Bush's Shrinking Safety Zone

[tw]

They ask why reporters don't report on all the good things ongoing in Iraq. Who is getting the good? From the NY Times of 25 Apr 2006:

Rebuilding of Iraqi Pipeline as Disaster Waiting to Happen
A crew had bulldozed a 300-foot-long trench along a giant drill bit in their desperate attempt to yank it loose from the riverbed. A supervisor later told him that the project's crews knew that drilling the holes was not possible, but that they had been instructed by the company in charge of the project to continue anyway.

A few weeks later, after the project had burned up all of the $75.7 million allocated to it, the work came to a halt.

The project, called the Fatah pipeline crossing, had been a critical element of a $2.4 billion no-bid reconstruction contract that a Halliburton subsidiary had won from the Army in 2003. The spot where about 15 pipelines crossed the Tigris had been the main link between Iraq's rich northern oil fields and the export terminals and refineries that could generate much-needed gasoline, heating fuel and revenue for Iraqis.

For all those reasons, the project's demise would seriously damage the American-led effort to restore Iraq's oil system and enable the country to pay for its own reconstruction.

$2.4 billion no-bid contract?

But the pipeline at Al Fatah has a wider significance as a metaphor for the entire $45 billion rebuilding effort in Iraq. Although the failures of that effort are routinely attributed to insurgent attacks, an examination of this project shows that troubled decision-making and execution have played equally important roles.

The Fatah project went ahead despite warnings from experts that it could not succeed because the underground terrain was shattered and unstable.

$45 billion just for an the oil industry in 2004 that still does not export in 2006?

Meanwhile, this project in 2003 was when we were being told that the war had been won; that reports of violence and terror attacks were exaggerated:

Ms. Norcross, the KBR spokeswoman, said that no subcontractor would have been "willing to mobilize equipment and personnel to an unstable war zone" if the contract had been written more stringently.

An official in the inspector general's office saw it differently. "It was a horrible contract," the official said. "It's basically, 'Give it your best shot, spend six months doing it.' " ...

The plan called for boreholes to accommodate 15 pipelines, which would arc beneath the Tigris at shallow angles. Troubles turned up instantly. Every time workers plied the riverbed with their drills, they found it was like sticking their fingers into a jar of marbles: each time they pulled the drills out, the boulders would either shift and erase the larger holes or snap off the bits. ...

If KBR had declined to write performance clauses into the drill subcontract, the company had also included language that prevented the crews from speaking directly with the Army Corps, let alone passing along word that some of them knew that the effort was futile.

KBR is better known as Halliburton.

A geologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma and a former oilman, ... One of the first documents he found at the site was the Fugro report, and it set off alarm bells.

"You just don't see a consultant's report like that that is totally dismissed," he said.

"That put them on notice," Mr. Sanders said. "When they didn't take that notice, they accepted what I would call culpable negligence."

KBR maintains that the report did not contain enough detailed information to raise questions about the project. ...

But as of last week, an official at Iraq's State-owned North Oil Company said, oil was still not flowing at Al Fatah.

No problem. We are paying for good - not oil. And we believe this war is being won. We pay. They tell us we are winning. No problem. Meanwhile, Iraq exports less oil than it did only two years ago - after we spent how much money? No problem. Americans are rich MBAs. We can afford the corporate welfare.

[tw]

30% of us still approve of George Jr. Many will so hate America as to not read this NY Times article. And yet 30 years from now when America again forgets to learn from history, these are the articles you should have learned from - or denied. Demonstrated is how those who are most corrupt still blame others while denying reasons for failure. Described here is why things that happen next month and next year could have been avoided. From the NY Times of 21 May 2006:

Misjudgments Marred U.S. Plans for Iraqi Police
As chaos swept Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, the Pentagon began its effort to rebuild the Iraqi police with a mere dozen advisers. Overmatched from the start, one was sent to train a 4,000-officer unit to guard power plants and other utilities. A second to advise 500 commanders in Baghdad. Another to organize a border patrol for the entire country.

Three years later, the police are a battered and dysfunctional force that has helped bring Iraq to the brink of civil war. Police units stand accused of operating death squads for powerful political groups or simple profit. Citizens, deeply distrustful of the force, are setting up their own neighborhood security squads. Killings of police officers are rampant, with at least 547 slain this year, roughly as many as Iraqi and American soldiers combined, records show.

The police, initially envisioned by the Bush administration as a cornerstone in a new democracy, have instead become part of Iraq's grim constellation of shadowy commandos, ruthless political militias and other armed groups. ...

Before the war, the Bush administration dismissed as unnecessary a plan backed by the Justice Department to rebuild the police force by deploying thousands of American civilian trainers. ...

"Looking back, I really don't know what their plan was," Mr. Kerik said. With no experience in Iraq, and little time to get ready, he said he prepared for his job in part by watching A&E Network documentaries on Saddam Hussein. ...

General Garner said he and others on his staff also warned administration officials that the Iraqi police, after decades of neglect and corruption, would collapse after the invasion. ... "He didn't think it was necessary," General Garner said in an interview.

Mr. Miller, who left the government last year, confirmed his opposition. He said the assessment by the C.I.A. led administration officials to believe that Iraq's police were capable of maintaining order. Douglas J. Feith, then the Defense Department's under secretary for policy, said in an interview that the C.I.A.'s prewar assessment deemed Iraq's police professional, an appraisal that events proved "fundamentally wrong."

But Paul Gimigliano, a spokesman for the C.I.A., said the agency's assessment warned otherwise. ... A copy of the document, which is classified, could not be obtained.

What intelligence failure? Those who had been reading details knew CIA did not have major intelligence failures about 11 September or Iraq - except where Rush Limbaugh has us lying to ourselves. More from a long list of articles that demonstrate intelligence failures were from neocons who even lied about CIA failures and who said, "Americans don't do nation building." We didn't. Look what that created:

They lost the fight in Washington in March 2004. The field training of a new Iraqi police force — at this point some 90,000 officers — was now left to 500 American contractors from DynCorp. ... David Dobrotka, the top civilian overseeing the DynCorp workers, said he did not seek to hire more trainers, even though there were only 500 in Iraq, because some were not even getting out of their camps because of security concerns. ...

Were not even leaving green zones when so many back here denied that Iraq was so dangerous and getting worse. Many death squads now operating throughout Iraq are believed to be police.

Either we put 1/2 million soldiers in country and start fixing security immediately, or we should be planning to get out in 6 months. Status quo only means things will get worse, as was posted as a warning here in the Cellar back in late 2004. We did not even provide enough people to train the police. Everywhere a same refrain - not enough boots on the ground. Mission Accomplished.