Audit Lays Bare Bush's Myopia, Naivete on Iraqi Insurgency

Audit Lays Bare Bush's Myopia, Naivete on Iraqi Insurgency:A newly-released audit from Congress’s Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction lays bare the stunning myopia, naivete and incompetence that accompanied Bush & Co on their march to Bagdhad.

As the AP reported:

Guerrilla attacks in Iraq have forced the cancellation of more than 60 percent of water and sanitation projects, in part because American intelligence failed to predict the brutal insurgency, a U.S. government audit said.

Leaving aside the question of whether America should have invaded Iraq in the first place, reports like this audit continue to highlight the near-criminal negligence of war planners who failed to anticipate the need for greater post-invasion security measures. The AP story continues:

American goals to fix Iraq’s infrastructure will never be reached, mainly because insurgents have chased away contractors and forced the diversion of repair funds into security, [according to the audit].

Senator Russ Feingold was right to seize upon the magnitude of this audit, saying in a statement:

The report makes clear that we are paying a heavy price for the Administration’s decision to lead us into war without a plan to manage the aftermath of the military operation.

Really, did anyone think the President was up to this job? Did anyone really believe that a man so ignorant of the region’s history and its people, so openly hostile to nuance, so un-flinchingly self-rigtheous, so contemptuous of international alliances, was the right person to try to re-fashion Iraq into a democracy?

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