In tomorrow's column
"As Bechtel Goes", Paul Krugman looks at the utter failure of the Iraqi reconstruction, reminding us of Tuesday's stakes. He points out some shocking, under-reported details, like the fact that the Iraqi police academy leaked urine and feces on the heads of cadets, demonstrating exactly the respect America had for those who would stand up so we could stand down.
The debauched Iraqi reconstruction demonstrates the utter failure of the neo-con cronyism/free market policies:
Bechtel... is leaving Iraq. Its mission ... wasn't accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq's population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers' money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract. ... Whatever our leaders may say ... when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they've already cut and run.
Krugman argues is it impossible to assess how much the failed reconstruction movement that failure "contributed to the overall failure of the war."
However, it is clear "that America, the great can-do nation, in this case couldn't and didn't" because
major contractors believed, correctly, that their political connections insulated them from accountability. Halliburton and other companies with huge Iraq contracts were basically in the same position as Donald Rumsfeld: they were so closely identified with President Bush and, especially, Vice President Cheney that firing or even disciplining them would have been seen as an admission of personal failure on the part of top elected officials. As a result, the administration and its allies in Congress fought accountability all the way.
Finally, if we've given up on rebuilding Iraq, what are our troops dying for?