Not Starting Out Well

Man is a creature of moods. Some days you wake up, look at the newpaper and few of the stories register. Other days, like today, the morning newspaper can make you seriously depressed. In just a few minutes I read three articles in the NY Times that encapsulate the depressing start to this century.

Story #1
Andrew Krepinevich, the fellow who espouses the "oil spot" theory of dealing with our Iraq miseries, has written a fairly lengthy report for the Pentagon with regard to the Army's manpower situation. One of his major conclusions: the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to defeat the insurgency.

Story #2
You may have already read of the latest report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. It's appropriate that it be issued now when Bremer is going around the country and the tv touting his book which, apparently, absolves him of all errors. Basically, the audit describes a situation where there were neither financial controls or any attempts to see whether contracted work was in fact completed. No one really knows how much money when down the tubes, while the Iraqis to this day are still struggling to get electricity for more than 8 hours a day, or clean water, or the ability to shop without risking death. Would the insurgency have been so powerful if we had used this money properly?

Story #3
This is another example of the Bush administration's dependence on words without any attempt to put these words into action. I'm talking here about Katrina. You remember Bush's speech in the dead square and his promises to rebuild New Orleans.

Even Senator Lieberman is fed up, "There has been a near total lack of cooperation that has made it impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation that we have a responsibility to do". He is referring to the administration's unwillingness to turn over documents about the hurricane or to allow White House officials to testify before Congress or to allow people, like Brown, who had communicated with the White House to testify. How can we prevent a repeat of the disaster if we don't find out what went wrong and why?

Plus, now they are telling Louisiana it has to depend on community development money rather than expect funds from a federally financed reconstruction program. What about all those promises back in September?

The day is not starting well, especially since I'll now start paying my bills.