and then split, I think the American public in general would be just fine with several thousand (or more)dead Iraqi civillians and an upcoming murderous, brutal civil war…
…and I also think that the above scenario, patently absurd as it is, is EXACTLY what Dubyah and his neo-con brain trust thought was going to happen…
…”Is it time to do my ‘Mission Accomplished’ Deck Dance yet, Dick?”