When All Shouldn't Be Quiet on the Western Front

When Saddam was captured, Bush's approval ratings went up. Beyond some empty psychological need for closure, that favor was groundless. There is little evidence that Saddam was the mastermind behind the attacks on American soldiers. Indeed, American troops in Iraq continue to be killed every day.

I've really been wrestling with the war because Saddam was a horrible leader who deserved what he got. But the reconstruction has been a botched affair from the beginning.

Remember that $87 billion reconstruction plan for Iraq? The administration would like you to forget that its original estimate back in April was only $1.7 billion. That was the number given by the director of USAID (the federal agency principally in charge of foreign assistance) in an interview with Ted Koppel. USAID recently removed that transcript from its website.

Yet Paul Wolfowitz and others in the Bush administration can't acknowledge the mistake. They doggedly repeat that regime change needed to happen without addressing the fact that they were hugely wrong about the difficulties of reconstruction.